The Server Virtualization - Term Paper Example

?Introduction The process of running simultaniously multiple and diverse operating systems on a solitary physical machine is known as Server Virtualization (also called Hardware Virtualization). The multiple operating systems run as virtual machines on a single physical machine and the software that enables virtualization is known as a hypervisor (also called virtual machine monitor). The hypervisor has ability of executing on bare hardware (i-e without installation of any operating system on computer system) known as Type one (1) or native virtual machine. Moreover, there are various hypervisors which can run on the top of the operating system installed on the hardware known as Type two (2) or hosted virtual machine. The server virtualization also allows the organizations to run different software applications on diverse operating system to fully utilize system resources of a single physical machine. The operating system can run in isolation and / or side by side on the same physical machine. Each virtual machine (operating system) has its own allocated virtual hardware (e.g. Random Access Memory, Central Processing Unit, NIC, etc.) to load one operating system along with software applications. It is vital to state that the operating system uses the allocated virtual hardware resources, consistently and usually regardless of the actual physical hardware components (Bento, 2012). Advantages of Hypervisor Several advantages can be availed by an organization utilizing the technology of server virtualization. The server virtualization facilitates the organizations to combine the workloads of the underutilized server machines onto a smaller number of fully utilized machines. Keeping in view the fact of utilizing comparatively less number of servers for the multiple operating systems and software applications to manage the workload, it can be stated that the server virtualization can be cost effective for the organizations. The cost savings of using server virtualization include but are not limited to the hardware cost, management and energy cost, moreover, the enterprise can create a more dynamic IT infrastructure. The hypervisor using server Virtualization technology leads to better hardware infrastructure planning. Moreover, it facilitate the system’s availability by utilizing smarter resource sharing, and easier to maintain the heterogeneous storage infrastructure. The utilization of hypervisor in the hardware infrastructure of an enterprise provides features of securely splitting each virtual machine / operating system and supports the legacy software systems as well as new software applications on the same server (Shavit, 2008). Disadvantages of Hypervisor for an Organization For every advantage there exist one or several disadvantages, therefore, the hypervisor has disadvantages as well. Comparatively, one of the main disadvantages of utilizing the native hypervisor is that the hypervisor reduces the performance of the operating system as well as the installed applications run slowly. While using the host hypervisor limits the enterprise to install the operating systems as per the limitations of the host operating system. The disadvantages of utilizing hypervisor in the enterprises include but are not limited to the requirements of servers with high specifications (i-e Randon Acess Memory, Central Processing Unit etc.), it requires additional hardware components and difficult to use console interface. The type two (2) or host hypervisors lead to the loss of centralized management, it has lower density and therefore, it becomes difficult to install many virtual machines of the first type. The organizations have to suffer with less security while utilizing the host hypervisors. It is pertinent to mention here that there are few operating systems cannot be installed simultaneously utilizing the hypervisors. The hypervisor technology only supports the Intel operating systems, whereas, the type 1 or native hypervisor does not support Solaris SPARC, AIX, HPUX, and the high-End UNIX systems. Introduction to Various Hypervisors Microsoft Hyper-V The Microsoft developed a hypervisor known as Hyper-V built-in the Windows Server 2008, whereas, provided a standalone software in 2012. The Hyper-V provides the functionalities VMware desktop software to fully utilize the capabilities of the hardware server. The Hyper-V enables the system / network administrator to run multiple heterogeneous operating systems (include but are not limited to the Windows and Linux) on a single hardware server in parallel. The Hyper-V’s capability of running multiple operating systems in parallel completely utilizes the x64 computing feature. There are several features of the Microsoft Hyper-V technology including the server consolidation, enables the system administrator to develop dynamic and agile data center, features of testing and development. Moreover, the Hyper-V technology supports broad operating system, symmetric multiprocessor (SMP), balancing the network load, quick and easy migration of guest. VMware ESXi VMware Incorporation is one of the leading software developers and international leaders of the Virtualization Technology. The technology has ability to install and run in parallel vaious operating systems include: the MS Windows, Mac OS X and Linux allow and support VMware software (known as VMware’s desktop software). The other type of VMware software known as native hypervisor include: the VMware’s enterprise software and VMware ESX Server install directly on server hardware without requirement of any underlying operating system. VMware software has the capability of providing a complete set of virtualized hardware to the operating system. The VMware software has various capabilities and it virtualizes the hardware including the video adapter, hard disk adapter and a network adapter. Moreover, the host VMware software has the ability of providing the pass-through drivers for parallel as well as serial devices and USB. These capabilities of the VMware software enable virtual machines providing a feature of computer system portability as each host appears similar to the guest. Moreover, the portability feature enables the system / network administrator for continuing or pausing one or more operations on one or multiple virtual machines, copying the guest to another physical computer, and resuming execution of the operations of the suspension / pausing point. Similarly, the VMware native hypervisors (VMware’s enterprise and ESX Server) provides a feature of VMotion that facilitates the immigration of the operational guest virtual machines involving alike however separate hardware hosts using the same storage space. Hitachi’s Virtage The Hitachi’s Virtage developed by the BladeSymphony that provides embedded Virtualization technology to provide reliable and scalable system resources. There are several features of the Hitachi’s Virtage including the enablement of the central processing unit to provide high performance, capability to run on the Intel® processors, able to monitor I/O and memory requests and provides compatibility with fewer modifications of ISVs / IHVs. The Hitachi’s Virtage enables to run several instances of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The standard Virtualization technology with the Hitachi’ Virtage, ability of the Kernel-based Virtual Machine and logical partitioning feature of the Hitachi’s Virtage enables to create a new cloud environment. Comparison and Contrast of the Hypervisors VMware ESXi differs from Hitachi’s Virtage and Hyper-V, as the VMware ESXi is based on unadulterated Virtualization software, therefore, it does not require the Pacifica extensions or Virtualization technology. It is pertinent to mention here that the VMware ESXi requires specific hardware to run as compared to the Hitachi’s Virtage and Hyper-V. The source code of the VMware ESXi relies very close to the vest, therefore, the SATA disk drives are not supported by the VMware ESX technology, however, the Hyper-V has ability to run on any system capable of running 64-bit Windows operating system. Furthermore, in order to store the images of the virtual machines, the system administrator has to dedicate the storage area network (SAN) based LUN and the VMware ESXi server also needs particular networked cluster file system known as VM File System (VMFS). Comparatively, the Microsoft Hyper-V technology has ability to store all the images of the virtual machines on the new technology file system (NTFS), furthermore, the Hyper-V can be utilized on all SATA hard drives. In order to run the Hyper-V software, the drivers have been developed built-in the Windows as well as developed by third party. Comparatively, Hitachi has particularly logical partitioning (LPAR) feature which supports multiple instances of server Virtualization software. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of Hypervisors It is always important to measure the unit cost of IT equipment and software requirement for server Virtualization. The organizations are constantly looking forward to take steps in reducing their hardware infrastructure costs or total cost of ownership per virtual machine (TCO / VM). There are totally two (2) elements create the cost of the server Virtualization solution that including the licensing and physical infrastructure. To setup the server Virtualization solution the cost of licenses should be considered. The licenses are required to support the hypervisors, operating systems and management components. Moreover, the cost of physical infrastructure required to implement the server Virtualization solution and the cost of virtual infrastructure includes in the form of floor space, power and cooling machines. In addition the total cost of implementing Virtualization technology also includes the cost of developing a local area network (LAN), storage area network, and management of the infrastructure cost. An enterprise can save cost by implementing the hypervisors technology for server Virtualization, as the enterprise requires procuring less hardware infrastructure, fewer software purchases, with a reduction of software and hardware maintenance cost, less monitoring and power reduction and the enterprise can save data migration and data backup costs. The enterprise can save the cost of several more factors by utilizing the server Virtualization technology, therefore, it can be stated that the hypervisor technology can save the total cost of ownership (TCO) for the enterprise. A study has been conducted to assess the performance and implementation cost of the server Virtualization by separately utilizing the Hyper-V and VMware technologies. Seven (7) virtual machines implemented by using VMware and the same number of virtual machines implemented by utilizing the Hyper-V technology on the similar hardware infrastructure. It has been revealed by the study that the performance of the VMware technology is more than 20 % high as compared to the Hyper-V technology. Moreover, the cost of implementing the VMware technology is 17 % less than the Hyper-V technology. Therefore, it can be stated that the organizations should implement VMware ESXi server Virtualization technology in comparison of the Hyper-V technology. Overall, the implementation of the server Virtualization solution (by using technologies Hitachi’s Virtage, VMware or Hyper-V) is always cost effective as compared to utilizing the multiple servers without balancing their work load (VMware Inc., 2012). Requisite Trainings for System Administrators There are several duties and responsibilities of the system administrator in addition to his / her regular activities to implement the hypervisor technology. It is pertinent to mention here that if the system administrator would not have the particular skills for implementing hypervisor technology, the system administrator needs to be re-trained. However, it should be kept in mind that there are several video tutorials available over the internet for implementing the server Virtualization technology which the system administrators can use for their self training to implement hypervisors. In addition to the basic skills of the system administrator should have the following skills and knowledge to implement the hypervisors technology: i. The system administrator should have the ability to install, configure and manage VMware ESXi as well as the WMware ESXi hosts and App-v. ii. Similarly, the system administrator should have abilities to install, configure and manage the Hyper-V and Hitachi’s Virtage hypervisors as per the requirements of an enterprise. iii. Ability to configure virtual machines in distributed resource scheduling and fault tolerance. iv. Development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the VMware ESXi environment, moreover, the system administrator has to maintain the SOPs. v. The ability to recommend implementing the hypervisors between Hyper-V, VMware, Hitachi’s Virtage and Xen, as the server Virtualization solution keeping in view the environment of the enterprise. vi. Ability to review and assess existing hardware and network infrastructure and suggest solution along with implementation strategies. vii. Ensuring high data quality, security and availability while implementing the server Virtualization technology. It is worthwhile to state that if the system administrator has not one or more above given abilities than the system administrator needs to be trained and enhances the lacking skills. Moreover, it is desirable that in addition to the basic qualifications of the system administrator needs to be certified in Virtualization technologies include: the VMware certification (VCP) and / or the Microsoft certification of Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional (MCITP). Therefore, it can be stated that the system administrator needs to be trained in the specific technology to perform efficiently in an enterprise. References Bento, A. (2012). Hypervisors Overview. Retrieved from: http://home.ubalt.edu/abento/315/hypervisor/index.html Shavit, Y. (2008). Advantages and Disadvantages of Hyper-V. Retrieved from: http://searchitchannel.techtarget.com/feature/Advantages-and-disadvantages-of-Hyper-V VMware Inc. (2012). Total Cost Comparison: VMware VSphere vs Microsoft Hyper-V. A Principled Technologies Test Report, VMware Inc. Read More