No Symantec Support for VMotion
It's kind of hard to believe, but a couple of Symantec's security tools -- Symantec Antivirus (SAV) and Symantec Endpoint Control (SEC) -- don't work with VMware's VMotion.
This Symantec Knowledgebase article tells the tale (hat tip vinternals). What I love is this part of the article:
"Solution:
Symantec does not support ESX server Vmotion at this time."
So, the solution is that there is no solution! Why would a company the size of Symantec not support key products on the most common virtualization platform in existence? The KB article lists six reasons. Hmmm. One would think that with a little development, those problems could be overcome. I'm assuming Symantec is working feverishly on this right now, and this oversight will be corrected. If not, Symantec is in for some angry customers (not to mention leaving money on the table.)
Security is a growing concern for virtualization admininstrators, and the world's biggest security vendor not supporting core products on a platform that's been out for a long time is disconcerting, to say the least. (For those not familiar, VMotion is VMware's technology for moving virtual machines (VMs) from one physical host to another with no downtime. Citrix' XenServer has its own version, but Microsoft won't offer similar functionality on Hyper-V until the next release, sometime in 2010.)
Do you use another antivirus program on your ESX servers? Let me know.
Posted by Keith Ward on 11/19/2008 at 12:48 PM