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Zombie VM
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A zombie
VM is a virtual machine that is created, often for a particular
purpose, and is forgotten when it is no longer needed for that purpose. As a
result, the VM continues to consume resources while performing no useful
work. The proliferation of zombie VMs in a data center is one of the main
causes of virtualization sprawl.
Virtual
machines can be created quickly and easily and only use a very small portion
of the physical infrastructure's resources to run. When virtual instances are
created faster than they are removed, however, the result is virtualization
sprawl. The irony of virtualization sprawl is that it can cancel out the
benefits that make virtualization attractive and cost-effective in the first
place, costing the company money by tying up operating system licenses,
servers and database resources without adding any value.
Most zombie VMs are simply temporary
virtual servers that have been forgotten due to lax tracking procedures.
Ideally, the creation of each VM should be documented, along with its purpose
and owner. When a VM is no longer required, it should be removed. Once
virtualization sprawl has occurred, it becomes necessary to differentiate
zombie VMs from the productive ones. Indications of a zombie VM include an
absence of recent support tickets and low CPU, network and disk utilization.
Zombie prevention requires both policies
and software tools. Management policies should be put in place to guide the
creation and retention of VMs and storage instances. Then, software tools can
be used to identify VM instance owners, report on recent usage and specify
how long resources have been idle. Ideally, VM governance tools will raise an
alert when a machine rests unused for a defined period of time and
automatically spin down the zombie and recover its licenses.
The zombie
VM's physical counterpart in the data center is the zombie server. |
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