A virtual zone management framework manages one or more virtual computing zones forming a global computing zone residing on a host computer. The virtual zone manager comprises a normalization engine, a zone probe, and an interface engine that manages each virtual computing zone residing on the host computer. The virtual zone manager manages the services operating on each virtual zone while simultaneously managing the global computing environment using probes and/or agents to gather data and zone characteristics in response to a triggering event. Once data of interest are gathered for each zone, they are normalized so as to present a consistent and compatible representation of the characteristics with respect to the other virtual computing zones. Based on a comparison and analysis of the normalized characteristics, the virtual zone manager manages each of the virtual zones within the global computing environment as well as the global computing environment itself.