virtu v l DATA CENTER Volume 13

04 How to Staff Today’s Data Centers and tight budgets have changed the way modern data centers are staffed. Find out how to blend skills and technology for the best mix. BY STEPHEN J. BIGELOW

12 Virtualization Without the Not all virtualization solutions follow a traditional hypervisor-based architecture. Learn about the benefits of OS virtualization. BY GREG SHIELDS

16 Evaluating High-End Platforms To get the most from your hypervisor, make sure you compare the features and metrics to find the right fit for your organization. BY DANIELLE RUEST AND NELSON RUEST Wanted: Well Rounded IT Pros

EDITOR’S LETTER N TODAY’S troubled economy, sors are not created equal. Understand - 7 organizations expect data center ing the features of competing hypervi - personnel to do more with less. sors as well as the guest operating sys - HOW TO STAFF That reality has IT pros taking tems they support is essential in the TODAY’S DATA advantage of virtualization tech - selection . The next step is to CENTERS 7 nology to support more business func - compare the metrics of each hypervisor. Itions with fewer staff. IT experts Danielle Ruest and Nelson In addition, those working in data Ruest help you sort out the differences VIRTUALIZATION WITHOUT THE center jobs find that their roles keep among the Big Three in HYPERVISOR expanding to include new skill sets. “Evaluating High-End Hardware Virtual - 7 With all these changes taking place, the ization Platforms .” Use their charts and big question is how to find the right mix tables to get a side-by-side comparison EVALUATING of people and technologies for modern of the market leaders. HIGH-END data centers? Not a hypervisor fan? That’s OK, HARDWARE VIRTUALIZATION Outsourcing and hosted services are because not all virtualization solutions PLATFORMS some of the ways to reduce dependence follow the traditional hypervisor-based 7 on full-time employees while still getting architecture. the job done. Other strategies include For example, OS virtualization retooling existing staff so that they learn leverages a host and the new technologies needed to pick up residing virtual machines that are com - the slack. In this month’s issue, Stephen pletely segregated from one another. J. Bigelow examines the evolution of IT Learn more about OS virtualization in hiring in “ How to Staff Today’s Data “Virtualization Without the Hypervisor ” Centers .” by Microsoft MVP Greg Shields. Virtualizing workloads has certainly Got some new ideas you’d like to helped organizations make more effec - share? We’d love to hear them. Send tive use of their hardware. But to get the them in an email to ccasatelli@techtar - most from your hypervisor, you should get.com . I make sure that you’ve selected the right one for your needs. Although their features are pretty sim - CHRISTINE CASATELLI ilar, all hardware virtualization hypervi - Editor, Virtual Data Center

2 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 WASTED RESOURCES.

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Download a 30-Day Free Trial at www.hyper9.com How to Staff Today’s Data Centers VIRTUALIZATION AND TIGHT BUDGETS HAVE CHANGED THE WAY MODERN DATA CENTERS ARE STAFFED. FIND OUT HOW TO BLEND SKILLS AND TECHNOLOGY FOR THE BEST MIX. BY STEPHEN J. BIGELOW

EDITOR’S LETTER 7

HOW TO STAFF TODAY’S DATA CENTERS 7 T ONE TIME, it took a ity, the scope of many IT roles is expand - small army of highly ing, often leveraging advances in virtual -

VIRTUALIZATION trained and experi - ization technology to support many WITHOUT THE enced IT profes - more business systems without more HYPERVISOR 7 sionals to run a bodies to operate them. It’s common to corporate data center. But the persistent see an IT staff tasked with backup now advances of technology and shifting taking care of SharePoint portals, while EVALUATING A business perceptions have changed the systems administrators may now man - HIGH-END HARDWARE nature of IT staffing. age storage as well. VIRTUALIZATION No longer viewed as a bastion of eso - The changes are taking place all the PLATFORMS 7 teric technology, IT shops have assumed way up the corporate ladder. “Senior a more traditional role as a cost center— management roles, such as the CIO and an everyday element of business opera - CTO, are evolving at an accelerated rate tions that contends for diminishing with very specific alignment to the busi - budget dollars just as other parts of the ness line managers,” said Allen Zuk, organization do. president and CEO of Sierra Manage - Business changes have also converged ment Consulting LLC, a technology con - with technological advances in manage - sulting firm based in Parsippany, N.J. ment tools, improvements in resiliency This evolution of roles sometimes and the emergence of virtualization. And results in fewer IT positions. The bright all of these factors have had a profound side for experienced IT personnel is that effect on the IT staffing needs and skill they may get to spend extra time on set requirements for modern data centers. strategic projects. “The reality is that once [we] get past the initial setup and hardening, most of TRENDS IN TODAY’S IT WORKFORCE the day-to-day operations are managed Organizations expect today’s IT staffs to by our junior technicians,” said Chris do more with less. Because of that real - Steffen, principal technical architect at

4 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 Kroll Factual Data, a business informa - employees. Only 14% of respondents tion provider in Loveland, Colo. indicated a decline in IT staff. For senior IT personnel, this means a But the median number of open IT shift toward a supervisory or project positions is down substantially, from five management position. It’s a trend that Steffen sees increasing among his peers. “IT managers can’t really afford to get rid of their ‘big picture’ people,” he said. The bright side for “They need to have those people around, experienced IT person - EDITOR’S if nothing else than for compliance rea - nel is that they may get LETTER sons.” 7 Steffen’s anecdotal observations are to spend extra time on reinforced by data from a 2009 survey strategic projects. HOW TO STAFF from the Computing Technology Indus - TODAY’S DATA CENTERS try Association Inc., the nonprofit IT 7 trade association known as CompTIA. Its survey, called “Evaluating the State of

VIRTUALIZATION IT Skills,” reports that the number of IT WITHOUT THE employees within 57% of respondents’ open positions in 2008 to only one open HYPERVISOR organizations is staying the same (see position in 2009 . The reduction in open 7 Figure 1 ), while 24% of respondents indi - positions is most likely because of a cated an increase in the number of IT combination of new openings being EVALUATING HIGH-END HARDWARE VIRTUALIZATION PLATFORMS 7 Figure 1 Although IT staff sizes are not growing as fast as in previous years, most teams are holding the line in size.

60% 50% 57% 40%

30%

20% 24% 10% 14% 0 5% Staying the Increasing Decreasing Don’t know same SOURCE: COMPTIA

5 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 filled—or open requisitions cancelled— SAN architect, some network architects and the tendency for businesses to hold or administrators, support technicians, the line on staffing levels until the econ - application developers and communica - omy shows clear signs of recovery. tion engineers. Although the average number of open As an example, Steffen reports that positions may be dwindling, the open - Kroll Factual Data employs approxi - ings show a significant range of IT mately 95 IT professionals from the CIO responsibilities (see Figure 2 ), from tech - and down—including 12 to 15 in the net - nical support to application developers. work operations group, five or six junior

EDITOR’S Roughly one-quarter of respondents had technicians, two or three senior IT staff LETTER no open positions. and about 20 people in technical sup - 7 There is certainly no single formula or port. The remaining staff generally com - rule of thumb for staffing modern data prises application development profes - HOW TO STAFF centers. Staff composition will vary dra - sionals and various managers. TODAY’S DATA CENTERS matically based on the size of the organi - 7 zation, its geographic location, its indus - try or vertical market and the actual THE MAKING OF AN IT PROFESSIONAL

VIRTUALIZATION technologies implemented in-house. Those who work in the IT profession WITHOUT THE Still, core staffing typically requires typically have some amount of college- HYPERVISOR some number of data center operators, a level coursework, such as a bachelor of 7

EVALUATING HIGH-END HARDWARE Figure 2 VIRTUALIZATION PLATFORMS 7 Unfilled IT openings are fewer in number, but a wide range of openings are still available for IT professionals.

25%

20% 24%

15% 19% 16% 10% 14% 14% 13%

5%

0 Technical Field Network Network Programmer/ No Support Technician Engineer Technician Coder/ positions Specialist Developer open

SOURCE: COMPTIA

6 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 science degree in computer science, but certifications are not all-encompassing, a two-year associate of science degree or they demonstrate a basic knowledge that strong technical training may also be gives a prospective junior staffer an acceptable. Steffen suggests starting excellent starting point. with a selection of baseline certifications At the high end, expect senior IT from CompTIA such as A+, Network+, administrators and engineers to possess Security+ and Server+. Although such advanced Microsoft certifications such

EDITOR’S LETTER 7 THE TRUE VALUE OF CERTIFICATION

HOW TO STAFF CERTIFICATIONS ARE LARGELY regarded as prerequisites to new IT employment, and TODAY’S DATA CENTERS ongoing certification is increasingly employers’ expectation. In other words, you 7 need some certifications to get hired, and you need to get more certifications—and maintain the ones you get—to keep your job.

VIRTUALIZATION At Kroll Factual Data, a provider of business information in Loveland, Colo., IT WITHOUT THE professionals are expected to have some certifications that complement their job HYPERVISOR 7 responsibilities. “If, for whatever reason, you can’t get those certifications, then I think it’s safe to say that your employment may be in jeopardy,” said Chris Steffen, principal technical architect at Kroll Factual Data. EVALUATING But certifications do not necessarily translate into higher salaries. TechTarget’s HIGH-END HARDWARE 2008 Data Center Decisions survey shows the tenuous relationship between certi - VIRTUALIZATION fication and compensation. When asked which factor most contributes to a pay PLATFORMS 7 increase, more than 47% of respondents indicated that their raise was a basic annual adjustment. More than 11% reported their raise was the result of a cost- saving project. Fewer than 5% of respondents indicated that certification was the basis for the increase. Furthermore, when asked which certifications were obtained, almost 47% of respondents reported that they held no certifications at all, followed distantly by MCSE, VCP and CCISP, among others. An even more telling result was that 77% of respondents reported that certification had not been a factor in their hiring or pro - motion, while less than 12% reported that they were hired because of certification. Slightly more than 8% indicated a promotion because of certification. Almost 82% of respondents reported that certification had not been a factor in salary increases or bonuses, while slightly less than 10% said that it had. High-end or rare certifications can offer some of the best compensation lever - age during the initial hiring negotiation process. “If you are starting a new position and you have a stringent certification, I don’t think it’s out of line to ask for higher compensation at the get-go because of the certification instead of asking for high - er compensation later,” Steffen said. I

7 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 as MCSE and MCSA or Cisco certifica - importance of certification for IT tions such as CCNA or CCIE. Steffen employees. In 2008 , respondents to the said he considers CCISP and MCIE to CompTIA survey emphasized the need represent the pinnacle of IT certifica - tions because of the complexity and scope of each certification’s require - CompTIA research ments. There is, however, a proliferation of shows a growing other IT certifications including those importance of EDITOR’S from SANS Institute, a cooperative LETTER research and education organization, certification 7 along with other more specialized certi - for IT employees. fications from vendors such as VMware HOW TO STAFF and Citrix, as well as professional certifi - TODAY’S DATA CENTERS cations such as Project Management 7 Professional , Certified Data Center Pro - fessional and IT Infrastructure Library — for internal training and incentives or

VIRTUALIZATION depending on the specific needs of the rewards over certification. In 2009 , cer - WITHOUT THE organization. tification took the top spot over feed - HYPERVISOR CompTIA research shows a growing back and assessments and internal train - 7

EVALUATING HIGH-END HARDWARE JUSTIFYING MORE IT STAFF VIRTUALIZATION PLATFORMS 7 IT HIRING MAY be a bit slow these days, but it can happen. The most compelling jus - tification for more IT staff is a new project. For example, suppose a small data cen - ter grows and adopts server virtualization. It may be appropriate to implement a SAN to support virtual server images, and that may justify adding a SAN architect, storage administrators or additional technicians. Similarly, it may be worth adding staff to undertake a cost-saving IT project or a project tied directly to revenue, particularly when the savings more than offset the cost of the additional staff. Keeping careful budget figures can help make the case. Ultimately, the choice to add staff will depend on the nature of the added workload and the priorities of the company. Mergers and acquisitions are generally some of the biggest new projects that an IT staff can face, and this is perhaps the most significant justification for adding staff. Merging data centers requires an extraordinary amount of study, planning, implementation and testing. And even when the process is executed flawlessly, the result is usually a much larger and far more complicated data center that will require more staff to manage and support it. I

8 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 ing as the most used method to enhance avenue and supports such core business IT skills. tasks as website hosting, email hosting Other skills are also essential for IT or hosted security. MSPs allow clients to professionals looking to get ahead. Zuk pay a fixed monthly fee for needed serv - underscores the value of negotiation and ices without the burden of managing management abilities for tech employ - infrastructure and IT staff. In many ees. “Broad network and data center cases, an MSP uses highly scalable management experience is going to be significantly important, as well as the

EDITOR’S understanding and negotiation of serv - LETTER ice-level agreements and the ability to Budget constraints 7 manage and work with managed service and new technologies providers,” he said. HOW TO STAFF “Soft skills” such as customer service, are prompting data TODAY’S DATA CENTERS sales, project management and commu - centers to look at 7 nication earned a high rating on the a number of new CompTIA survey, with an importance alternatives to reduce VIRTUALIZATION level of 6.0 out of 7.0. These skills were WITHOUT THE considered to be almost as important as their dependence on HYPERVISOR hardware skills and knowledge, which 7 garnered only a slightly higher rating of full-time employees. 6.1 out of 7.0. EVALUATING According to Steffen, entry-level staff HIGH-END HARDWARE should have baseline certifications VIRTUALIZATION rather than a set number of years of PLATFORMS 7 experience to enhance their value in the processes and infrastructures that allow job market. Senior-level IT professionals them to easily absorb additional clients should expect to show at least five years without adding staff themselves. of relevant experience. VARs, consultants and temporary staffing agencies offer other alternatives where clients can bring in outside talent STAFFING OPTIONS FOR DATA CENTERS to perform particular services or proj - Budget constraints and new technolo - ects, usually for a limited duration and gies are prompting data centers to look limited cost. For example, an experi - at a number of new alternatives to enced VAR might be an ideal choice to reduce their dependence on full-time install and integrate a new server or stor - employees. Such options are particularly age system, freeing the in-house IT staff attractive for small to mid-sized organi - to continue their daily routines with zations where business needs can justify minimal disruption. IT projects that current revenue levels Similarly, a knowledgeable consultant simply might not allow. may be appropriate for compliance Outsourcing routine tasks to managed auditing when that expertise is lacking service providers is one well established internally.

9 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 “VARs and consultants are an effective ingly leverage staffing alternatives to choice for staffing, especially if there is a tackle important IT projects. Staffing need for staff augmentation,” Zuk said. decisions also need a clearer considera - But this assumes the required talent is tion of critical technologies and the available on a timetable that meets the faster introduction of new technologies client’s needs. in the data center. One emerging trend in temporary contract staffing is a “contract-to-hire” model that gives client companies the Ongoing concern EDITOR’S opportunity to hire the most desirable LETTER temps in a proposition sometimes called with the global 7 “try before you buy.” economy and a tighter A third option is the adoption and HOW TO STAFF integration of automation and self-ser - business focus on IT TODAY’S DATA vice resources geared toward end users. CENTERS will invariably keep 7 One example of this is an automated password reset, freeing IT staff to focus staff counts tight.

VIRTUALIZATION on bigger projects. Zuk said that this WITHOUT THE option is quickly gaining traction and HYPERVISOR acceptance because end users are be- 7 coming more tech savvy. But an im- proper deployment or excessive reliance “People who are truly succeeding in EVALUATING on automation tools can pose a manage - the industry are those who stay on top of HIGH-END HARDWARE ment nightmare for existing IT staff. the technology—who don’t look at it as VIRTUALIZATION work but as getting experience with the PLATFORMS 7 newest, latest and greatest,” Steffen said. THE FUTURE OF IT STAFFING CompTIA research indicates that Experts say they see little perceptible security, general networking and soft change in IT staffing in the near future. skills will be critical for IT professionals “Virtualization is still new in the five years from now. broader sense, and management tools The need for IT services is certainly are still behind the eight ball in terms not expected to wane, but some compa - of lights-out support,” Zuk said. nies may eventually opt to trim IT staff Well trained and motivated people still positions as management improves or play a crucial role in provisioning, man - as core IT functions are outsourced to agement and maintenance activities. MSPs. Conversely, other companies may But more staffing changes are on the choose to maintain or even increase horizon. Ongoing concern with the staffing levels to implement and manage global economy and a tighter business new cost-saving or revenue-producing focus on IT will invariably keep staff projects that are so vital to the bottom counts tight. Companies will increas - line. I

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EDITOR’S LETTER 7

HOW TO STAFF TODAY’S DATA CENTERS 7 MAGINE A VIRTUALIZATION infra - snapshot of the software that makes structure completely devoid of a up the host. VIRTUALIZATION hypervisor. It’s not so far-fetched, WITHOUT THE HYPERVISOR because virtualization doesn’t 7 require a hypervisor. CREATING A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT Having no hypervisor eliminates the One example of software that leverages need for driver emulation. Getting rid of this architecture is Parallels Virtuozzo EVALUATING I HIGH-END driver emulation means faster perform - Containers. This software enables the HARDWARE VIRTUALIZATION ance, which means more virtual ma- creation of a virtual environment, or VE, PLATFORMS chines (VMs) that can be run simultane - which is operationally similar to what 7 ously. And more simultaneous VMs net we commonly think of as a VM. you higher density, all of which means Each VE running atop a virtual host that you get more for your virtualization is made up of the files, registry keys and dollar. other configurations of its host plus the This may sound like fantasy, but all “deltas” that make that VE unique. This virtualization solutions don’t always fol - layering effect of VEs atop virtual hosts low the traditional hypervisor-based means that the size of individual VEs are architecture. One class of virtualization dramatically smaller when compared architectures—OS virtualization—oper - with virtual servers created through ates in exactly that way. other virtualization software. OS virtualization leverages a host OS A freshly built Windows Server and residing VMs that are completely instance can consume upwards of 4 segregated from one another. The differ - GB of space after installation to store ence with OS virtualization is that the its needed files and other configuration host’s OS becomes the base from which elements. This is the case whether that all its hosted VMs start their existence. server is encapsulated into a VM or Each hosted VM is almost like a virtual installed directly to physical hardware.

12 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 Every additional Windows server con - differences between individual VEs sumes yet another 4 GB. But think about residing atop a virtual host can be meas - the individual differences between two ured in megabytes rather than gigabytes. freshly installed Windows servers. Other Once created, the VE is run by the host than their names, some SID information as a fully independent operating system and a few other characteristics, the vast instance. majority of each server’s 4 GB is repli - cated from server instance to server instance. THE BENEFITS OF OS VIRTUALIZATION EDITOR’S Using OS virtualization, the process to This type of delta-based architecture has LETTER create a new server starts by creating a its own benefits. First, the sheer amount 7 type of change database, called a con - of storage space required to host a given tainer, on the host. Within this con - number of VEs can be significantly HOW TO STAFF tainer are stored the differences between smaller than what is required for hyper - TODAY’S DATA CENTERS the host OS and whatever individual visor-based virtual servers. 7 configurations are late made to the VE. In the hypervisor-based virtualization Because only changes are logged, the environment, each new virtual server

VIRTUALIZATION WITHOUT THE HYPERVISOR 7 USING OS VIRTUALIZATION

EVALUATING HIGH-END HARDWARE TEST AND DEVELOPMENT environments are great candidates for any kind of virtual - VIRTUALIZATION ization. They have a very rapid rate of turnover and change because of the need for PLATFORMS 7 multiple tests and testing threads to be run simultaneously. With daily builds requiring rapid, and sometimes daily, rebuilds to the environment, the automation capabilities that come from virtualization are critical in meeting tight development deadlines. As with hosted desktops, when organizations require test and development environments, the computers that make up each environment tend to be very simi - lar in configuration to each other. Large in number but small in individual differ - ences, one machine instance is often replicated many times to support multiple tests and multiple phases of development. Adding delta-based storage of virtual environments (VEs) means a smaller disk footprint is required to store each test’s required machine instances. But this smaller size also improves the speed in which test machines can be turned around for use by a follow-on test. The sheer time element involved with copying large vir - tual machines from one part of the environment to another can affect the amount of time available to complete an environment rebuild. Individual VEs and their templates can be significantly faster to deploy, and updating the test environment to a new build creates the same benefits as with other software. I

13 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 requires the same 4 GB of space. Thus, instructions required to convert requests to bring 10 virtual servers online, it from the virtual driver to the real driver requires 40 GB of space plus the storage on the physical machine involves a pro - space required for the host itself. cessing overhead. With OS virtualization, each freshly Using OS virtualization, the drivers built VE can take only about 200 MB. that make up each VE are the exact same Thus, to bring 10 VEs online requires drivers used by the host. Because there only about 2 GB of storage space. This is no requirement for driver translation, twenty-fold savings in disk space is par - the overall performance for all hosted

EDITOR’S ticularly effective when considered with VEs is comparatively improved. LETTER the high-end, high-availability and high- Last but not least are the benefits to 7 cost storage usually recommended for management. Because residing VEs are virtualization environments. components of the host, changes to the HOW TO STAFF Another benefit to OS virtualization is host can be automatically and immedi - TODAY’S DATA CENTERS that it doesn’t use driver emulation as ately manifested into each residing VE. 7 with some hypervisor-based virtualiza - One example of this has to do with the tion products. Individual VMs must have monthly Windows patching process.

VIRTUALIZATION a set of tools installed into the VM with With VMs, the patching process treats WITHOUT THE driver emulation. These tools update the each VM like a physical machine, updat - HYPERVISOR drivers for common hardware compo - ing each independently of each other. 7 nents to work within the virtualization Using VEs, once the host has been environment. patched, those updates are immediately EVALUATING With hypervisor-based virtualization, seen within each VE. Therefore, the HIGH-END HARDWARE all drivers are exactly the same across all number of administration touchpoints VIRTUALIZATION VMs. But the internal translation of is significantly reduced. I PLATFORMS 7

MORE RESOURCES, LESS OVERUSE

WITH TRADITIONAL HYPERVISOR -based virtualization products, the resource over - head required to support driver emulation can have a negative impact on the abili - ty for high-resource-use workloads to function well within a virtualization environ - ment. One example is memory use. Although memory between collocated virtual machines (VMs) can be shared to some extent with hypervisor-based virtualiza - tion, each VM that’s running requires a greater amount of available RAM to sup - port its functionality than with collocated virtual environments (VEs) atop an OS virtualization architecture. The result is that workloads, which tend to consume high amounts of physical resources, can operate with higher performance when run as VEs rather than as VMs. I

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EDITOR’S LETTER 7

HOW TO STAFF TODAY’S DATA CENTERS 7 IRTUALIZING WORKLOADS in both 32 -bit and 64 -bit versions. allows organizations to Hypervisor servers run workloads VIRTUALIZATION WITHOUT THE make more effective use inside VMs, which are used to run the HYPERVISOR of hardware. So when traditional networked services that 7 organizations began to dis - organizations rely on to run their busi - cover that they were running workloads nesses. IT professionals continue to EVALUATING Von physical servers with less than 15% manage these workloads in the same HIGH-END utilization, they began turning to server way they always have—a VM can behave HARDWARE VIRTUALIZATION virtualization to increase the utilization and interact with the outside world in PLATFORMS levels of their physical servers to 80% or exactly the same way as a physical 7 more. machine. A physical server running multiple vir - But physical server management has tual workloads—usually 10 , 20 , 30 or changed. This new operational model more virtual workloads per physical relegates server hardware to the same server—provides a more efficient utiliza - level as other hardware devices such as tion model and supports the concept of a routers, switches and storage containers. green data center. The magic that makes Servers are resources that you can pool server virtualization possible is a small together into highly available clusters piece of code called a hypervisor —a tool that ensure that the VMs running user- that exposes hardware resources to sup - facing workloads are always available. port the operation of multiple virtual To obtain the most from your hypervi - machines (VMs), which are operating sor, you must make sure you’ve selected system instances that are designed to the right one for your needs. Several share resources such as CPU cores, types of hypervisors are on the market, RAM, network interface cards (NICs) and there are several manufacturers that and storage. These are x 86 -based operat - offer hypervisors. To make the best deci - ing systems and can run Windows or sion, you should understand your

16 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 options and then determine which product best suits your organization. Figure 1 Type 1 and Type 2 SOFTWARE VS. HARDWARE hypervisors VIRTUALIZATION The place to start is to understand the two types of hypervisors on the market, which are:

EDITOR’S LETTER • Type 1 , which is considered a bare- 7 metal hypervisor and runs directly on top of hardware. Type 1 hypervisors are HOW TO STAFF often referred to as hardware virtualiza - TODAY’S DATA CENTERS tion engines. 7 • Type 2 , which operates as an applica -

VIRTUALIZATION tion on top of an existing operating sys - WITHOUT THE tem. HYPERVISOR 7 Type 1 hypervisors provide better per - formance and greater flexibility because EVALUATING they operate as thin layers designed to HIGH-END HARDWARE expose hardware resources to VMs, VIRTUALIZATION reducing the overhead required to run PLATFORMS 7 the hypervisor itself (see Figure 1 ). vice versa. A conversion may be Because Type 1 hypervisors run required, but the process works. directly on the hardware, they are a Because they run directly on the hard - function in and of themselves. Servers ware, Type 1 hypervisors support hard - that run them are often single-purpose ware virtualization. Because they run as servers that offer no other function. an application on top of an operating They become part of the resource pool system, Type 2 hypervisors perform soft - and are designed specifically to support ware virtualization. the operation of multiple applications within various VMs. Typically, Type 1 hypervisors are more UNDERSTANDING HYPERVISOR USAGE efficient than Type 2 hypervisors, yet in By their very nature, Type 1 hypervisors many ways they both provide the same are production hypervisors or hypervi - type of functionality because they both sors that run VMs offering services to run the same kind of VMs. In fact, you users. Type 2 are hypervisors that offer can usually move a VM from a host a series of different services, but they’re server running a Type 1 hypervisor to rarely used in production. A general-pur - one running a Type 2 hypervisor and pose operating system that is required to

17 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 run Type 2 hypervisors often performs designed to keep track of all of the other services, so it cannot devote 100% events that occur within a VM and, of the hardware resources to VMs. when required, provide—or deny— Therefore, you need a Type 1 hypervisor access to appropriate resources to meet to run your production VMs. VM operating requirements. Ideally, the Type 1 are VM monitors that are VM monitor will perform its operations

EDITOR’S SELECTING THE RIGHT HARDWARE LETTER 7 ALL OF THE modern hardware virtualization hypervisors are 64-bit applications— that is, x64, not Itanium 64, applications. That means they need to run on x64 HOW TO STAFF CPUs, which can address much more memory than their x86 or 32-bit predeces - TODAY’S DATA CENTERS sors. Because memory is one of the potential bottlenecks of a host server running 7 multiple virtual workloads, you must consider 64-bit hardware. Few vendors, if any, now sell x86 processors. Both AMD and Intel offer x64 VIRTUALIZATION processors. Many hypervisors are also 64-bit-only hypervisors. This is one more WITHOUT THE reason why 64-bit hardware is a must. If you’re going to take the time to move to a HYPERVISOR 7 virtual infrastructure, make sure that the systems you use to host virtual work - loads are the best and are ready to perform this task for the long term. New x64 processors support hardware-assisted virtualization (HAV). They also EVALUATING HIGH-END help with data execution prevention (DEP), which provides hardware support for HARDWARE detecting and preventing the execution of code in program data areas. This stops VIRTUALIZATION the most common buffer overflow errors that malicious attackers try to run when PLATFORMS 7 they want to take over a system. HAV is an absolute must for both XenServer and Hyper-V. Although vSphere 4.0 can work with HAV, it is not an absolute require - ment. In the case of XenServer and Hyper-V, both HAV and DEP must be enabled in the system’s BIOS before they can be accessed by the hypervisor. If these features are not enabled, then the hypervisor won’t run. It is always good practice to verify that the setting is enabled in the BIOS before performing any hypervisor installation. Several free utilities validate whether your server’s processor will be able to run a given hypervisor. For example, AMD offers a simple utility that lets you verify if your CPU supports these features and if they are enabled in the system BIOS. Intel has a similar utility called the Intel Processor Identification Utility. In addition, a utility called SecurAble from Gibson Research Corp. can verify either Intel or AMD servers. SecurAble checks for three key factors: whether the processor is 64-bit, whether DEP is on and whether HAV is available. It is quite handy to try this tool. Both the AMD and the SecurAble utilities are executables and do not require installation. The Intel utility is in Windows Installer format and must be installed on a server to run. I

18 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 through the use of policies that contain sors support the operation of systems all of the settings assigned to a particular through VMs, organizations gain flexi - VM. Consider a hardware virtualization bility because VMs are easier to clone hypervisor when you need to perform and reproduce than physical machines. any of the following: • Dynamic resource management: Hypervisors support manual or auto - • System consolidation: Hypervisors mated resource allocation to VM work - support the operation of multiple sys - loads as peak usage occurs. Because of tems on the same physical hardware, this, hypervisors provide better support

EDITOR’S reducing costs and the physical server for dynamic resource allocation in data LETTER footprint while delivering similar and centers. 7 often improved services. • System testing: Hypervisors support HOW TO STAFF the isolation of systems, letting you test TODAY’S DATA Hypervisors support CENTERS new software and applications without 7 affecting production. They also provide a the isolation of low-cost testing alternative to physical sytems, letting you VIRTUALIZATION systems. WITHOUT THE • Heterogeneous system operation: test new software and HYPERVISOR Hypervisors support the simultaneous 7 applications without execution of multiple operating systems on the same physical hardware, letting affecting production. EVALUATING organizations run heterogeneous sys - HIGH-END HARDWARE tems on reduced hardware footprints. VIRTUALIZATION • Hardware optimization: Hypervisors PLATFORMS 7 increase hardware usage through the operation of multiple workloads on each Next, determine which Type 1 hyper - physical host server. Server usage can visor best meets your needs. Do this by increase from 5% to 10% to upwards of analyzing hypervisor features. 60% or 70% . • Application high availability: By sharing workloads through technologies COMPARING HYPERVISOR such as failover clustering, servers run - METRICS FROM MARKET LEADERS ning hypervisors can support application Most hardware virtualization hypervi - high availability and ensure that services sors include similar features. One of the are always available when running best ways to determine which hypervisor inside VMs. meets your needs is to compare the met - • Resource optimization: By running rics that it supports. Table 1 (page 20 ) different applications in separate VMs, outlines different metrics for three lead - hypervisors can increase resource use ing Type 1 hypervisors on the market: because each application requires a Citrix XenServer 5, Microsoft Hyper-V number of resources at different times. R2 and VMware vSphere 4.0. Although • Service flexibility: Because hypervi - Microsoft Hyper-V R 2 is not on the mar -

19 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 ket yet, it is in release candidate mode vSphere 4.0 hypervisor in its ESXi itera - and will be released in final version tion does not include a management before year’s end. partition. It requires limited CPU The metrics outlined in Table 1 list overhead to run. the capabilities of each Type 1 hypervisor Each hypervisor can manage a lot from the three market-leading vendors. of memory on a system. In the case of But metrics alone should not support Hyper-V, the amount of memory it can your choice. In addition to the capabili - manage will depend on the edition of ties of the hypervisor, you must also ver - Windows Server you choose to install.

EDITOR’S ify the guest operating systems that each The Standard Edition will run a maxi - LETTER hypervisor supports (see Table 2 , page mum of 32 GB of RAM while the Enter - 7 21 ). prise or Datacenter Editions have been As you can see in Table 1 , the top tested to a maximum of 1 TB of RAM. HOW TO STAFF three hypervisors stack up pretty closely VMware vSphere 4.0 can also address TODAY’S DATA CENTERS together when you look at the features 1 TB of RAM on a host. 7 each offers. Both XenServer and Hyper- Both Hyper-V R 2 and vSphere 4.0 can V should be dedicated a CPU core to address up to 64 processor cores or logi -

VIRTUALIZATION operate the host system and the VM cal processors in a host. XenServer’s set - WITHOUT THE manager that runs the VMs. This is ting is listed as unlimited not because it HYPERVISOR because both require a management can actually support an unlimited num - 7 or parent partition to operate. VMware ber of CPU cores but because its license

EVALUATING HIGH-END HARDWARE Table 1 VIRTUALIZATION PLATFORMS 7 Market-leading hardware hypervisor metrics

METRIC CITRIX MICROSOFT VMWARE

Hypervisor operation overhead 1 CPU core 1 CPU core Negligible Maximum memory (host) 128 GB 32 GB to 1 TB 1 TB Maximum CPU sockets (host) Unlimited 64 cores 64 cores Maximum CPU sockets (guest) 84 8 Required management NICs 11 1 Maximum number of 16 16 32 servers in a pool or cluster Number of virtual processors 88 20 per CPU core

Maximum memory (guest) 32 GB 64 GB 255 GB Simultaneous active guests/host Unlimited 384 320

20 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 does not limit the number of cores in a ited to a maximum of four and will be host server. downgraded to two or fewer depending All hypervisors in Table 1 can run both on the version of the operating system x86 32 -bit and x 64 64 -bit guest operat - within the guest OS. ing systems within VMs. In the case of All three hypervisors require a mini - XenServer and vSphere 4.0, guests can mum of one physical NIC to support address up to eight virtual processors. management operations. All other NICs But in the case of Hyper-V, the number can be used for guest purposes, but it is of virtual processors per guest OS is lim - recommended to reserve at least one

Table 2

Guest OS support in market-leading hardware hypervisors

METRIC VMWARE MICROSOFT CITRIX Guest OS • 3.1/3.11/ • Microsoft • Microsoft Windows Support 95/98/Me/NT/2000/2003/ Windows 2008/2003 SP2 x64 2008/ XP/Vista/7 x86 or x64 2000/2003/ • Microsoft Windows • Windows Preinstallation 2008/XP Pro/ 2000 SP4/2003/SBS Environment (WinPE) Vista x86 and 2003/2008/XP SP2/ x64 • MS-DOS 6.x Vista x86/2008 • SUSE Enterprise • Asianux Server 3 • CentOS 4.1/4.2/4.3/4.4/ Linux Server 10 4.5/5.0/5.1/5.2 x86 and • CentOS 4/5 SP1 5.0/5.1/5.2 x64 • Debian 4/5 • Oracle Enterprise Linux • IBM OS/2 Warp 4.0/4.5.2 5.0/5.1/5.2 x86 and x64 • Red Hat Enterprise Linux • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1/3/4/5 3.5/3.6/3.7/4.1/4.2/4.3/ • SCO UnixWare 7 4.4/5/5.1/5.2 x86 and • SCO OpenServer 5 5.0/5.1/5.2 x64 • SUSE Linux 10.1 • SUSE Enterprise Linux Server 9 SP2/9 SP3/10 • SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP1 32-bit • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server • Debian Sarge 3.1/Etch 8/9/10/11 4.0 32-bit • Ubuntu 8.10 • Novell SUSE 9SP2/9SP3/ • Ubuntu 8.04 LTS 9SP4/10SP1/10SP2 x86 • Ubuntu Linux 7.04/7.10 and 10SP1/10SP2 x64 • FreeBSD 6.3/6.4/7.0/7.1 • NetWare 6.5/6.0/5.1 • Solaris 8/9/10 for x86

64-bit • Most x64 operating systems • Windows • Windows and Guest 64-bit only Linux 64-bit Support

21 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 more NIC for live-motion operations— pool, while vSphere 4.0 can run up to a operations where a running VM is maximum of 32 . In addition, vSphere moved from one host server to 4.0 can link up to four resource pools another—to improve performance. together to create a single view into up Each hypervisor is able to merge host to 128 host servers. servers into a given resource pool pro - Each hypervisor can generate up to viding both high availability and eight virtual processors from any given dynamic resource management for the CPU core in the system, barring the core VMs they run. Hyper-V and XenServer used to run the hypervisor itself in the

EDITOR’S can run a maximum of 16 nodes in the case of XenServer and Hyper-V. LETTER 7

HOW TO STAFF MAXIMIZING RESOURCES IS KEY TODAY’S DATA CENTERS 7 VMWARE VSPHERE 4.0 offers features that control (VM) density on host servers. It is the only hypervisor that includes these four key features:

VIRTUALIZATION • Min/Max Memory Settings : Each VM can be set with a minimum and a maxi - WITHOUT THE HYPERVISOR mum memory setting. vSphere 4.0 will run the VM with its minimum memory 7 setting and allocate more memory as the VM’s internal workload requires it. For example, a VM configured with a minimum of 1 GB of RAM and a maximum of 4 GB can actually run with the minimum most of the time, or at least when the EVALUATING HIGH-END workload is at rest. HARDWARE VIRTUALIZATION • RAM Overcommitment: This feature works in conjunction with the min/max PLATFORMS memory settings and lets you allocate more memory to VMs than exists on a 7 host. If your host includes 64 GB of RAM, you can allocate upwards of 64 GB in the VMs. Because they often run with the minimum amount of memory, they can coexist on the host. When a VM needs more, it will be dynamically moved to a host that has the available resources. • Memory Ballooning: This feature lets you recover memory from VMs that are not using it and allocate it to others, once again maximizing host RAM usage. • Transparent Sharing: This feature stores only one copy of a duplicate file in host RAM. If you are running 20 copies of Windows Server 2008 in VMs on a host, all of the core Windows Server processes will be shared, saving a lot of memory and maximizing host server RAM utilization. In the end, this means that you can run more VMs on a given host with limited resources in VMware than you can with Hyper-V or XenServer. Because neither of these two hypervisors include the four memory features that vSphere 4.0 has, you must allocate the exact amount of RAM to each VM and not overpopulate host servers with more VMs than the host’s RAM will support. I

22 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 The maximum amount of memory a tems you currently run. If you run a guest OS can address is limited by two homogeneous network based on Win - factors in each hypervisor. The first is dows or Linux, then support for a the maximum supported RAM in the smaller number of guest operating sys - guest OS itself. The second is the tems might fit your needs. amount of RAM the hypervisor can expose to the VM. In this case, vSphere 4.0 offers the most amount of RAM ADDITIONAL SELECTION to a guest OS. CRITERIA FOR HYPERVISORS EDITOR’S Finally, if all VMs running on a The selection you make may well be LETTER guest use a single virtual processor and based on other factors and not necessar - 7 enough memory is available on the host ily related to the numbers or features server, you could run a maximum num - listed in Tables 1 and 2. For example, HOW TO STAFF ber of VMs on the host. In the case of some organizations may opt for VMware TODAY’S DATA CENTERS XenServer, this number is unlimited, vSphere 4.0 just because it is the oldest 7 but not because of hardware features. and most popular hardware virtualiza - Rather, it’s because the license does not tion hypervisor on the market.

VIRTUALIZATION limit the number of VMs a host can run. Others may opt for Microsoft Hyper- WITHOUT THE In the case of Hyper-V R 2, the maxi - V because they are already a Windows HYPERVISOR mum tested number is 384 . In the case shop, and they get it for free each time 7 of vSphere 4.0, the maximum number they pay for a license for Windows Server is 320 . But it is highly unlikely that you 2008 . Still others may opt for XenServer EVALUATING will run this number of VMs on a host, because it is reputed to be a powerful HIGH-END HARDWARE given that each VM will most likely con - virtualization platform, and they already VIRTUALIZATION sume several virtual CPUs. The amount have an existing relationship with Citrix PLATFORMS 7 of memory required to run that many through the use of its Presentation VMs is simply not available on a physical Server—now XenApp—product. And host today. there may be those who decide that the The highest number of VMs that Big Three are not for them and go for a organizations actually run on one host is lesser known hypervisor. roughly 70 . The host is configured with In the end, the choice you make will all available maximum resources, and depend on a lot of factors. All hypervi - the VMs are all running light workloads. sors are not made equal, but they all Table 2 lists the guest operating sys - offer similar features. Understanding the tems supported by all three market-lead - features they have as well as the guest ing Type 1 hypervisors. operating systems each supports is an If you are running heterogeneous sys - essential aspect of any hardware virtual - tems in your service network—the net - ization hypervisor selection process. work offering services to your end users Matching this data to your organization’s —then you must select the hypervisor requirements will be at the core of the that has support for the operating sys - decision you make. I

23 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009 ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Stephen J. Bigelow , a senior technology writer in the Data Center and Virtualization Media Group at TechTarget Inc., has more than 15 years of technical writing experience in the PC/ technology industry. He holds a bachelor of science in electrical engineering, along with CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+ and

EDITOR’S Server+ certifications, and has written hun - dreds of articles and more than 15 feature Cathleen Gagne LETTER Editorial Director books on computer troubleshooting, including 7 [email protected] Bigelow’s PC Hardware Desk Reference and Bigelow’s PC Hardware Annoyances . Contact Matt Stansberry HOW TO STAFF him at sbigelow@techtarget. com . Executive Editor TODAY’S DATA [email protected] CENTERS 7 Christine Casatelli Greg Shields is a co-founder and Editor IT guru at Concentrated Technol - [email protected] VIRTUALIZATION WITHOUT THE ogy LLC and has nearly 15 years HYPERVISOR of IT architecture and enterprise Martha Moore 7 administration experience. A Copy Editor Microsoft MVP, Shields is an IT [email protected] trainer and speaker on such topics as Micro- EVALUATING soft administration, systems management and Linda Koury HIGH-END monitoring, and virtualization. His recent Art Director of Digital Content HARDWARE book, Windows Server 2008: What’s New/ [email protected] VIRTUALIZATION What’s Changed , is available from SAPIEN PLATFORMS Press. Jonathan Brown 7 Publisher [email protected]

Peter Larkin Danielle Ruest and Senior Director of Sales Nelson Ruest are IT [email protected] experts focused on continuous service availability and infra - TechTarget, structure optimiza - 117 Kendrick Street tion. They are authors of several books, includ - Needham,MA 02494 ing Virtualization: A Beginner’s Guide and www.techtarget.com Windows Server 2008, The Complete Reference from McGraw Hill Osborne as well as the MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-238): © 2009 TechTarget Inc. No part of this pub - Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft lication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means without writ - Exchange Server 2007 from MS Press. Their ten permission from the publisher. For per - latest book is a training kit for Microsoft exam missions or reprint information, please titled 70-652: Configuring Windows Server contact Renee Cormier , Director of Product Virtualization with Hyper-V from MS Press. Management, Data Center Media, Contact them at [email protected] . TechTarget ( [email protected] ).

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27 VIRTUAL DATA CENTER E-ZINE JULY 2009