Methods, computing systems and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that include initializing, by a hypervisor executing on a processor, first and second virtual machines. A first software application configured to provide a service is executed on the first virtual machine, and a logical data connection is established between the first and the second virtual machines. Examples of the logical connection include physical and virtual serial connections, and physical and virtual data networking connections. A second software application configured to enable remote monitoring of the first software application via the logical data connection is executed on the second virtual machine. In some embodiments, the second software application can remotely monitor the first software application via an interface such as a command line interface, a graphical user interface and an application programming interface.