Kenny Morris, MCSE

Manager of Network ServicesCRC Insurance Services, Inc.kmorris@crcins.com

2009 AAMGA Automation Conference

•170 servers – 70% in Central Datacenter

•25% of server farm are Virtual servers

•40 virtual servers running on 8 VM Hosts

•Reduced physical servers by 20 in 1 year

•99 % Windows servers

Server

Infrastructure

•D2D2D Backup on all systems

•Disaster recovery plan includes restoring Physical servers to

Virtual servers in a total disaster scenario

Backup and

Recovery

Virtual Server Host

Virtual Machines Guests

Physical Servers

Server

ConsolidationTesting

Rapid

Deployment

Disaster

Recovery

Server

Virtualization

•Lower cost for full Lab deployment•Less time to set up Lab environment•Testing of Patches and application upgrades

•Decreases cost of creating reliable fail-over systems•Decreases the time involved to restore servers in a Disaster Crisis

•Stops Server Sprawl (1 application = 1 server)•Saves money

•Less AC•Less Real Estate•Less Power Consumption•Fewer Hardware Support agreements

•Reduces Administration Workload – Fewer Physical servers to maintain•Eliminates Legacy OS maintenance and worry•Answers problems with aging hardware (end of service life issues)

•Server Consolidation

•Lower cost for full Lab deployment•Less time to set up Lab environment•Testing of Patches and application upgrades

•Server Consolidation•Testing•Rapid Deployment

•Speeds deployment of production machines •Physical – 2-6 weeks •Virtual – a few hours

•Lower cost for full Lab deployment•Less time to set up Lab environment•Testing of Patches and application upgrades

•Server Consolidation•Testing

•Lower cost for full Lab deployment•Less time to set up Lab environment•Testing of Patches and application upgrades

•Decreases cost of creating reliable fail-over systems•Decreases the time involved to restore servers in a Disaster Crisis

•Server Consolidation•Testing•Rapid Deployment•Disaster Recovery

3 Types of Virtualization

Choices for Free Virtualization of Windows

• Industry leader with 9 years of maturation and sophistication

•It’s free (well, not really) – admin tools must be purchased to manage it

•Available as embedded component on new servers, simplifying deployment

•Sophisticated add-ons to ease administration (extra cost)

•Fast and very stable product

•Bare Metal Installation (32MB) = Low overhead – capacity to add lots of VMs to a single Virtual

Host

•RAM over-commitment means total VMs RAM can exceed physical RAM of the host

•Transparent page sharing means identical memory pages that appear across multiple virtual

machines can be stored just once (think memory “de-duping”)

•Free VMware vCenter Converter tool allows easy P2V and V2V conversions

•Supports lots of OS – Solaris 10, Windows, Ubuntu, etc…

•Online backup of full VMs provided via agents by most major Backup Software vendors

•Excellent support (additional cost)

VMWare ESXi (Pros):

•Upfront cost (TCO may be about same as other “free” virtualization systems)

•Limited amount of approved hardware

•Complexity and resources required to set it up initially (requires a virtual management server)

•Limited to 128 VMs on a Host

VMWare ESX (Cons):

Choices for Free Virtualization of Windows

•Free with either Windows Server 2008 (Hyper-V) or as bare-metal install (2008 Hyper-V Server)

•Free OS installations with MS Windows 2008 Host OS

•Windows 2008 Standard = 1 Free Virtual Machine OS

•Windows 2008 Enterprise = 4 Free Virtual Machine OS

•Windows 2008 DataCenter = Unlimited Free Virtual Machine OS

•Para-Virtualization may lead to substantial performance gains

•Supports up to 4 multiple processors on the VM

•Memory allocations for VMs up to 64GB

•Installed on servers with Intel-VT or AMD-V processors

•Supports clustering multiple Virtual hosts so VMs can fail-over to another host

•Supports up to 64 CPU sockets and 2TB of memory on Host

•Supports Unlimited VMs on a host (192 on Hyper-V server)

•Supports VSS online backups of VMs

Microsoft Hyper V Server (Pros):

•Must be installed on 64 Bit architecture

•VM Converter must be purchased (SCVMM)

•Does not allow RAM over-allocation or Memory de-duping

•1st Generation product

Microsoft Hyper V Server (Cons):

• Typical performance tests show existing servers are only utilizing 10-15%

of their available CPU processing power

• Most companies has experienced server sprawl with the typical “1

application = 1 server philosophy”

• Reaching upper limits of server room capacity can mean costly

infrastructure upgrades (space, AC, UPS, Generator, security, fire

supression systems, etc..)

• Most companies over 5 years old, have approx. 30-50% of their server

population nearing end of live (EOL)

• Simplifies and speeds up the deployment of servers

• Low cost and simple lab deployment for testing of software and patches on

exact duplicates of production machines

• Desire to have a viable Disaster recovery plan leads companies to consider

the use of virtual servers as an alternative to expensive physical machines

Why Every Company Should be using

Server Virtualization

Desktop Virtualization

CONNECTION BROKER

MANAGEMENT TOOLS

VIRTUAL SERVER HOSTS

Types of Desktop Virtualization

• Client-hosted Virtualization• Virtual PC runs on user’s desktop• Can be loaded from removable media• Centrally managed virtual machines

can be loaded from file shares• Good way to have visitor transform

their PC to your approved template• Uses Management server to monitor

packages and enforce corporate policies from central location

• Example: VMWare ACE, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MEDV)

• CON: Doesn’t work with multiple monitors

Types of Desktop Virtualization

• Streaming Desktop• Desktop streaming uses existing PC

hardware• Delivers a centrally stored image to a

bare-metal PC on the LAN at startup• Similar to a network boot using PXE• Virtual machine runs on the existing

PC, but is streamed from a central location

• Desktop is customized based on the user’s profile

• Example: XenDesktop 3• CON: Slow boot up

Types of Desktop Virtualization

CONNECTION BROKER

MANAGEMENT TOOLS

VIRTUAL SERVER HOSTS

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

• Server-Hosted Virtualzation• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

• This broad term is actually a concept or architecture not actual piece of software

• Concept is simple: Instead of user running a local copy of desktop OS, you run the desktop OS in your datacenter. Then your users connect remotely.

• Uses Virtual server to host independent virtual desktops

• A connection broker manages dynamic provisioning of virtual desktops from pre-defined templates

• You can use any Virtual server host or any desktop template

• On surface sounds like Citrix TS, but not…• Examples of brokers: XenDesktop 3, VMWare

VDI, Quest VWorkspace• CON: Not many

Types of Desktop VirtualizationVirtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

VDI: A Closer Look

MANAGEMENT TOOLS

CONNECTION BROKER

VIRTUAL SERVER HOSTS

VDI: Benefits

•Ease of patching desktops – virus, SP and critical updates•Ease of new Software\OS roll-out•Persistent or temporary desktops

•Consider using Application Virtualization (Thin-App, App-V)•Ability to reduce your PC hardware refresh rate•Consolidate applications and files to a central datacenter

VDI: Important Points

•Speed of storage is very important•Redundancy of Virtual hosts is important•Network connection speed back to the thin client is very important•Use a connection broker that has an advanced RDP•If you’re going to use temporary desktops, you may want to explore using a virtual apps component as well

•Memory allocation – Be careful if you intend to use memory over-

allocation with ESX – you don’t want your production servers paging

memory to file

• Install Integration Services(Microsoft) or VMWare Tools on your VM – this

optimizes video drivers and gives you fluid mouse control between host

and guest systems

•Use SCSI drivers for your virtual hard disks – on ESX they are optimized for

better I/O performance than IDE. On Hyper-V MS has upgraded the IDE

drivers so they provide similar performance to SCSI, so you can use either.

•Don’t forget to backup your VM - install backup agents for normal

backup or use a backup agent with your favorite software to backup the

entire VM while online.

•Use Fixed disks – provides better performance than dynamic disks for a

production VM. Use dynamic for testing only

•Install multiple NICs on your host machine – this can help prevent

networking bottlenecks on the host

•Beware VM server sprawl – ease of setup makes it tempting to throw up a

server in a few minutes for a new app. Make sure you need all new VMs in

your environment, or you will waste important VM Host resources with VM

sprawl

Server Virtualization Best Practices

•http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv-faq.aspx

•http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/features.html

•http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897615

•http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/story/0,10801,89232,00.html

•http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/brianmadden/archive/2007/03/14/when-

to-use-vdi-when-to-use-server-based-computing-and-how-the-citrix-ardence-

dynamic-desktop-fits-into-all-this.aspx

•http://blogs.technet.com/askcore/archive/2008/08/20/how-to-enable-

windows-server-backup-support-for-the-hyper-v-vss-writer.aspx

•“Microsoft – Desktop Virtualization Strategy” Abstract

Sources