Few weeks ago I did attend web meeting about “Extending VMware vCenter to Hybrid Cloud” with Oded Haner. It get my curiosity as it was promising something i did not believe is possible. Even after seeing the presentation I had doubts. I decided I have to see and touch it, to be sure, to believe.
HotLink Hybrid Express – Multi Hypervisor.
How does it work.
We did choose VMware because it just works as we expect and because of a great and easy central management through the vCenter.
For some cases (test servers, specific workloads, different SLA needs) where it is necessary to use Hyper-V, KVM, Xen or Amazon cloud you have a possibility to use a central management through the vCenter.
This is exactly what HotLink offers. We can use any hypervisor and manage them from the vCenter the same way as all admins were used to do before. No need for trainings no need for different tools. You still keep your central management.
Use case.
We have deployed everything on VMware in a data center, we don’t want to change it as it works as expected and the risk would be too high, but we have remote branch offices with only 1 ESXi server per site. VMware license has to be renewed (every year or 3 years based on subscription) and this is exactly the point where we can go for a cheaper solution with other hypervisors.
It’s a matter of reliability/cost.
Transformation.
Maybe you just think: “I have VMware VMs, how will I convert them to different format to be able to change the hypervisor?”. HotLink has a solution for you. Transformation engine allows you to convert between platforms and deploy VMs from existing temples to cross platforms or cloud.
Installation.
Hotlink did a perfect job here, installation is very strait forward and easy.
1. Deploy the Linux based appliance from OVA to your environment (2 CPU, 4GB RAM, 260 GB disk).
2. Connect the hotlink web interface and put HotLink license and Register to the vCenter.
3. HotLink tab will appear in the vCenter client which will allow you to connect other hypervisors.
See the video below which is showing HotLink installation steps with Hyper-V 2012 R2 server management. VM creation, power on, snapshot on Hyper-V server using vCenter Server Client.
Hybrid Management.
From this time on you can manage other hypervisors from the vCenter. It Looks like what you are used:
Summary:
+ HotLink brings cost saving to your environment and eliminates complexity.
+ Installation is easy and fast.
+ It is integrated in vCenter Client.
– Web Client do not support all the functionality (will be added to next release).
– To connect to VM console on Hyper-V you need Microsoft tool vmconnect.exe.
Link.
Roman Macek
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