Google announced VM Manager, a suite of tools that can be used to manage operating systems for large virtual machine (VM) fleets running Windows and Linux on Google Compute Engine.
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PixabayFor customers running hundreds of virtual machines in the cloud, managing the fleet becomes a challenge. Administrators need to get an insight into the inventory of the VMs to understand which OS they run, the version, the instance type, the list of installed packages, and more. They should be able to schedule patching the OS with minimal disruption. Finally, administrators should be able to maintain consistent configuration across the fleet and automatically remediate issues that make VMs non-compliant.
VM Manager is designed to address these common challenges often faced by administrators managing a large fleet of virtual machines in Google Compute Engine (GCE).
New and existing GCE instances can take advantage of VM Manager when the metadata flag is turned on. Customers can use the Cloud Console, command-line tool, or the API to switch on the setting. This step will force the virtual machine to download, install, and start the VM Manager agent.
Once the agent is installed in the VM, customers can perform the below actions on the fleet of Linux or Windows VMs running in their project.
Inventory Management
This component of VM Manager lets administrators collect OS and package information. Based on the details, they can identify which VMs are running a specific version of an OS system, view packages installed on a VM, generate a list of package updates available for each VM, and identify missing packages, updates, or patches for a VM.
Configuration Management
This service allows customers to deploy, query, and maintain consistent configurations of Linux and Windows VMs. It performs automated remediation features at scale to ensure that the fleet is compliant. Guest policies running on the VMs will keep the software configuration consistent.
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Patch Management
This service is meant to keep the machines up-to-date against vulnerabilities by allowing administrators to apply OS patches automatically, receive patch compliance data from OS, and automate OS patches’ installation across VMs from a centralized location. The service is responsible for both reporting the compliance and deploying the patches.
Google took a long time to add fleet management features to its Infrastructure as a Service offering, Compute Engine. Amazon and Microsoft offer robust management tools that support cloud-based VMs, physical servers and virtual machines running in on-premises environments.
Announced in 2017, the AWS Systems Manager (ASM) service enables customers to centralize operational data from multiple AWS services and automate tasks across various cloud resources. It is optimized to manage both Windows and Linux machines running in EC2 or an on-prem data center from a single unified experience. The Session Manager component of ASM is a popular tool used by customers to access remote servers without opening additional ports or running a bastion host.
Azure customers rely on Azure Policy to manage the compliance and desired state of the configuration in Azure VMs. With Azure Arc, Microsoft has extended this functionality to Linux and Windows servers running on-prem environments and other public clouds.
Google may extend VM Manager to support some of the capabilities available in AWS Systems Manager and Azure Policy.
The Link LonkJanuary 30, 2021 at 06:11PM
https://www.forbes.com/sites/janakirammsv/2021/01/30/google-makes-it-easy-to-manage-a-large-fleet-of-compute-engine-vms/
Google Makes It Easy To Manage A Large Fleet Of Compute Engine VMs - Forbes
https://news.google.com/search?q=easy&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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