VMware vCenter Configuration Manager
Policy-Driven Configuration Management and Compliance Control

Overview:

VMware vCenter™ Configuration Manager automates configuration management across virtual and physical servers and desktops, increasing efficiency by eliminating manual, error-prone and time-consuming work. This allows enterprises to maintain continuous compliance by detecting changes and comparing them to configuration and security policies. Configuration Manager remediates problems and automates provisioning of VMware vSphere™, operating systems and software for complete virtualized datacenter control.

Key Benefits

• Avoid configuration drift by automatically detecting and comparing changes to policies and remediating to bring systems back into compliance.
• Maintain continuous compliance with out-of-the box templates for standards and regulatory mandates (such as Sarbanes-Oxley, PCI DSS and HIPAA).
• Reduce potential security threats and breaches and harden your environment.
• Automate software provisioning and patching, and provision vSphere and operating systems from a central location.
• Streamline Active Directory management and compliance automation.
• Gain enterprise control and broad configuration visibility.

What Is VMware vCenter Configuration Manager?

VMware vCenter Configuration Manager is a policy-driven configuration automation solution that detects deep system changes and checks whether those changes are compliant to industry, regulatory or your own self-defined best practices. It helps you avoid configuration drift by remediating systems to bring them back into compliance, managing change, controlling risk, and automating vSphere, operating system and software provisioning and patching.

vCenter Configuration Manager automates critical IT configuration management and compliance processes across thousands of asset, security and configuration settings from vSphere, VMware ESXi™ and ESX®, Windows, UNIX or Linux servers and user desktops, providing a powerful, businessaligned system with unified configuration insight.

How Is VMware vCenter Configuration Manager Used?

vCenter Configuration Manager ensures the integrity of your virtualized datacenter and lowers IT audit costs by providing automated compliance assessments against VMware and Microsoft security best practice guides, industry best practices and your own policies.

• Gain configuration insight and agility and avoid configuration drift by automating discovery, collection, change detection and policy violation identification for more than 80,000 configuration settings.
• Maintain continuous compliance with out-of-the-box templates that contain policy-driven rules, reports and dashboards that ensure security, regulatory and operational compliance.
• Perform physical and virtual system provisioning via a centralized mechanism. With Configuration Manager, you can deploy vSphere to 'bare metal' and then load operating systems into virtual machine containers or to 'bare metal' systems.
• Automate software provisioning and integrate it into compliance enforcement processes. Configuration Manager allows users to easily create software packages, push packages to systems and guests, automatically find missing software (e.g., antivirus), and remediate to install required software to non-compliant systems. This same compliance methodology can also be used to remove unwarranted or unsafe software from your systems (e.g., Kazaa).

How Does vCenter Configuration Center Work?

vCenter Configuration Manager is the only end-to-end configuration management solution that combines deep server and workstation configuration management and provisioning with out-of-the-box compliance intelligence, across physical and virtual environments. It gives you the policy-driven automation and control required to deliver IT as a service.

• Deep collection and visibility – Discover configurations across the enterprise with scalable, secure data collection, and track changes to them automatically.
• Compliance policy intelligence – Ensure compliance with various industry and regulatory standards and requirements on a continuous basis.
• Remediation and patch management – Detect and fix configuration problems and security vulnerabilities automatically across multiple systems. Assess the status of a patch, deploy it and verify it was installed correctly.
• Simplify provisioning – Dramatically simplify the provisioning of vSphere, operating systems and software packages and provision to both virtual and physical systems.
• Multiplatform support – Configuration Manager supports vSphere, Windows desktops and servers, Linux and Mac OS X desktops and servers, and UNIX servers.

Key Features:

Configuration and Change Management

• Automated collection, analysis, remediation, and patch management lowers IT audit costs by significantly reducing the time and labor of time-consuming manual processes.
• Tool consolidation removes the hassles and time associated with using multiple separate systems for managing server changes, patches, configurations and remediation.
• Centralized view into configuration, security and compliance.
• Discover, collect and detect changes and identify policy violations for more than 80,000 configuration settings.

Out-of-the-Box Compliance Templates

• Ensure continuous compliance with security best practices and hardening guidelines for VMware, Microsoft, and Apple.
• Facilitate and enforce compliance with industry and government regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, DISA, ISO 27002, and 802-53, PCI DSS and NIST.

Simplify vSphere and Operating System Provisioning

• Manage OS distributions from a centralized repository.
• Discover new systems and build/deploy using standard PXE mechanism.
• Provision vSphere to "bare metal" systems.
• Provision operating systems (Windows, Red Hat EL and SLES) to "bare metal" systems and to virtual machine containers.

Automate Software Provisioning

• Build software packages for installation on Windows servers and workstations and deploy based on compliance results.
• Automatically find systems with missing software (e.g., antivirus) and remediate non-compliant systems.
• Distributed software repository architecture allows global scale and collaboration across distributed locations and teams (Development, Test, Production, etc.).

Active Directory Compliance

• Streamline Active Directory management and compliance automation by collecting configuration data objects and changes made.
• Track access control entry (ACE) or other critical security-based changes that may not be approved or occur outside designated change windows.
• View changes to group membership across Active Directory servers—in one report.
• Manage user accounts, enforce organization standards for user accounts and monitor changes.

Powerful Enterprise Control and Visibility

• High-level dashboards provide the right level of information needed to make change, configuration and patch management processes more effective.
• View details about the changes happening in your IT environment and track their impact against compliance.
• Role-based access controls use of reports and operational actions based on Active Directory rights, roles and responsibilities.

How to Buy:

VMware vCenter Configuration Manager Instance - SNS is Required. Entitlement to base vCenter Compliance Manager and base ASM. This is the base price for vCenter Compliance Manager and support with workstation and servers. It includes all functionality available in the product with the exception of the Remedy integration , the Oracle support and the media kit must be ordered separately if needed.

VMware vCenter Configuration Manager Server (one unit), Unix, Linux or Mac - SNS is Required. All servers excluding Windows. This enables a Linux or Mac server to be managed by vCenter Compliance Manager. This can be purchased with an initial vCenter Compliance Manager instance or as an add on to an existing vCenter Compliance Manager instance.

VMware vCenter Configuration Manager Server (one unit), Unix - SnS is required and sold separate. This enables a Unix server to be managed by VCM. This can be purchased with an initial VCM instance or as an add on to an existing VCM instance

VMware vCenter Configuration Manager Server (one unit), Windows - SNS is Required. Windows servers. This enables a Windows server to be managed by vCenter Compliance Manager. This can be purchased with an initial vCenter Compliance Manager instance or as an add on to an existing vCenter Compliance Manager instance.

VMware vCenter Configuration Manager Workstation (one unit), Linux or Mac - SNS is Required. Windows servers. This enables a Windows server to be managed by vCenter Compliance Manager. This can be purchased with an initial vCenter Compliance Manager instance or as an add on to an existing vCenter Compliance Manager instance.

VMware vCenter Configuration Manager Workstation (one unit), Windows - SNS is Required. Windows Workstations. This enables a Windows workstation to be managed by vCenter Compliance Manager. This can be purchased with an initial vCenter Compliance Manager instance or as an add on to an existing vCenter Compliance Manager instance.

VMware vCenter Configuration Manager provides an enterprise solution that can scale across multiple data centers to provide a global, unified configuration management solution across physical and virtual – server and desktop.

Prepare for Audits - Prove Enterprise-Wide Compliance

Out-of-the-box, VCM enables enterprises and cloud service providers to ensure compliance with industry standards and regulatory mandates (such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, PCI DSS, DISA, ISO 27002, and 802-53). If you need to be audit-ready at a moment’s notice, vCenter Configuration Manager allows you to be continuously compliant not only from a governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) grounding but also conformant to security standards such as VMware hardening guidelines, Microsoft security best practices and operational guides, and Apple hardening guidelines.

Stay Compliant with the Center for Policy and Compliance (CP&C)

With the weekly announcement of security bulletins, new vulnerabilities and changes to regulatory mandates, organizations have two choices: become security experts or leverage external industry expert guidance to implement effective compliance solutions. The Center for Policy & Compliance (CP&C) allows organizations to offload this burden and lets you focus attention on your core business. CP&C translates and interprets the multitude of regulatory requirements, industry standards and guidance into easy-to-implement toolkits to effectively manage risk and maintain compliance. Additionally, CP&C extensively tests and verifies security patches across multiple platforms to provide expert security, compliance guidance and consultation. By purchasing VMware vCenter Configuration Manager you gain access to all the value of CP&C and its ongoing expertise.

Support:

VMware Production Support & Subscription

Technical Support, 24 Hour Sev 1 Support -- 7 days a week.

Focused, 24-Hour Support For Production Environments

• Global, 24x7 support for Severity 1 issues
• Fast response times for critical issues
• Unlimited number of support requests
• Remote Support
• Online access to documentation and technical resources, knowledge base, discussion forums
• Product updates and upgrades

Overview

VMware Production Support is designed with your production environments in mind. Our global support centers are staffed around the clock to provide you access to our industry-leading expertise in virtualization and years of experience supporting virtual infrastructure products in real-world customer environments. We are committed to delivering enterprise-class, worldwide support with a single objective in mind: your success.

VMware Basic Support & Subscription Service

Technical Support, 12 Hours/Day, per published Business Hours, Mon. thru Fri.

Weekday Support for Test, Dev and Non-Critical Deployments

• Global, 12x5 access to support
• Unlimited number of support requests
• Remote Support
• Online access to documentation and technical resources, knowledge base, discussion forums
• Product updates and upgrades

Overview

VMware Basic Support is designed for non-critical applications and platforms that require support during normal business hours. Our global support centers have been strategically placed to provide you with fast and efficient access to the support center in your region. Each center is staffed with engineers that can provide industry-leading expertise in virtualization and years of experience supporting virtual infrastructure products in real-world customer environments. We are committed to delivering enterprise-class, worldwide support with a single objective in mind: your success.

Feature	Production Support	Basic Support
Hours of Operation	24 Hrs/Day 7 Days/Wk 365 Days/Yr 1	12 Hrs/Day Mon–Fri 1
Length of Service	1 or 3 Years	1 or 3 Years
Product Updates	Yes	Yes
Product Upgrades	Yes	Yes
Products Supported	All Products (excluding VMware Fusion and Player)	All Products (excluding VMware Fusion and Player)
Method of Access	Telephone/ Web	Telephone/ Web
Response Method	Telephone/ Email	Telephone/ Email
Remote Support	Yes	Yes
Access to VMware Web site	Yes	Yes
Access to VMware Discussion Forums and Knowledge Base	Yes	Yes
Max Number of Support Admins per Contract	6	4
Number of Support Requests	Unlimited	Unlimited
Target Response Times Critical (Severity 1 Major (Severity 2) Minor (Severity 3) Cosmetic (Severity 4)	30 minutes or less: 24x7 4 business hours 8 business hours 12 business hours	4 business hours 8 business hours 12 business hours 12 business hours
Business Hours North America and Latin America Alaska, Hawaii South America (NASA) Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA Asia, Pacific Rim, Japan (APJ) Australia/New Zealand	Monday - Friday 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (local time zone) 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (PST/PDT) 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (EST/EDT) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (GMT/GMT+1) 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. (Singapore Time) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Sydney AET)	Monday - Friday 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (local time zone) 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (PST/PDT) 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (EST/EDT) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (GMT/GMT+1) 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. (Singapore Time) 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Sydney AET)

1Hours of operation for Gemstone are Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (PST/PDT) globally.
1Hours of operation for VMware Go Pro and vCenter Protect products are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (CST/CDT), except holidays.
1Hours of operation for VMware IT Business Management and IT Financial Management are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (EST/EDT/GMT) except holidays.
1Hours of operation for Socialcast are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (PST/PDT).

Documentation:

Download the VMware vCenter Configuration Manager Datasheet (PDF).