Virtualize Servers with Microsoft Hyper-V and Netapp by Brian Gracely, Netapp
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This article was originally published in NetApp’s Tech OnTap Newsletter. To receive the newsletter monthly and enjoy other great benefits, sign up today at www.netapp.com/us/communities/tech-ontap Virtualize Servers with Microsoft Hyper-V and NetApp By Brian Gracely, NetApp Microsoft® Hyper-V™ is a new virtualiza- • Introduction to Hyper-V BRIAN GRACELY tion technology that is a key component of • Storage considerations for Hyper-V MANAGER, REFERENCE Windows® Server 2008. Hyper-V provides • Deduplication and thin provisioning ARCHITECTURE, NETAPP the ability to virtualize server resources and • Backup and disaster recovery Brian manages the Virtualization Refer- manage them within the Windows manage- ence Architecture team within NetApp’s ment framework and is a good choice for INTRODUCTION TO HYPER-V Virtualization and Grid Infrastructure customers whose core infrastructure is built Microsoft Hyper-V (previously known business unit (VGIBU). His team of primarily on Windows Server and other as Microsoft Server Virtualization) is a Microsoft Hyper-V experts is based in Microsoft application technologies. hypervisor-based server virtualization Seattle, Research Triangle Park (RTP), technology that is an integral part of all and Bangalore and is focused on design, Like all server virtualization solutions, Windows Server 2008 editions (as of implementation, and training for Hyper-V Hyper-V increases the demand on back-end its release in late June 2008). Hyper-V deployments using NetApp storage. storage in terms of reliability, performance, significantly extends the virtualization ® and data management capabilities. NetApp capabilities that Microsoft provided NETAPP AND MICROSOFT storage solutions are well suited for Hyper-V through its still shipping Microsoft Virtual NetApp maintains a close relationship environments, offering storage virtualization Server product. with Microsoft and a strong commitment capabilities that complement and extend to provide integration for Microsoft the core capabilities of Hyper-V. Key NetApp Hyper-V is designed to allow multiple virtual technologies. technologies help provide data protection, machines (VMs) to run unmodified on a disaster recovery, deduplication, thin- single physical server while providing strong • Microsoft Gold Certified Partner provisioning, and efficient cloning for faster isolation between partitions. Its inherently • Global ISV Partner virtual server provisioning. Going forward, secure architecture has a minimal attack • NetApp storage systems are NetApp will continue its close partnership surface with no third-party device drivers. Windows Logo’d with Microsoft to provide the same deep • NetApp SnapManager software is level of integration for Hyper-V as it does for Among the noteworthy features of Certified for Windows other Microsoft solutions such as Microsoft Hyper-V are: • A cooperative support agreement ™ ® SQL Server , SharePoint , and Exchange. • Support for 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit for rapid problem resolution without (x64) VMs finger pointing This article will help you understand ® Hyper-V with some guidelines for getting • Support for both Windows and Linux Read more at http://www.netapp.com/ started using the technology in NetApp guest operating systems (http://www. us/solutions/solution-partners/global- environments. It includes: microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/ alliance/microsoft-partnership.html hyperv-supported-guest-os.aspx) Table 1) Impact of virtualization on storage infrastructure. Table 2) Hyper-V storage comparison. BEFORE AFTER DAS OR SAN ON DAS OR SAN ON NOT VIRTUALIZING VIRTUALIZING HOST, VHD OR HOST, VHD OR EXPOSED SERVERS* SERVERS PASS-THROUGH PASS-THROUGH TO HOST, DISK ON HOST, DiSK ON HOST, EXPOSED Number of 1 10+ EXPOSED TO EXPOSED TO TO ChiLD AS applications GUEST AS IDE GUEST AS SCSI ISCSI LUN per server Child boot Yes No No Number of 10+ 1 from disk physical servers Additional Integration Integration iSCSI SW Number of 1 10+ SW on Child components components initiator apps down on (optional) storage failure Child sees Virtual HS Microsoft virtual Microsoft Data lost on 1x 10x disk as ATA device disk SCSI disk virtual disk dual-disk failure device SCSI disk device Backup 1x 10x data volume Child max 2 x2 = 4 disks 4 x 64 = 256 Not limited disks disks by Hyper-V Meeting Feasible Maybe not backup window Child No No Yes hot-add disk Provisioning Slow/ Storage ≠ complex servers Integration components install drivers to optimize the performance of a VM. These drivers provide support for synthetic I/O devices, which significantly reduces CPU *Typical configuration: DAS, RAID 5, tape backup overhead compared to emulated I/O devices. • Up to 64GB of memory per VM HYPER-V STORAGE PROVISIONING be large, NetApp technologies such as • Up to 4 cores per VM (SMP) Hyper-V supports three possible storage thin provisioning and deduplication allow • VLAN support infrastructure options: direct-attached you to recapture much of this storage. • Up to 12 NICs per VM (eight synthetic storage (DAS), Fibre Channel SAN, and (See the following section.) NetApp and four legacy) iSCSI. However, many of the advanced recommends utilizing fixed-size VHDs. ™ • Virtual machine Snapshot copies features of Hyper-V, such as quick • Dynamically expanding VHDs grow the • Integrated cluster support for HA and migration, require the use of shared storage VHD file each time data is added. While VM migration (quick migration) technologies, making iSCSI or FC SAN a this method is extremely space efficient, it better choice than DAS for installations does present potential problems in terms Windows Server 2008 can be installed that need to scale beyond more than a few of performance, fragmentation of the using either a full or server core installation. physical servers. child file system, and alignment. NetApp The server core is a new minimal installa- recommends limiting use of this type of tion option providing essential server Hyper-V provides two options for presenting VHD for these reasons. functionality, while eliminating nonessential storage to virtual machines: virtual hard • Differencing VHDs are created not at code. This improves availability and security disks and pass-through disks. A third option the time the VM is created, but, as an and reduces management and servicing is to install an iSCSI software initiator in the example, when a Hyper-V Snapshot is overhead. child OS and access iSCSI LUNs directly, created of an existing VM. A differencing bypassing the Hyper-V mechanisms. VMs Hyper-V management is provided through VHD points to a parent VHD file and may also access NAS (CIFS and NFS) file System Center Virtual Machine Manager grows in a manner similar to a that systems directly. (SCVMM), part of the Microsoft System of dynamically expanding VHD, and therefore it suffers from the same Center Suite of management products. , or VHDs, allow you Virtual hard disks performance concerns. SCVMM allows management of both virtual to assign storage to a VM in which the (Hyper-V, Microsoft Virtual Server, and actual storage is kept in a VHD file located Pass-through disks are disks that are ® VMware ESX) and physical infrastructure on a disk attached to the Hyper-V parent attached directly to the Hyper-V parent, but from the same interface and assists with VM partition. The benefits of VHDs are the assigned directly to a virtual machine and management, resource optimization, and improved manageability and portability that formatted with the child OS file system. One both physical-to-virtual (P2V) and virtual-to- come from having VM storage encapsulated limitation with pass-through disks is that virtual (V2V) conversions. in a single file. There are three different Hyper-V Snapshot copies are not supported. types of VHDs: See the Microsoft Hyper-V Web page for Because of this fact, NetApp recommends limiting use of pass-through disks in more general information on Hyper-V (http:// allocate all of the • Fixed-size VHDs your Hyper-V environment, except where www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/ storage for the VHD up front. Though the considered necessary. us/virtualization-consolidation.aspx). data storage requirements upfront can Figure 1) Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) Figure 2) Advantages of thin provisioning. architecture. For more information on the performance You can find complete recommendations HYPER-V VERSUS VMWARE characteristics of VHDs and pass-through and instructions for configuring NetApp TERMINOLOGY disks, refer to the “Storage I/O Performance” aggregates, FlexVol® volumes, and LUNs section (pages 65–67) of the Microsoft for use with Hyper-V in the NetApp and For those of you familiar with VMware, Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Microsoft Virtualization Storage Best a mapping of VMware terminology to the closest equivalent Hyper-V technology Server 2008 (http://www.microsoft.com/ Practices Guide (http://media.netapp.com/ might help you get a better feel for the whdc/system/sysperf/Perf_tun_srv.mspx). documents/tr-3702.pdf). new technology: With VHDs and pass-through disks, you USING NETAPP DEDUPLICATION AND (VMware ESX = Hyper-V) have the further option of presenting them THIN PROVISIONING WITH HYPER-V Guest OS = Child OS as either an “IDE” or “SCSI” type device to NetApp offers thin provisioning and Data store = Physical disk the child. The limitations of each of these deduplication capabilities that enhance the VMDK = VHD RDM = Pass-Through Disk options versus direct access via iSCSI are virtualization of storage