Solar­Winds has released a new free vSphere tool called Solar­Winds VM Con­sole.

    Free VM Con­sole Highlights:

  • Bounce (shut­down & restart) VMs with­out log­ging into vCen­ter or vSphere
  • Get end-to-end vis­i­bil­ity into your VMware environment—from vCen­ter through ESX hosts to VM guests
  • Track the real-time up/down sta­tus of your VMs from your desk­top — with­out log­ging into VMware apps
    Addi­tional VM Mon­i­tor­ing Features:

  • Take a snap­shot of your VM prior to shutdown
  • Search on VM names or IP addresses
  • Use your vCenter/vSphere cre­den­tials to view a top-down hier­ar­chy of your vir­tual environment

I’m not sure why you as an admin might want to use this tool instead of the vSphere Client, but in envi­ron­ments where you have del­e­gated con­trol over cer­tain VMs (like a test envi­ron­ment etc.) it might be a use­ful addi­tion to your tool-belt.

Written by . Christian is the owner of vNinja.net and a Senior Consultant for EDB ErgoGroup specializing in virtualization. Active twitter user and vSoup.net Virtualization Podcast co-host.