Despite the name, VM Orchestrator (VMO) is not a virtual data center automation framework like the now defunct Dunes VS-O or the upcoming Citrix Workflow.
The Platform’s product is more complex, with a core high-availability feature (currently available only for Citrix XenCenter) and additional capabilities in VM lifecycle management and distributed resource management.
The new version 4.0 introduces a number of new elements to work with:
- Resource Groups The ability to group physical resources as a group (with Citrix XenServer a VMO Resource Group is equal to the XenServer Resource Pool)
- Consumers A security boundary where VMs are assigned, examples: departments, projects, external companies. Consumers can have delegated administrators and can control there own VMs.
The product also has chargeback capabilities as the Consumers are tracked by allocation and usage. - Resource Plans – Allocating (quotaing) the resources from the Resource Group to the Consumer. For example, the marketing department might get 2 GHz of CPU and 2 GB of memory from which to run VMs. This creates a resource boundary in which the Consumers can operate.
The Platform Computing reference material also unveils that VMO will support VMware and Microsoft in the future.
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The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap has been updated accordingly.