Why VM Templates Are a Must When It Comes to Converged Architecture

One of the big benefits of converged architecture is its massive scalability, so effective management requires good time management. If you aren’t efficient with your administrative approach, you won’t be able to leverage a converged architecture system to its full capacity.

This is especially true when it comes to managing a converged architecture system configured to host virtual machines.

A big part of virtual machine management is virtual machine deployment. When administrators got started with virtual machines a decade ago, they likely deployed them in the same manner as they deployed bare metal servers: by mounting the installation image and working through the installation wizard.

Administrators may also have used a multicast network deployment technology such as Windows Deployment Services to stream images. In some cases, they used Notepad or Windows SIM to put together an answer file to automate the deployment process. Even then, once a VM was deployed, they still had to expend a substantial amount of effort. This included installing software, ensuring that updates were installed, and getting everything ready for production utilization.

As virtualization has evolved from a niche technology to a critical part of IT infrastructure, VM deployment methods have also evolved. Rather than build a virtual machine from the ground up off of the installation media each time a VM is deployed, most environments use templates to speed up the installation process.

A template virtual machine is one that is mostly, if not completely, configured. It’s up to date with software, and it requires very little in the way of administrator interaction from the time the decision is made to deploy the VM until it is ready to handle production workloads.

Template virtual machines are even more compelling when you consider that converged architecture systems can host up to 9,000 virtual machines. The templates quickly go from “nice to have” to “administration must”—shaving minutes, if not hours, off each deployment.

Underwritten by HPE

Part of HPE’s Power of One strategy, HPE Converged Architecture 700 delivers infrastructure as one integrated stack. HPE Converged Architecture 700 delivers proven, repeatable building blocks of infrastructure maintained by one management platform (HPE OneView), built and delivered exclusively by qualified HPE Channel Partners. This methodology saves considerable time and resources, compared to the do-it-yourself (DIY) approach.

Based on a complete HPE stack consisting of HPE BladeSystem with Intel® Xeon® E5 v3-based HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 blades, HPE 3PAR StoreServ all-flash storage, HPE Networking, and HP OneView infrastructure management software, the HPE Converged Architecture 700 can be easily modified to fit within your existing IT environment.