When using virtualization platforms such as VMware, IT operations teams often struggle with inefficiency and a high risk of configuration errors when managing large numbers of virtual machines (VMs). Traditional VM management consoles typically do not provide visibility into the operating system–level status of VMs, nor do they allow IT personnel to uniformly modify key parameters — such as hostnames, IP addresses, and DNS settings — across different operating systems.

This is where Arcfra VMTools comes in — designed to make VM management more visible, controllable, and efficient, making the replacement of VMware with Arcfra Enterprise Cloud Platform (AECP) easier and more effective.

What Are the Common Challenges for Large-Scale VM Management?

1. Lack of Visibility into VM Runtime Status

Users are typically unable to view real-time status inside VMs — such as IP addresses, hostnames, and DNS settings — directly from the management console. Obtaining this information normally requires manual record-keeping or logging into each VM individually.

Customer Story 1: Lack of Precise Visibility — Full Disk Partition Leads to Business Disruption

On traditional virtualization platforms, a “disk full” alert often lacks detail, making it difficult to identify the specific partition that is running out of space. At Company A, a core business VM suddenly experienced data write failures, leading to frequent application errors. Because the platform displayed only the VM’s overall disk utilization, the IT team could not quickly determine which partition was full. They had to log into the VM for manual investigation, which significantly delayed troubleshooting and resulted in business disruption.

2. Configuration Changes Requiring Guest Login

When users need to modify VM configurations — such as IP addresses, hostnames, or account passwords — they must log into each guest host and make changes manually. This process can be time-consuming and inefficient.

Customer Story 2: Forgotten VM Passwords Force “Breaking the Door”

As more enterprises adopt delegated administration models, password recovery has become one of the most frequent requests for IT operations teams. For instance, at Company B, the IT team provides a unified virtualization platform and base templates, while individual business units manage their own VMs with specific permissions. VM login passwords are set and maintained by business administrators without IT involvement. In such setups, password loss is common — especially for development and testing VMs that may go unused for months. Traditional virtualization platforms make password recovery a cumbersome process: users must request administrator assistance to either boot the VM into single-user mode to reset the password, or mount an ISO image and use a PE tool for manual password modification. Both approaches are complex, require shutting down the VM, and disrupt service continuity.

3. Unable to Manage Complex VM Network Configurations

For VMs using VLAN network adapters with IPv6 or SR-IOV passthrough NICs, network configurations still need to be maintained manually — an error-prone and time-consuming process.

Customer Story 3: Cross-OS Batch IP Update — 30 VMs, 2 Hours of Work

As one user vividly put it, “Changing VM network settings feels like defusing a bomb.” At Company C, during a large-scale network migration, the IT team had to update IP addresses, gateways, and DNS configurations on 30 VMs spread across multiple clusters and operating systems. Because each VM had different configuration paths, administrators were forced to log in individually, apply changes manually, and restart services one by one. The process was slow, tedious, and prone to mistakes. In one case, a single missed DNS update caused an upstream application outage — triggering hours of costly troubleshooting.

4. Lack of Snapshot Consistency Assurance

For workloads that require high snapshot consistency, traditional storage-layer snapshots cannot ensure application-level consistency, posing risks to business continuity.

These challenges become more apparent in large-scale VM deployments and multi-tenant environments. To address customers’ needs for VM management in terms of visibility, configurability, and stability, especially in multi-cluster and cross-network environments, the Arcfra VMTools have been extensively optimized across multiple capabilities to make VM operations more efficient and reliable.

How Does Arcfra VMTools Enhance Visibility, Configurability, and Efficiency in VM Management?

Arcfra VMTools is a toolset that works seamlessly with Arcfra Virtualization Engine (AVE). It enables the management console to monitor, visualize, and control the inner status of VMs, bridging the gap between the virtualization platform and the Guest OS. Natively integrated with Arcfra Cloud Operating System (ACOS), Arcfra VMTools offers powerful capabilities to help users:

• Quickly access, view, and modify key runtime information inside VMs.
• Enable advanced features such as file-system consistent snapshots.
• Enhance automation and intelligence in IT operations.

Core Capabilities Overview

All the above features can be managed directly through the AOC without logging into VM’s guest systems — enabling truly visible and controllable management.

Innovations and Product Comparison

Business Value and Customer Benefits

With Arcfra VMTools, users can monitor VM operations in greater detail right from the unified management platform — streamlining IT O&M and strengthening configuration reliability and security:

• Enhanced System Visibility: Delivers an integrated view of each VM’s system details — covering the operating system, IP, gateway, DNS, and file system utilization.
• Improved Configuration Efficiency: Enables enterprises to view key operating system information and remotely adjust settings — such as network, hostname, and NTP — without logging into guest systems. This streamlines manual workflows, improves operational efficiency, and minimizes the risk of human error.
• Ensured Data Consistency: Supports file system consistent snapshots and file system visualization to prevent recovery issues caused by inconsistent data, ensuring reliable rollback and restoration.
• Enhanced Network Management: Allows administrators to view and edit IPv6 addresses for VMs with SR-IOV passthrough or VLAN-based virtual NICs, addressing the complex multi-network setups.
• Deep Virtualization–OS Coordination: Arcfra VMTools ensures seamless coordination between the virtualization layer and operating systems — overcoming the limited or disjointed integration found in some platforms. This helps enterprises enhance automation, strengthen security compliance, and maintain business continuity while focusing on creating business value.
• One-Click Auto Upgrade: Upgrade VMTools easily from the AOC management platform — no need to log in to guest systems. Administrators can launch batch upgrades that run automatically in the background, keeping every VMTool version up to date with the newest capabilities.

Customer Story 1 (Follow-up): When a Full Disk Partition Threatened Business, Arcfra VMTools Solved it in Minutes with Visibility and Alert Capabilities

As we mentioned earlier, Company A once faced a tricky situation — a VM’s disk had run out of space while the monitor system could not tell which partition was responsible. After installing Arcfra VMTools and collaboratively using the Arcfra Observability platform, the team customized alert policies for file system utilization. Once a disk partition hit 90% usage, an alert popped up automatically.

With VMTools’ intuitive visualization, the team could instantly see every mount point’s path, total capacity, and usage. They quickly spotted the culprit: the /opt/software partition used for business data writes. Acting before it hit 100%, they prevented a shutdown that would have halted key data transactions.

By combining the “visibility” provided by VMTools with the “alerting” capabilities of the observability platform, the operations team caught the issue before it could disrupt any service. In just a few minutes, they expanded the disk partition and stabilized operations — helping the enterprise shift from reactive to proactive IT O&M.

Customer Story 2 (Follow-up): Forget Passwords Frequently? Arcfra VMTools Enables One-Click Reset

Company B used to deal with constant password reset applications from business users. After deploying Arcfra VMTools, administrators could reset any user password directly from AOC — no need to log into the guest system or reboot the VM. Once reset, users could log in right away. With this capability, forgotten passwords are now resolved instantly through a secure, closed-loop process.

Customer Story 3 (Follow-up): Cross-OS Batch Configuration? Done in 10 Minutes with Arcfra VMTools

Tired of manually updating network settings across multiple operating systems, Company C installed Arcfra VMTools on their VMs. With AOC, administrators could directly view and modify network configurations for all VMs — without worrying about OS types or logging into each VM. In just 10 minutes, 30 VMs were fully reconfigured with zero downtime. The process was simple, visible, and efficient, saving significant time and preventing human error.

More information on Arcfra Virtualization Engine (AVE) and related features:

Arcfra Virtualization Engine vs. VMware vSphere: Higher Availability with Optimized Performance

Arcfra Operation Center vs. VMware vCenter for Centralized VM and Cluster Management

Arcfra Dynamic Resource Scheduler Explained: Innovating DRS Scoring System for Modernized Applications

Arcfra Virtual Machine High Availability Explained

Documentations of Arcfra VMTools