vSphere Reference

Life Cycle Manager

vCenter Lifecycle Manager is the best solution to automate VM provisioning tasks on VMware infrastructure. Building on vCenter Orchestrator and vCenter Server, Lifecycle Manager provides superior platform integration and advanced customization options for more automation of repetitive administrative tasks, optimized infrastructure utilization and higher ROI.

Key features include:

  • Service Catalog - Standardize VMs deployments across the enterprise, establish a consistent provisioning process and reduce administrative overhead from bringing rogue or mis-configured VMs back into compliance with IT standards
  • Task Automation - Automate routine VM lifecycle management tasks for greater productivity.
  • Administrative Control - Gain more control and visibility over virtual machine deployments to optimize resource utilization for greater ROI.
  • Enterprise Ready - Get immediate ROI from VM lifecycle policies applied to existing virtual infrastructure to free up unused resources, gain more control and automate routine tasks.

Service Catalog

Standardize VM provisioning requests with a set of pre-defined virtual machine templates provided by IT.

  • Service Catalog: Provide a standardized set of virtual machine configurations according to IT policies.
  • Service Tiers: Define what quality of service levels get configured during VM deployment (availability, security, monitoring).
  • Web-based: Available to users via a web browser from anywhere on the corporate network

Task Automation

Automate routine lifecycle management tasks, reclaim unused resources and enforce IT policies across virtual machine deployments.

  • Provisioning and Change Requests: Automate virtual machine guest customization, system and network configuration tasks based on pre-defined policies.
  • Resource Reclamation: Automatically free up resources by decommissioning virtual machines that have reached the end of their lifecycle.
  • Auto Import: Apply Lifecycle Manager policies to existing virtual environments.

Administrative Control

Centralize virtual machine requests and streamline the approval process with the Lifecycle Manager web portal. The portal is also used to establish the service catalog, configure resource mappings and define placement policies.

  • Request Portal: Provide single portal for users, approvers and administrators to streamline VM request, change and approval processes.
  • Placement Policies: Establish policies to assign groups of users to specific server, storage and network resource pools.
  • Tracking & Reporting: Easily track the status of virtual machines through request, approval, provisioning, and decommissioning.

Enterprise Ready

Lifecycle Manager is designed to easily fit into existing environments and scale in support of thousands of VM deployments across multiple datacenters. Integrations with third- party enterprise management systems create a seamless solution for end-to-end management of provisioning workflows across physical and virtual infrastructure.

  • Enterprise Scalability: Connect Lifecycle Manager to multiple virtual datacenters to manage all VM provisioning requests from a central location.
  • Fully customizable: Adapt existing workflows or implement new ones to better fit your needs.
  • LDAP Support: Connect Lifecycle Manager to user authentication systems to centrally manage access control in the corporate environment.
  • Third-party integrations: Seamlessly integrate Lifecycle Manager with existing management systems for end-to-end management of provisioning workflows across physical and virtual infrastructure.

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