vmware vs ms-hyper-v

VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE ORGANIZATION

EVALUATION OF LEADING PRODUCTS : VMWARE ESX

MICROSOFT HYPER-V

FOR USE IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS

Presented byDAVID RAMIREZ

Instructor: Dr. A. Lodgher

Prairie View A&M UniversityDecember, 2008

CINS-5073 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The problem

Growing requirements of processing: proliferation of servers, demandingmore energy, cooling, space

VIRTUALIZATION: Review of Concept

• WHAT IS IT ?Virtualization is a software abstraction of computer (hardware) resources.

VIRTUALIZATION MAIN FEATURES

• Virtualization products partition physical servers in multiple virtual machines. Each virtual machine represents a complete system, with processors, memory, networking, storage and BIOS.

• Multiple virtual machines can share physical resources and run side by side on the same server.

• Operating systems and applications can run unmodified in virtual machines.

VIRTUALIZATION ARGUMENTS

HOW CAN IT BE USED WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION FOR ITS BUSINESS PROCESSES ?

• By consolidation of servers, isolation of processes, disaster recovery, new software testing.

Savings in costs, increased reliability and availability, more efficient usage of hardware resources.

VIRTUALIZATION: Pros & Cons

WHAT WOULD BE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF VIRTUALIZATION ?

Advantages:

#1 Decreases power, cooling, floor space and infrastructure.#2 Simplifies disaster recovery and business continuity requirements.#3 Increases server utilization from the typical averages of 5-15% to 60-80%.#4 Faster deployment of information technology resources reduces time to market.#5 Lower operational costs associated with reduced resource management and administration.#6 Improves application performance by dynamically adapting storage and server resources to meet peek usage cycles.#7 Aligns application data with the storage infrastructure to match application quality of service requirements and lower cost per gigabyte.#8 Improves protection and recovery of critical business data.#9 Easier to secure and comply with regulatory requirements such as SOX, HIPPA and eDiscovery.#10 Nearly 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies are implementing virtualization in their data centers, and another 30 percent are developing plans to do so. This means a growing available pool of qualified professionals.

VIRTUALIZATION: Pros & Cons (cont.)

Disadvantages#1 Licensing costs.

#2 Vulnerable to server failure.#3 Compromise of virtualized hosts will affect guest machines.#4 Additional guest servers will require their own administration measures.

#5 Initial cost can be high – renewal of associated infrastructure must be added (newest processors, storage).

IMPLEMENTING THE TECHNOLOGY

Once an organization realizes the advantages of going into virtualization, several considerations are to be taken: – Strategy (replace, expand)– What systems to virtualize. – Operating systems involved.– Hardware platforms. – Administrative Issues.

IMPLEMENTING THE TECHNOLOGY

• Hardware reuse, replacement.• Licensing issues.• Legacy software considerations.• Additional infrastructure expenses must be

considered (e.g. Energy efficient cabinets, new network cabling....)

• Prototype testing• Migration• Commissioning

VIRTUALIZATION PRODUCTSIN THE MARKET

VMWARE (ESX, Server)

CITRIX (Xen)

SUN xVM (VirtualBox)

MICROSOFT (Hyper-V Server 2008)

PARALLELS

VIRTUALIRON

CASE STUDY:

Evaluation and Comparison of market leader VMWARE ESX product and MICROSOFT recent entry HYPER-V product.

VMWARE ESX

VMWARE ESX ARCHITECTURE

Graphic by David Ramirez

VMWARE ESX HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

Hardware requirements:• Minimum: 1 GB RAM; Recommended: 2+ GB

RAM• Maximum (64-bit systems): 256 GB RAM• Hard disk space: Minimum: 10 GB;

Recommended: 40 GB or greater. Requires local disk for system, recommended SCSI, SATA limited compatibility. Storage can be attached externally (physical, virtual).

• Hardware must be VMWARE certified.

VMWARE typical scenarioGuest O.S.: SOLARIS 10

VMWARE ESX ServerCASE STUDY: 7-eleven

Solution OverviewCustomer Size: 31,500 employeesOrganization Profile • 7-Eleven, Inc. is the world’s largest operator, franchisor and licensor of convenience

stores (34,800 stores in 17 countries, 5,600 stores in North America). 7-Eleven also is one of the nation's largest independent gasoline retailers.

Hardware • HP ProLiant DL380 G5 servers • Quad-Core Intel Xeon processorsPartner(s)

HPSoftware and Services

• VMWare ESX, VirtualCenter, VMotion

Vertical Industries• Convenience retailing, gasoline retail.

VMWARE ESX ServerCASE STUDY: 7-eleven (cont.)RESULTS

• 15:1 server consolidation on 2-CPU servers, 30:1 on 4-CPU servers

• Shortened deployment time from 6-8 weeks to one day

• Improved server utilization by 60 percent

• Optimized server management with VirtualCenter

• Reduced downtime with VMotion

• Compressed development and testing cycles

• Drastically reduced energy and cooling costs

• Provided mainframe levels of reliability and data security at lower cost

• Launched in October, 2008 (late entry in the market – almost 10 years after VMware).

• Available as a stand-alone product or as part of Windows 2008 Server

• Different licensing and configuration options.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server Packaging

Virtualization Needs

Hyper-V Server (standalone)

Windows 2008 Server Standard

Windows 2008 Server Enterprise

Windows 2008 Server Datacenter

Server Consolidation

Test & Development

Mixed Windows & Linux virt.

High Availability Quick Migration Support for > 4 processors

Included guest MS licenses

0(must purchase)

1 physical

+ 1 VM

1 physical

+ 4 VM

1 physical + unlimited VM

Hyper-V Server Architecture

Graphic by David Ramirez

Microsoft Hyper-V Server

Hardware requirements:• 64-bit x86 processor with hardware-assisted

virtualization (Intel VT or AMD-V).• Data execution prevention (DEP) enabled in

BIOS. Specifically, you must enable Intel XD bit (execute disable bit) or AMD NX bit (no execute bit).

• Hardware virtualization enabled in BIOS.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server

Hardware requirements (continued):

• Minimum: 1 GB RAM; Recommended: 2+ GB RAM

• Maximum (64-bit systems): 32 GB

• Hard disk space: Minimum: 10 GB; Recommended: 40 GB or greater. Requires local disk for system, storage can be attached externally.

Product implementation

Stand-alone: Microsoft Hyper-V Server:• Contains Windows Hypervisor and other components

including base kernel and driver technologies. (Only command line or remote management)

As part of Windows 2008 Server:• Available as a role in Server core or full installation of the

Windows 2008 server (Standard, Enterprise, Data Center). GUI console, remote management, command line interfaces.

Microsoft Hyper-V Technical Data

GUEST O.S. SPECIFICATIONS• 32 bit (x86) operating systems (e.g. MS-Windows 9x,

XP, Vista*; MS-Windows 200x except for Windows 2008 self); Linux, Solaris, Unix.

• 64 bit (x86) operating systems (Windows, SuSE Linux)**• 32 and 64 bit O.S. can execute concurrently.• Up to 4 virtual processors per virtual machine• Up to 31 GB memory for all (up to 128) running virtual

machines (1GB reserved for Hyper-V Server Parent Partition).

* : Windows Vista currently requires patch.

**Note: Red Hat and other Linux must have XEN extensions SOLARIS, UNIX not yet supported.

Microsoft Hyper-V ServerTypical Scenario

SCVMM : System Center Virtual Machine Manager

Provides overview of a group of hosts, and VM within each host

MS Hyper-V ServerCASE STUDY: COSTCO WHOLESALE

Solution OverviewCustomer Size: 130000 employeesOrganization Profile • Costco Wholesale Corporation is an international wholesale distributor based in

Issaquah, Washington. Costco has 539 member warehouses and 130,000 employees.Hardware • HP ProLiant DL380 G5 servers • Quad-Core Intel Xeon processorsPartner(s)

HP

Software and Services

• Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008• Windows Server 2008• Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V

Vertical Industries• Consumer Goods

MS Hyper-V ServerCASE STUDY: COSTCO WHOLESALE

• Mostly a Microsoft shop (1200 servers, 95% of them on Windows products)

• Started virtualization efforts in 2006 (using MS Virtual Server 2005, a previous, limited virtualization product).

• As soon as hearing about Hyper-V, enrolled in MS Virtualization Rapid Deployment Program.

• Using MAP tool (Microsoft Assessment and Planning) server loads were evaluated, discovering underutilized servers, good candidates for consolidation.

MS Hyper-V ServerCASE STUDY: COSTCO WHOLESALE

• Initial phase: 50+ servers consolidated on 5 HP servers with Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors.

• The server cluster has a core infrastructure that mimics the production Costco environment

• Quality Assurance staff verifying reliability and stability before rolling out new systems to internal customers and member warehouses.

• By virtualizing existing servers instead of purchasing new physical machines, Costco limited the proliferation of servers in its data center.

• IT staff at Costco expects to achieve 40-45% virtualization by August 2009.

• Expected savings in energy costs, currently $75,000/mo (yet to quantify).

• ROI not yet published (estimated?)

COMPARISON

• Hyper-V lacks some advanced features of VMware's ESX server and virtualization platform, but its relatively low cost, integrated physical and virtual management, and ease of implementation might be good enough for many organizations today.

• Microsoft-based shops will eventually migrate to Windows 2008 and have access to Hyper-V (Netscape history repeating ?)

COMPARISON

• One important disadvantage of Hyper-V is its requirement for 64-bit hardware. This excludes many 32-bit based infrastructures that may benefit greatly from virtualization, leaving them to the competition.

COMPARISON (cont.)

• VMWARE claims to be less expensive than MS-Hyper-V, mainly due to Microsoft’s pricing model regarding licenses of guest OSs, despite a higher license cost per installation.

• VMWARE footprint: 32 MB vs HYPER-V 2 GB : bigger attack surface.

• VMWARE ESX server provides sophisticated features not yet available in MS-Hyper-V that can be very valuable in high production environments.

VMWARE Transparent Page Sharing VMWARE Balloon Driver

Virtualization : The Future

• Server virtualization only first step.• Storage• Desktop• Mobile• Appliances• Cloud computing

A lot happeningright now!

Cloud-based g.ho.st virtual desktop, apps

Virtualization in the Enterprise : CONCLUSION

• As newer operating systems and hardware supporting virtualization appear, it will become mainstream in every aspect of IT.

• Already prime consideration in the Data Center.• Already an option in Storage.• Strong consideration at the desktop level.• Active development in the mobile

arena (e.g. Android Hypervisor already in 1st phone) new approaches for enterpriseapplication development,access, distribution.

Thank You

© David Ramirez