Users Guide

16 vFoglight Cartridge for Guest Process Investigation
User Guide
Overview of the Cartridge for Guest Process Investigation
Virtual machines are quickly becoming the industry norm in IT infrastructures.
Companies use virtual machines to reduce server growth, reduce costs, and conserve
energy.
The monitoring of internal resource contention problems of virtual machine
environments presents a unique set of challenges. In order for a corrective triage of
problems to take place, running processes, active users and current services must be
monitored.
However, accessing process information on virtual machines can be an inefficient and
time-consuming process. Monitoring virtual machine environments with the vFoglight
Cartridge for Guest Process Investigation simplifies monitoring and troubleshooting of
virtual machines experiencing performance problems.
Note The Cartridge For Guest Process Investigation is specific to the host selected. It provides
the same process monitoring information for physical or virtual machines.
Understanding the Concept of Guest Process
The term “guest process” is based on the concept of one “physical machine” hosting “x”
number virtual machines. A guest process is a set of internal processes running on one
virtual machine. Windows operating systems provide the Task Manager to view and
troubleshoot internal process on a physical machine. Those using virtual machines do
not have this type of monitoring tool.