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Server Virtualization - Ready for Prime Time.
Virtualization is a hot topic these days, with all the talk about storage
virtualization, grid computing, consolidation, etc. The interest in
virtualization is high because of its promise - doing more with less,
consolidation, increased utilization, decreased maintenance and lower
administrative costs.
But is it everything you've heard? For that matter, what exactly is it? And how
can you make it work for you? Good questions that deserve good answers.
What is Server Virtualization?
What can Server Virtualization do for you?
Where do you start?
What is Server Virtualization?
Imagine you've been told you need to add 10 new servers. Now, think of what
that means in terms of cost and additional administration. Each server needs
rack space, power, cooling, a network connection, etc. Plus, each machine
typically has a maintenance charge, requires an operating system and must be
maintained through patches, upgrades, and monitoring.
Now, imagine that instead of taking on all that overhead, you could simply
split ten of your current servers in half and get twice as much use from them.
At its most basic level, virtualization is the concept of abstracting computing
resources from their physical implementation through time-slicing,
partitioning, emulation, simulation and other techniques. In short,
virtualization is a way to get more out of what you already have. Much more.
Server virtualization software enables multiple virtual operating systems to
run within a single industry-standard server. The partitions, or virtual
machines, can run operating systems independently. The "host" operating system
creates an illusion of partitioned hardware by executing multiple "guest"
operating systems. Each of these "guest" systems can run different applications
without conflicts within the same physical server.
Details will vary depending on the type of applications being consolidated,
but, as a rule of thumb, you can plan to allocate up to four virtual servers
per processor, and up to eight processors per host server.
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What can Server Virtualization do for you?
To understand the benefits of server virtualization, think back to Economics
101 - supply and demand. Virtualization is a way to make sure your IT supply is
flexible enough to meet the ever-changing demands of the market and your
customers. And in the process, it provides the ability to lower your total cost
of ownership (TCO).
The truth is, many companies utilize a small percentage of their servers
because data center managers typically dedicate individual physical resources
to individual applications or project teams in order to ensure there is
sufficient capacity to meet company needs when demand spikes. Which means that
processors that are often less than 5 percent busy are unavailable to other
applications.
The key then is that wonderful pre-school concept - sharing. Get the
applications and project teams to share servers and you'll boost your
utilization rates and lower your costs.
Virtualization is a critical technology that can achieve higher levels of
resource sharing, attain the flexibility to move loads across hardware
platforms according to demand; and allow for real-time infrastructure
reconfiguration in response to business requirements. You'll have an
infrastructure that is faster and more responsive, but with fewer physical
resources which makes it less complex and less costly.
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Where do you start?
Now that you have an understanding of what server virtualization is all about,
the next step is… taking the next step. Avanade believes the following
scenarios are all appropriate candidates for server virtualization technology:
Development and Testing - Development teams that need to rapidly build,
use, and then decommission multiple machines for development and test
environments. The undo disks feature in most server virtualization software is
an ideal complement to environment reset scenarios frequently required during
testing.
Windows NT4 Domain Consolidation - As users and resources are migrated
to Active Directory, the load on Windows NT4 resource domain PDCs/BDCs may
decrease such that they can be converted to virtual machines. Then, as the
resource domains are collapsed, the virtual host machines used to run the
PDC/BDC virtual machines can be re-purposed to either run additional virtual
machines or become new Active Directory domain controllers.
Test Labs - Provision test labs rapidly and cheaply. Environments are
needed to test migration scenarios, modifications to production messaging,
and/or directory environments such as forest-in-a-box. Virtualization allows
you to achieve these goals more efficiently.
Training - Virtual machines are ideal platforms for many training
scenarios. Training courses that require multiple, dedicated machines for each
student can be provisioned from a pool of virtual host machines. Additionally,
the remote console capabilities inherent to the server versions of server
virtualization software eliminate the need for physical access to machines.
Microsoft's Virtual Server, as well as the VMware products, supports clustering
of virtual machines, which opens new training opportunities for technologies
that have traditionally had a high physical environment cost.
Old Operating Systems - Many enterprises today have hundreds of Windows
NT4 or OS/2 application servers that are not under the control of the company's
IT group. These older systems may be poorly documented, and many of the servers
are not maintained, patched, or monitored. Any effort to migrate these servers
into the data center may cause the organization to run into issues. The path of
least resistance is to leave them alone, and that is often exactly what
happens. As the hardware reaches the end of its life or goes out of warranty,
in many cases it seems easier to run these applications in virtual machines
running Windows NT4 or OS/2 than to attempt a migration to Windows Server 2003.
All of the above scenarios meet Microsoft's criteria for virtualization. They
are a good entry point for anyone looking to start using virtualization, and
they can bring a significant return on investment if implemented.
There are some challenges and every implementation has its limits. But,
Avanade's experience with customers has proven that server virtualization is
indeed "ready for prime time." We believe that through the proper application
of people, process, and technology, server virtualization technologies can be
successfully deployed today to achieve increased utilization and greater
flexibility.
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