Dear PDM Team,
first: Great job for an alpha release! I'm very happy and looking forward to the first beta or release candidate
I am aware that the goal is not to replicate vCenter but from my users point of view there are some small improvements which would render PDM Alpha almost usable for production.
These are my personal favorites, other members are free to add their own proposals:
1. Give remotes a NAME
IDs are nice and easy, I know - I was developing software by myself.
It should be possible to give them a human readable name like Customer A, Customer B
Technicians might be used to numbers, lower qualified staff not.
2. Allow remotes to be added to a GROUP
With more than a few PVE hosts, things might get messy.
3. Make adding PVE hosts easier
I don't like to copy the SSL fingerprint from the PVE host.
I can't use the fingerprint my browser shows (does not have colons).
I want to quickly add a host, want to take risks (ALL IN!) because I know my cards (internal hosts only).
Adding PVE servers over the internet (which is a bad idea anyways) require proper verification but for most cases the current way to add hosts is just too cumbersome.
Just my 2 cents.
I'd like to see message like "oh fingerprint not matching, want to accept xx:xx:xx...." yes/no and done.
4. Show alarms in the dashboard or in a specific section
If some host disk has a SMART issue, memory pressure or some other IPMI sensor failure, SHOW IT somewhere.
Disk space critically low, ZPOOL degraded or ECC errors detected?
Put a warning icon on the right side of the remote and in a "system status" dashboard.
I agree that this should be done with a dedicated monitoring tool but often I saw critical things in vCenter first.
5. Show PVE version in overview
Nice to have: Show PVE software version in the list of remotes. Single point to check for mismatches or forgot-to-update nodes.
6. Allow notes per remote
Adding a note to a remote would be handy to immediately see important information.
Once a note has been added, it's shown on the top of the remote pane in either green, yellow or red backgroud (severity).
If you work on a node or want to let staff know "do not touch", this might be a good place.
7. Dashboard, allow click on stopped VMs
OK, there are five stopped VMs in my environment.
And now, what can I do with that information?
It would be nice to see a list of the stopped/running (failing?) VMs when clicking on that number.
8. Final thoughts
I like very much the simplicity of PDM.
With time things might get overloaded with all bells and whistles.
KISS is king (keep it simple, stupid).
More features, panels, details could always be switched on "expert mode" (which could be a per user property for example).
Thanks for your great work!
Best regards,
Bernhard
first: Great job for an alpha release! I'm very happy and looking forward to the first beta or release candidate
I am aware that the goal is not to replicate vCenter but from my users point of view there are some small improvements which would render PDM Alpha almost usable for production.
These are my personal favorites, other members are free to add their own proposals:
1. Give remotes a NAME
IDs are nice and easy, I know - I was developing software by myself.
It should be possible to give them a human readable name like Customer A, Customer B
Technicians might be used to numbers, lower qualified staff not.
2. Allow remotes to be added to a GROUP
With more than a few PVE hosts, things might get messy.
3. Make adding PVE hosts easier
I don't like to copy the SSL fingerprint from the PVE host.
I can't use the fingerprint my browser shows (does not have colons).
I want to quickly add a host, want to take risks (ALL IN!) because I know my cards (internal hosts only).
Adding PVE servers over the internet (which is a bad idea anyways) require proper verification but for most cases the current way to add hosts is just too cumbersome.
Just my 2 cents.
I'd like to see message like "oh fingerprint not matching, want to accept xx:xx:xx...." yes/no and done.
4. Show alarms in the dashboard or in a specific section
If some host disk has a SMART issue, memory pressure or some other IPMI sensor failure, SHOW IT somewhere.
Disk space critically low, ZPOOL degraded or ECC errors detected?
Put a warning icon on the right side of the remote and in a "system status" dashboard.
I agree that this should be done with a dedicated monitoring tool but often I saw critical things in vCenter first.
5. Show PVE version in overview
Nice to have: Show PVE software version in the list of remotes. Single point to check for mismatches or forgot-to-update nodes.
6. Allow notes per remote
Adding a note to a remote would be handy to immediately see important information.
Once a note has been added, it's shown on the top of the remote pane in either green, yellow or red backgroud (severity).
If you work on a node or want to let staff know "do not touch", this might be a good place.
7. Dashboard, allow click on stopped VMs
OK, there are five stopped VMs in my environment.
And now, what can I do with that information?
It would be nice to see a list of the stopped/running (failing?) VMs when clicking on that number.
8. Final thoughts
I like very much the simplicity of PDM.
With time things might get overloaded with all bells and whistles.
KISS is king (keep it simple, stupid).
More features, panels, details could always be switched on "expert mode" (which could be a per user property for example).
Thanks for your great work!
Best regards,
Bernhard