Comparing VMs
You can select and compare two VMs (including templates) to determine the differences between them. You can also compare the changes that have occurred on a single VM between two different dates (the "drift").
Commander tracks the parent-child relationships of inventoried VMs and templates for AWS, Azure, SCVMM, and vCenter. This allows you to view the lineage of a selected resource. A selected resource could be a "parent" for other child resources. If the resource has been created from another resource, you can see its parent and sibling resources. You can also compare a parent VM to its child VM or two sibling VMs to each other.
If you retrieve historical events for a cloud account that's added to Commander, the lineage of a VM can also include information that was created before the cloud account was brought under Commander management. See Retrieving Historical Data for vCenter Cloud Accounts.
Note: After historical events have been retrieved, the parent or "creator" of the VM may appear as a cloud account. This situation occurs when vCenter or vSphere doesn't contain information about the creation of the VM.
In this topic:
Selecting VMs for comparison
When you select a VM, you can either view the changes that have occurred for that VM between two different dates or subsequently select another VM to view the differences between the two VMs.
Tip: You can also select Tools > Compare, and select two VM that you want to compare. This provides a Compare - Each Other option.
Access through: |
Views > Inventory > Infrastructure or Applications |
Available to: |
Administrator and All Operator Levels of Access Rights |
To compare a VM:
- Select a VM in the tree, then right-click and select Change Management > Compare.
Tip: If you have scanned your datastores, you can also select VMs to compare from Datastore tab. This option allows you to compare out-of-inventory VMs.
- Select one of the following options that may be available:
- Compare — Drift — Compare the VM to itself based on a difference of date.
- Compare — Select as Left — Display the VM in the left-hand comparison panel (use this command and go to the Compare window, or select another VM and use Select as Right).
- Compare — Select as Right — Display the VM in the right-hand comparison panel (use this command and go to the Compare window, or select another VM and use Select as Left).
- Compare — To Parent — Compare the VM to its parent. This option is only available when a child VM is selected from the Lineage page.
- On the Compare Results tab, expand any of the options titles to see further details for the displayed results.
Notes:
- If you're comparing the same VM with a different date, by default only differences are displayed. To display more than just the differences, clear the Only show differences option.
- If differences exist between the two VMs, the option title is highlighted and a number in brackets beside it indicates the number of differences discovered.
- To change the comparison parameters, click Edit Query.
Viewing VM lineage
Access through: |
Views > Inventory |
Available to: |
Administrator and All Operator Levels of Access Rights |
To track the lineage of a VM:
- Click the Infrastructure or Applications tab.
- Select a template or a VM either through the tree or the Virtual Machines tab.
- Click the Lineage tab.
The template or VM you selected and any of its related templates and VMs appear in the list.
Tip: You can double-click any template or VM currently in inventory to view more details for it.
- Optional: To compare a listed VM, select it, then select Actions > Change Management > Compare.
For information on the comparison options, see Selecting VMs for comparison above.