Industry watchers predict virtual server deployments to become as diverse and varied as traditional computing environments, and a few management vendors are planning accordingly.

Management software maker Integrien this week announced it will support virtual agent technologies from IBM, HP, Hyperic and nWorks. The additional support will enable the vendor's Alive systems management software support VMware, Microsoft Virtual Server, Citrix XenServer, IBM AIX/IBM System P and Sun Solaris Containers. (Compare Server Management Products)

Alive runs on a centralized server and uses open APIs to collect monitoring data from Web and application servers and databases. The software discovers the path an application takes across the infrastructure to deliver IT services and then determines a baseline of normal behavior to alert users when any components don't live up to normal standards. Alive is able to spot anomalies that could be the root cause of the performance issue.

Integrien says its intelligent analysis capabilities can now be used to more quickly spot and determine the source of performance problems in virtual environments. Integrien says Alive can now understand the behavior of each virtual machine and use correlation technologies to determine which interactions in the environment are behind performance problems. These capabilities will help reduce the manual labor needed to troubleshoot problems, which is something industry watchers say is mandatory in virtual environments.

"Automation will have to be a huge part of any successful management technology that wants to tackle the multiple layers of complexity virtualization brings," says Andi Mann, research director at Enterprise Management Associates. "Add to that the many disciplines with management - configuration, patch, provisioning - and you have an environment full of errors, risks, costs and inefficiencies."

Alive will also be able to manage virtual and physical components across a heterogeneous environment, help customers plan for capacity in the virtual environment, and proactively notify IT managers of pending problems - in an effort to solve the problems before they impact end users.

"Throwing more bodies at the problem, while investing more in traditional monitoring, is not the answer because it simply won’t scale," said Steve Henning, vice president of marketing at Integrien, in a statement. "Instead, organizations should look to a real-time analytics-based performance management solution, like Integrien Alive, which automates much of the manual effort in the troubleshooting process in both virtual and physical environments.”

Denise Dubie is senior editor with Network World.