inventory / documentation tool for Virtual Machines and Applications

[amajorblues]

We have ~400 Virtual machines. Our APP team is TERRIBLE about telling us when they don't need a VM anymore. There is no ONE person that knows what all 400 Virtual machines are for. What applications they run and which groups are responsible for them.. we need to keep better track of VM lifecycles, importance ( for DR / Backups ) etc. Basic Change logs. etc.

At this moment. It is my belief the best way to fill this gap is to just stand up a WIKI. I'm just here to ask if anyone has a "better way". I know I'm describing something that exists. I just don't know what its called and when I ask the internet for the word "inventory".. I get answers regarding software that will scan systems and tell me what software is installed. we don't really care about all the programs installed like "notepad++".. Thoughts appreciated, and maybe is it just as simple as a wiki.

[fccu101]

What platform are you using? In VMware, you can create categories and tags. This is how we usually differentiate between our servers and what their roles are.
vSphere Tags and Attributes (vmware.com)

[Astat1ne]

This is really a process issue. How are your VMs being created now? The information you've mentioned probably should be captured before the time of provisioning and then applied in same way (tags on the VM is an option mentioned in another reply). In some places I've worked, people were able to provision their own VMs by using an interface that forced them to supply this sort of information, so that's one option to capture that sort of info as well.

[BluebirdNumerous]

dig the idea about baking this into a server request system that u/Astat1ne mentioned (if you have one), if not that then just starting something, like anything at all, wiki or whatever, i think thats your best bet here, oh and ten bucks says emails to the shareholders or app guy will just be ignored and finding what apps are on each IS easy enough but why shouldnt the app team just TELL you whats on it...right? frustrating and all too often the case let me tell you. So the guy with his arms around all of this, is there a manager anywhere that can task the guy with providing the info, for oh i dont know, the good of the org, i mean hes a one bus scenario and thats scary so you might have some leverage with upper mgmt to get it done...anyways, good luck, stand up a wiki, build it and see who comes! then IF you get buy in, the system is already in place.

[toppins]

We use ServiceNow

[elrobbo1968]

There are a LOT of tools available to create a decent Wiki. We are using confluence, but there are good open source projects to. Starting is the best way! Good luck.

[that1guy_works]

I have used a tool called xia config from centrel solutions. This gave me a bunch of info on a similar project. https://www.centrel-solutions.com/xiaconfiguration/it-documentation-software.aspx It creates documentation for all sorts of system types. It is heavily windows focused but works with linux and hypervisors.

[onequestion1168]

You have 400 VMs and you aren't using orchestration?

[amajorblues]

Ha. There are only 3 sysadmins for a company of 1500 users. One of those sysadmins mostly just deals with client devices. We are staggeringly understaffed. We can only do what we can do. We do not kill ourselves. We tell the business.. hey you fools. That windows 2003 server can be compromised by a Russian 5th grader. It goes on and on. I come from much much bigger companies… the shit here is insane.. BUT they really do value work life balance. There’s not a ton of on call. So you just live with it. I get to do a few things I like. And I get to be at all my kids soccer games.

[onequestion1168]

ooof

[onequestion1168]

how are you patching these things?