SAMPLE-VIRT-01 · FICTIONAL DATE 2026-01-12
Example Workshop Ltd · Virtualisation and Datacentre Health Review
Status: Fictional format sample · Domain label: example.test (reserved fictional domain; no real organisation) · Method: read-only review of supplied evidence; no live access.
Scope
4 fictional Hyper-V hosts in one cluster running 28 VMs, from administrator-supplied inventories and reports.
Executive summary
The cluster is stable but under-maintained: firmware is old on two hosts, cluster validation is over a year old, several checkpoints have been left in place for months, and replication covers only a few VMs.
Evidence reviewed
| ID | Source | Coverage | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| E-01 | Host and VM inventory | 4 hosts, 28 VMs | Provided |
| E-02 | Patch and firmware report | 4 hosts | Provided |
| E-03 | Cluster validation output | 1 cluster | Provided; date 14 months ago |
| E-04 | Checkpoint list | All VMs | Provided |
| E-05 | Replication and backup report | 28 VMs | Provided |
| E-06 | Capacity summary | CPU, memory and storage | Provided |
What was not checked
- Guest operating system health
- Application performance
- Physical datacentre conditions
- VMware (none in scope)
Findings
Severity: High means fix first; Medium means plan soon; Low means tidy up.
| ID | Severity | Finding | Evidence | Recommended next step |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F-01 | High | BIOS and firmware not updated for over 2 years on 2 of 4 hosts | E-02 | Plan a rolling update, one host at a time, with vendor guidance. |
| F-02 | High | 7 checkpoints older than 90 days, including on a database VM | E-04 | Review with application owners and merge or remove under change control. |
| F-03 | Medium | Cluster validation output is 14 months old; no failover test recorded | E-03 | Re-run validation and record a planned failover test. |
| F-04 | Medium | Replication configured for 3 of 28 VMs and never tested | E-05 | Decide which VMs need replication against recovery targets and test it. |
| F-05 | Medium | Memory headroom would not cover the loss of one host | E-06 | Reduce allocation or add capacity so one host can fail safely. |
| F-06 | Low | Host management interfaces share a VLAN with servers | E-01 | Move management to a separate network. |
Fix first
- Plan the rolling firmware update Effort: Medium.
- Resolve old checkpoints with owners Effort: Low.
- Re-run cluster validation and test failover Effort: Medium.
- Define and test replication for critical VMs Effort: Medium.
- Close the memory headroom gap Effort: High.
30/60/90-day plan
- First 30 days: Review checkpoints; re-run validation; separate the management network.
- By 60 days: Rolling firmware update; test failover; define replication scope.
- By 90 days: Test replication; address capacity; decide whether to review Azure or Azure Local options at the next hardware cycle.
Customer decision
- Approval: this sample authorizes no changes; no remediation was performed.
- Limit: findings reflect only the evidence listed above, as supplied at the time.
Limitations
This fictional sample demonstrates format, not a real assessment. It contains no real customer data, gives no security or compliance guarantee, and made no change to any system.