Released in December 2006, VMware Lab Manager is a virtual lab automation solution enabling the rapid setup and tear-down of multi-machine
configurations for software development and test teams. With Lab Manager it’s fast and easy to provision complex systems on
demand with just a few mouse clicks.
Lab Manager is a new foray for VMware since their software traditionally has targeted general purpose consolidation and high-availability/DR
projects in the IT production data center. Lab Manager is the result of VMware’s acquisition last June of Akimbi Systems
where the software was originally known as Slingshot. It was designed to kill the giant known as Time Waster in the software
development cycle. VMware marketing renamed it to more accurately describe its functionality.
Software developers and testers face many challenges. Server sprawl has resulted in two to three machines used in application
development and test for every server in production. In some cases, server to staff ratios exceed 7:1. Set up and provisioning
overhead accounts for 30–50% of time expended in the development and test cycle. Repetitive system set up tasks can overwhelm IT,
slowing software development cycles. Communicating bugs between test and development teams across sites and geographies is
challenging. It is difficult to reproduce and resolve software defects before production deployment because it requires specific
environment or complex system state.
Lab Manager allows the consolidation and efficient sharing of lab resources across development and test teams permitting them to capitalize
on development cycle ebb and flow. It eliminates static allocation of infrequently used resources to teams and provides lab access and
hosted desktops to outsourcing partners. Lab Manager also provides secure self-service “check out” and provisioning of
resources to Application Development teams while IT maintains control of the lab. This in turn accelerates software development cycles
and uses IT resources more strategically – not for repetitive provisioning. Developers can reliably reproduce, troubleshoot and
resolve software defects before putting applications into production. They can capture problems in their active state, and then
reproduce them for remote QA resources. This eliminates the “works fine on my machine” from Application
Development.
VMware Lab Manager is a management application that rides on top of the Virtual Infrastructure 3 Standard or Enterprise platform and focuses
on ease of use. Self-service provisioning for software development and test takes place without the need to understand virtualization
or to have knowledge of networking environments. Lab Manager scales over a pool of ESX servers allowing IT Control over provisioning
by using quotas and resource control. Critical test dev functionality provides instantaneous copies of machines in state, and allows
teams to simultaneously use of copies on the same network by capturing and sharing of bug state.
The core technologies of Lab Manager include linked clones, fencing and saved state. Linked clones permit copying machines in seconds
rather than minutes and requires less storage. IP Fencing allows the simultaneous use of copies without changing their properties.
With saved state, a user never has to wait for a virtual machine to boot and can capture bug states. Lab Manager is a
prepackaged application allowing IT to manage and hide the complexity of files and networking associated with it.
The key functionality that Lab Manager provides includes:
• Self-service provisioning of groups of machines (“configurations”) to entire development, test and QA teams, under IT
oversight and control
• Access to a library of configurations that can be setup in seconds with associated disk resource savings
• Configurations can be deployed concurrently with other copies
• Library configurations can save CPU and memory state saving provisioning time and allowing bug capture
• Collaboration through sharing machines and copies of machines
• Increased server utilization due to sharing of a pool of resources and immediate repurposing of the same hardware
• The ability to work across sites and geographies
VirtualCenter and Lab Manager are two complimentary solutions even though they are not currently integrated. VirtualCenter optimizes
virtual machine deployment, monitoring and management. Lab Manager optimizes self-service provisioning, capturing multi-VM
configurations in support of software development and test activities, subject to IT policy and quota enforcement.
Lab Manager requires either VI3 Standard or Enterprise editions. Even though it can use the Enterprise version as the ESX pool, it
is does not support the advanced features of VMotion, Distributed Resource Scheduling, High Availability and Consolidated Backup.
Much of this functionality is planned for the end of 2007. The Lab Manager Image Storage Library requires the services of a fiber
attached SAN. iSCSI and NAS support should be added soon.
Lab Manager Server 2 is priced at $15,000 for the server license and $3,150 for Gold Level Subscription and Support (SNS) for the first
year. Agents are required for each VI3 2-CPU license which are $1,000 and require SNS at $210. Two Lab Foundation Bundles and
two Lab Expansion Bundles are available which combine VI3 Standard and VI3 Enterprise licenses respectively as shown in the chart below.
SNS for the bundles is also required and must be purchased separately.
For more information on Lab Manager or to receive an evaluation copy, contact
lellison@accessflow.com.
