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Virtual Machines

This domain explains what the Azure Local platform is actually hosting.

Ranger should describe VM inventory and placement, but it should also recognize larger workload families that are using the platform.

What Ranger Collects

The virtual-machine domain should document:

  • VM inventory, state, generation, and ownership
  • CPU, memory, disk, and network configuration
  • host placement, anti-affinity, and failover posture
  • checkpoints, replication, and density or overcommit indicators
  • Arc VM overlays where present
  • guest-cluster hints when discoverable
  • workload-family presence such as AVD, AKS, Arc VMs, Arc Data Services, or Microsoft 365 Local indicators

Manifest Sub-Domains

The v1 collector writes to these named sections of the virtualMachines manifest domain:

Sub-domain Content
inventory VM inventory — name, generation, state, vCPU, memory, disk, network adapters, and host
placement VM-to-host placement mappings and anti-affinity group memberships
workloadFamilies Detected workload families and overlays inferred from VM inventory and Azure resource context — AKS nodepool members, Arc VMs, Arc Data Services, Microsoft 365 Local indicators, and other workload signals
replication Hyper-V Replica state for protected VMs when replication is configured
summary Aggregate counts — VM count by state, total vCPU, memory, density, and overcommit signals

Current Collector Depth

Current v1 collection also covers:

  • VM checkpoint inventory and related snapshot signals.
  • SR-IOV and advanced network-adapter detail where exposed by Hyper-V.
  • Placement-density and overcommit calculations used in management and technical reports.
  • Guest-cluster and workload-family heuristics inferred from VM and Azure resource evidence.

Why It Matters

Platform inventory is not enough. Operators and receiving teams need to understand what the cluster is actually running and how those workloads are distributed.

Connectivity and Credentials

Requirement Purpose
WinRM / PowerShell remoting Primary Hyper-V and cluster-side VM discovery
Cluster credential Required
Azure credential Needed when Arc VM or Azure-managed workload overlays are in scope

Default Behavior

This is a core domain and should run when cluster credentials are available.

Azure-managed overlays can be partial when Azure credentials are not available.

Variant Behavior

Hyperconverged

Standard VM inventory and placement applies.

Rack-Aware

Ranger should reflect rack placement and any local-availability behavior when it is visible.

Disconnected Operations

Workload control may be mediated through the local control plane rather than the public Azure control plane. Ranger should preserve that distinction.

Multi-Rack Preview

Multi-rack preview changes the placement and networking context of workloads. Ranger should treat that as a variant-specific interpretation layer, not as the baseline VM model.

Example Manifest Data

A successful collect produces entries like this:

{
  "id": "virtualMachines",
  "status": "success",
  "domains": {
    "virtualMachines": {
      "inventory": [
        { "name": "vm-avd-01", "state": "Running", "generation": 2, "vCPU": 4,
          "memoryGB": 8, "host": "tplabs-01-n01", "replicationState": "None" },
        { "name": "vm-sql-01", "state": "Running", "generation": 2, "vCPU": 8,
          "memoryGB": 32, "host": "tplabs-01-n02" }
      ],
      "workloadFamilies": {
        "avd": { "detected": true, "hostPoolName": "hp-tplabs-prod" },
        "arcVms": { "detected": false },
        "aks": { "detected": false }
      },
      "summary": { "totalVMs": 12, "runningVMs": 11, "totalVCPU": 64,
                   "totalMemoryGB": 256, "overcommitRatio": 1.2 }
    }
  }
}

Common Findings

Finding Severity What it means
VM in saved or paused state Warning A VM is not running; may be intentional or indicate a problem
High vCPU overcommit ratio Warning vCPU allocation significantly exceeds physical cores; performance under load may be impacted
VM checkpoints detected Warning Snapshots present; disk space and VM performance may be affected
VM not Arc-registered Info VM is not enrolled as an Arc-enabled server; Azure management features unavailable for this guest
No anti-affinity groups configured Info VMs that should be separated for HA are not protected from co-location

Partial Status

status: partial on the VM collector means:

  • One or more nodes were unreachable so VMs hosted on those nodes are absent from inventory
  • Azure-side Arc VM overlay failed while local Hyper-V inventory succeeded — workloadFamilies section may be incomplete
  • Replication state query timed out while core inventory succeeded

Local VM inventory is usually the more complete half. Azure overlays are additive and their absence does not invalidate the core inventory.

Domain Dependencies

Depends on the cluster-and-node domain for node list resolution. Azure-side workload family detection also depends on the azure-integration domain for Arc context.

Evidence Boundaries

  • Direct discovery: Hyper-V and cluster facts from the nodes
  • Azure-side discovery: Arc VM or Azure-managed workload overlays from Azure APIs
  • Manual/imported evidence: optional workload ownership or service mapping supplied by the operator

v1 and Future Boundaries

v1 should identify major workload families and accurately document VM placement.

It should not imply deep in-guest application inspection for every workload type in the first release.