My dislike for the Remote CLI is fairly well-known. Unfortunately, using the Remote CLI is the only way to perform a Storage VMotion. Storage VMotion is, of course, the new feature in ESX Server 3.5 that allows for a running VM’s virtual disk files to be relocated from one datastore to a second datastore without any service interruption. A very handy feature, indeed, but hobbled—in my opinion—by its dependence upon the Remote CLI.
However, an enterprising developer has written a graphical front-end for the operation. Numerous sites have discussed it; for example, see Eric Sloof’s post or Anders’ post (and the referenced VMware Communities thread). I’m sure there have been numerous other sites as well.
Now, if a single developer could write a GUI for Storage VMotion, why didn’t VMware take care of this themselves?
Tags: Storage, Virtualization, VMware
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Saturday, February 9, 2008 at 8:02 am
Rich
Scott,
I agree. Even if adding the Windows Remote CLI install to the VC 2.5 install was all that was done, well, that would make sense. Then building a GUI for it, or hooks that call svmotion from the VI client would be too easy. I have to believe that an upcoming patch will add this feature. Please, VMware ?!
Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 1:54 am
Clint
It has been my opinion for a while as great as Virtualization and in particular VMware is, it seems that VMware does not always think Enterprise when developing some of their tools.
It would seem that little things like a solid GUI for a GREAT feature would be a no brainer.
As Rich mentioned hopefully they will add this in a patch, but to me it seems that they are getting a reputation of needing a few patches after each major release before it is ready for prime time.
Thursday, June 5, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Natiboy
Because since EMC’s aquisition the VC product development has shifted to the similar models of EMC –’The Software Company’ — junky.
ECC, Navisphere, and other tools all have less and less Enterprise feel every time they release. I think it should just work. Like the hypervisor.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Conrad Golightly
IT lifecycle management is one of the things I do at my primary job, and after some discussions with engineers at numerous companies that make excellent software I frequently use, my answer to your question “Now, if a single developer could write a GUI for Storage VMotion, why didn’t VMware take care of this themselves?” is this: VMware’s engineers probably did not feel that they could provide the quality of code in this release that their customers are used to seeing in the normal interface. The organizations on the leading edge of IT are the ones with users comfortable with doing extensive technical troubleshooting, and CLI tools are the best usage of developer time for major features that are new to a product; adding VMware-grade GUI support to this tool in this release would likely have added significant time to the release. If you really do need storage VMotion right now, chances are good that the people in your organization responsible for storage can use the CLI.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Conrad Golightly
By the way, I don’t pretend to work for or speak for VMware, just presenting a different (if not necessarily correct, in this case) perspective.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 8:59 pm
slowe
Conrad,
Thanks for your perspective. It’s easy to forget the other considerations that come into play sometimes.