Asset Inventory for vSphere System Infrastructure

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We frequently discuss how regular patching and good account & password hygiene are the two most prominent ways of staying secure in IT. 

Nonetheless, both of these are given a significant requirement, one that is almost always overlooked: an asset inventory. There’s no way you can protect your data without a detailed inventory of what computers, virtual machines, and OSes are your responsibility. You can’t patch up what you don’t know. There are various vSphere training courses that provide you with the knowledge of keeping your inventory secure. 

Every organization requires a considerable form of asset inventory management, and most of them tend to lack that necessity. Asset inventory management can be described as the process by which companies account for the location of previously obtained durable goods. 

As various areas of the supply chain, asset inventory management continues to evolve and develop rapidly. The core concept has not changed, as each item has a unique identifier. 

Modern systems generally incorporate a bar-code based IT tracking system.

Ideally, you would implement multiple methods to accurately manage the inventory of a virtual infrastructure, because not every tool will find and handle similar assets.

We would also stress on being careful about storing too much information in an inventory. An inventory is basically a snapshot, taken at a specific point in time, and it will quickly diverge from reality. The infrastructure and devices themselves are reliable sources. Store only what you need to comprehend and analyze, be considerate about things you add to the inventory, and practice the time-honored tradition of everlasting trust when it comes to the data.

vSphere Client:

The HTML5-based vSphere Client also offers the users with an export button, which will generate a CSV with a customizable amount of data in it, such as the number of rows, columns, etc. The HTML5 client is one of the main reasons to stay current with significant sphere releases.

PowerCLI:

PowerCLI is a consistent favorite of vSphere admins as it allows an individual user to do repetitive tasks in a controlled & precise manner. A number of the tools you use are PowerCLI scripts themselves. An inventory is a great place to start learning PowerCLI if you did not do it earlier. You can get it from code.vmware.com or by merely running “Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI” in PowerShell.

vCheck

Last on my list is another excellent tool that isn’t as much about documentation as it is about reporting and checking an environment. Alan Renouf initially developed the concept of vCheck. It helps find oddities in your situations, configuration mismatches, and so on. It can be scheduled and can send an email report, and else it will generate an HTML version and display it locally for you.

As with vDocumentation, PowerCLI, RVTools, and vCheck will not be able to see and check other parts of your system infrastructure, so you will need to follow up separately with things you find in your nmap scans such as iDRACs/iLOs, network switches, etc. That said, a lot of what vCheck looks at applies to other devices, too. 

With this being said, you can also choose to take vSphere training courses online. A few of them include:

  1. vSphere: Install, configure, and manage.
  2. vSphere: Optimize and scale
  3. vSphere: Boot camp
  4. vSphere: Fast Track
  5. VMware vSphere: Skills for operators
  6. VMware vSphere: Troubleshooting Workshop
  7. VMware vSphere: Install, Configure and Manage plus Optimize and Scale Fast Track [V6.0]VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage plus Virtual SAN Fast Track [V6]
  8. VMware Certified Professional 6 – Data Center Virtualization (VCP6-DCV)

Conclusion:

VMware vSphere lays down the basic foundation of the Software-Defined Data Center. The new vSphere 6 systems extend your ability to effectively virtualize scale-up and scale-out applications, redefine the availability, and further simplify your virtual data center. You can achieve more value from your investment with vSphere six training from VMware Education Services and get the best VMware training.