System for virtualisation monitoring

1. A system for virtualization monitoring, comprising:

multiple virtual machines running on a physical machine;

an interface application residing in a virtualization layer of the physical machine to monitor a status of one or more of the virtual machines;

a display panel associated with the interface application and provided in communication with the physical machine to support interaction with the virtualization layer, wherein the display panel presents information provided by the interface application, including presenting a list of active virtual machines running on the physical machine and host names associated with each of the virtual machines; and

wherein the display panel supports an interaction with the virtualization layer including migrating at least one of the active virtual machines between virtualization hosts, and further including using the interface application to send commands to a management partition of the virtualization layer, the commands to execute a virtualization related action consisting of virtual machine management.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the display panel supports an interaction with the virtualization layer.

3. The system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the display panel supports activation of a maintenance mode by migrating any virtual servers running on the physical machine.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising the interface application provided in the virtualization layer for communication with a virtualization management application and commanding the hardware interface.

5. The system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the interface application in communication with the virtualization management application comprises monitoring a virtual machine.

6. The system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the interface application in communication with the virtualization management application supports interaction with a virtual machine.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the display panel is an integrated panel in a physical machine.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the display panel is implemented as an external component to associate with a physical machine.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the display panel is implemented by utilizing an existing indicator and control means of a physical machine.

10. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the display panel is provided external to the physical machine.

11. A method for virtualization monitoring, comprising:

providing multiple virtual machines running on a physical machine;

providing an interface application residing in a virtualization layer of the physical machine;

monitoring a status of the virtual machines within the virtualization layer on a physical machine through the interface application; and

displaying through a display panel associated with the interface application, externally to the physical machine a list of active virtual machines running on the physical machine and host names associated with the active virtual machines;

wherein the display panel supporting an interaction with the virtualization layer including migrating at least one of the active virtual machines between virtualization hosts, and further including using the interface application to send commands to a management partition of the virtualization layer.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11 , further comprising interacting with the virtualization layer via the display panel provided on the physical machine.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12 , wherein interacting comprises activating a maintenance mode by migrating any virtual server running on the physical machine.

14. The method as claimed in claim 11 , further comprising communicating with a virtualization management application.

15. An article comprising:

a computer readable non-transitory storage medium including computer program instructions loadable into the internal memory of a digital computer, comprising instructions for virtualization monitoring, the instructions comprising:

instructions to create multiple virtual machines running on a physical machine;

instructions to run an interface application residing in a virtualization layer of said physical machine;

instructions for said interface application to monitor a status of the virtual machines on the physical machine within the virtualization layer; and

instructions for a display panel associated with the interface application to display externally to the physical machine a list of active virtual machines running on the physical machine and host names associated with the active virtual machines;

wherein the display panel supporting an interaction between a user and the virtualization layer including migrating at least one of the active virtual machines between virtualization hosts and further including using the interface application to send commands to a management partition of the virtualization layer.

16. The article as claimed in claim 15 , further comprising instructions to interact with the virtualization layer via the display panel provided on the physical machine.

17. The article as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the instructions to interact with the virtualization layer includes activating a maintenance mode by migrating any virtual servers running on the physical machine.

18. The article as claimed in claim 15 , further comprising instructions to communicate with a virtualization management application.

19. The system of claim 1 , wherein virtual machine management includes changing an operating status of at least one of the virtual machines, the operating mode selected from the group consisting of: maintenance mode, availability mode, and safe maintenance mode.