ESXi Management as an Internet Based Web Service

The ability to deploy, manage and report on ESXi servers and virtual machines via a web based service… Not a bad idea! VMware recently announced VMware GO (http://go.vmware.com), a web based solution allowing users to build ESXi servers, deploy and manage virtual machines all from a hosted web service. Geared toward users new to virtualization and ones not familiar with or those who do not care to have the knowledge of a virtualization layer to use VMware’s ESXi hypervisor.

VMware GO enables you to discover existing servers on your network (Windows Only in this beta release) and verify if they are viable ESXi server candidates. It will create and download for you the necessary media in ISO format and help you burn a CD/DVD that can be used to install ESXi on the target server simply by booting the server to this VMware GO ESXi CD image. GO also allows you to add any of your existing ESXi servers that are already running in your environment as well.

GO is basically a “poor man’s” management system for your ESXi servers, as opposed to paying for and deploying VMware’s vCenter management software. GO enables you to track multiple ESXi hosts from a single web interface, track and manage all the virtual machines running on these hosts and even allows you to generate reports on your virtual environment.

While it is no replacement to vCenter’s functionally, GO is an extremely interesting product that is designed to give VMware a vehicle to reach out to an audience that has alluded them. It will attract users to VMware’s flagship product – ESXi - that have previously passed on the technology because of ESXis hypervisor/command line look and feel. Users of VMware GO can deploy, manage and support running virtual machines on ESXi hosts without ever needed to touch a command line or console type interface. VMware GO’s web interface allows for full access to the environment through the comfort of one’s favorite web browser.

VMware GO is currently available in beta form at go.vmware.com. It does have a few bugs and works better with certain versions of the Windows operating systems than it does others (Vista acting better then XP), but it will be very exciting to see where VMware takes this idea and what this web portal could become in the future.