vmSight’s patented Connector ID technology differentiates the vmSight product suite from all other virtualization monitoring products, and makes vmSight particularly useful for monitoring desktop virtualization. Desktop virtualization is characterized by pools of VMs that are most often configured with dynamic IP addresses (DHCP) and that are sometimes shared, and that are accessed from terminals that also have dynamic IP addresses and may also be shared. Accurately tracking activity for specific users and pinpointing that activity to a specific virtual desktop and specific terminal allows administrators to much more quickly find and resolve performance and reliability problems. In addition, the ability to track detailed activity for individual users is key to providing strong and sustainable regulatory compliance and audit information for the secure use of virtual desktops.
Connector ID is for computer networks what "caller ID" is for phone networks. Namely, when an access point (terminal or virtual desktop) is configured with a small and efficient software agent called the Connector ID Key, then any “receiver” with the appropriate security clearance can quickly know the specific user and the specific access point (regardless of IP address) for any attempted network connection. This is done with a patented approach using an approximately 100-bit digital signature inserted in the unused header space of each network connection to identify the individual user and access point.
vmSight Connector ID allows you to immediately and confidently answer key questions such as:
- What terminal and virtual desktop was a user accessing when they experienced problems?
- What exactly was the user doing, and what was happening on the specific terminal and virtual desktop?
- What was going on inside the terminal and virtual desktop that the user accessed, and what network activity was also occurring?
- How did today’s activity compare to previous days for a specific user, terminal or virtual desktop?
- How is performance and reliability for specific users or groups of users trending over a period of time?
- Which specific users accessed systems that are subject to data privacy regulations?
The following are the key technology features of vmSight’s virtualization monitoring products:
Track User Activity
Track all user activity from terminals or virtual desktops that are configured with Connector ID. Associate users and activity with their OS login ID. Track machine logons, application activity, network activity, performance, reliability and resource consumption by user or user group. Establish and monitor service level and other policies for individual users or user groups.
Track Terminals and Virtual Desktops in Dynamic Environments
Persistently identify machines, physical or virtual, in environments where these machines receive dynamic IP addresses (such as when using DHCP). Monitor process activity within machines, users logging onto machines, and network activity to and from the machines, and then allow the correlation of this data across a series of days when IP addresses have changed. Establish and monitor service level and other policies for individual machines or groups of machines, and maintain monitoring even if IP addresses change or machines are migrated.
Extreme Efficiency Permits Continuous Monitoring
To effectively ensure system performance, reliability and compliance, it is highly desirable to provide continuous system monitoring, and not just after-the-fact monitoring capabilities. vmSight Connector ID allows you to identify and track the specific users and the access points for detailed application activity to, from and between VMs on a single host without affecting the efficiency or performance of the virtual host. vmSight Connector ID monitoring consumes less than 2% resources on a host with up to 125 VMs. The patented approach is much more efficient than less reliable alternatives, such as regular polling of VMs or deep packet inspection of network connections.
Patents
vmSight Connector ID is protected by U.S. Patent 7,386,889. There are 12 other patents pending in the U.S. as well as associated international filings.
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