techfocus server deployment

8/7/2019 TechFocus Server Deployment

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1 TECHFOCUS: DEMYSTIFYING SERVER VIRTUALIZATION DEPLOYMENT

techfocus

INSIDE:

13 ASSESSING THE

ENVIRONMENT

17 PLANNING

AND DESIGN

10 DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

14 CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

18 SUMMARY

19 SERVER DEPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST

Server Deployment

DemystifyingServer Virtualization

DeploymentSome IT managers have

steered clear of server virtualization technologies

because the deployment process can seem too

daunting to begin. But this step-by-step handbook maps

out the deployment process in four easy-to-follow steps.

BY DAVID DAVIS



DemystifyingServerVirtualizationDeployment

Some IT managers have steered clear of server virtualization technologies

because the deployment process can seem too daunting to begin. But this

step-by-step handbook maps out the deployment process in four easy-to-

follow steps.

t h e t a s k o f deploying virtual servers can be intimidating, so some IT managers

opt to steer clear and avoid the headache. This hesitance to virtualize data center

resources is common despite virtualization’s clear advantages, including improved

server energy efficiency, reduced hardware costs and better server management.

But opting out comes at significant cost. An environment without virtualized

resources likely suffers from server sprawl, resource underutilization and poor

management. And all these nagging problems translate into a single bigger prob-

lem: wasted dollars. So avoiding virtualization may end up costing your IT shop

thousands of dollars.

Still, as an IT manager, you may be daunted by the preparation involved in a vir-

tualization project. But the reality is that deploying a new virtual infrastructure

doesn’t have to be burdensome or complex; and you don’t need a team of consult-

ants to get the job done. This guide on server virtualization deployments walks

you through the process step by step. It covers the four critical phases of server

virtualization deployment (and see the four-phase checklist on page 19):

1. assessing your existing environment;

2. selecting a virtualization platform;

3. deploying and configuring a virtual infrastructure; and

4. selecting virtualization management tools.

Now let’s turn to the first phase: assessment. ¾


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

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Introduction

ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST



I. Assessment

r i g h t f r o m t h e outset of a virtualization deployment, the intimidation factor

can loom large. Identifying which servers and which applications to virtualize can

paralyze even savvy IT managers. How do you know which servers and applica-

tions to virtualize? How many virtual servers should you place on each physical

server? And how can you ensure that virtualization helps your business to be-

come more efficient and reduce costs? The key to getting all this right is proper

assessment of your environment before you begin the virtualization deployment

process.

ASSESSING THE EXISTING ENVIRONMENT

To ensure that a virtualization deployment will enable your company to become

more efficient and reduce costs, you first need to build the business case and map

the business objectives of the company with the goals of your virtualization proj-

ect. This requires identifying the kinds of applications you run, their function and

centrality to company mission, and other factors.

If you don’t have a grasp on your environment’s physical resources, you cannot

successfully virtualize those assets. So the next step is to analyze the current state

of your servers and applications.

If you have worked in this IT environment for some time, you may assume that

you know everything about the current infrastructure and may prematurely begin

virtualizing. Blanket assumptions that aren’t supported by assessment are often

incorrect. Why? Over time and as data proliferates, your infrastructure changes:

Applications have been upgraded, administrators have made changes and your

past knowledge quickly becomes outdated. Take the time to identify which physi-

cal servers are installed, their resource utilization, and which applications and

data reside on each server.


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

. . . . . . . .

Assessment

ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST



WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW?

List your current inventory of physical servers as well as their CPU, RAM, anddisk configuration and which applications run on each of these servers. This list

can take the form of a simple five-column spreadsheet.

Certainly, taking an inventory of servers and applications is important. But

equally important, you need to understand the function and nature of these appli-

cations. How important are these applications to the company’s business func-

tions? What is the impact of having these

applications suddenly become unavailable?

Are these applications CPU-, RAM-, disk-or network-intensive? Does a given applica-

tion depend on others to run? What is the

required availability of this application?

By answering questions like these, you

can determine which servers and applica-

tions to virtualize, which to leave alone, and

the priority and sequence in which to virtu-

alize servers.At this point, you are likely wondering

what your server consolidation ratio—that

is, the number of physical servers that you

can virtualize and place on a single physical

server—will be. If you can place 20 physical servers on a single virtual host server

when virtualized, for example, your server consolidation ratio is 20:1. You can

imagine how important this consolidation ratio is. The higher the ratio, the fewer

host servers you need, the less space and infrastructure is required to supportservers in your data center, and the greater the return on investment you can

achieve for the virtualization project as a whole. The greater the consolidation

ratio, the greater the management benefits you can derive from having fewer

servers to manage.

So how do you determine this consolidation ratio? By understanding your appli-


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

. . . . . . . .

Assessment

ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST

The higher the ratio,the fewer host servers you need, the less spaceand infrastructure is

required to support servers in your datacenter, and the greater

the ROI you can achieve for the virtualization project as a whole.



cations, you can get a good idea. But unfortunately, you can be certain of your

server consolidation ratio only after you virtualize your servers. This reality can be difficult for virtualization administrators to swallow, so let’s explore some com-

mon consolidation scenarios that you can use as guidelines.

IDENTIFYING PROJECT GOALS

Now you need to identify goals for the virtualization project itself. Perhaps phase

one of your project, for example, is to virtualize all noncritical servers so you can

determine server consolidation ratios and provide a proof of concept. On the otherhand, you could have goals such as the following:

I virtualize all critical servers and place them in a high-availability and

load-balanced resource pool;

I virtualize all end-user desktop systems; and

I virtualize all physical servers that have CPU utilization of less than 50%.

Your goal should also identify whether your project is a success. Goals should be tied not only to the resources that have been virtualized but also to the perform-

ance of these resources prior to and following virtualization. From the end-user

perspective, these applications’ performance should be no worse than when these

applications ran on a physical server.

Most important is that you take the time to understand your servers and appli-

cations, set goals for your virtualization deployment, and demonstrate that you

have met your goals without undermining end users’ experience.

AUTOMATED ENVIRONMENT ASSESSMENT TOOLS

At this point, you might wonder, “Why can’t an automated tool evaluate my envi-

ronment for me?” The answer is that some tools can indeed assess your resources

for you. These tools take an inventory of physical servers, identify applications,


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

. . . . . . . .

Assessment

ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST



measure physical server utilization over time and then recommend the host

servers on which to put virtual machines (VMs).Two tools that can automate this assessment are the following:

I VMware Guided Consolidation. VMware Inc.’s vCenter Server—the virtualiza-

tion software’s management suite—includes Guided Consolidation, which is

installed separately but from the same DVD used to install vCenter. Guided

Consolidation can identify physical servers in your domain and their hard-

ware configurations (e.g., CPU, RAM, disk) and gather performance data from

these resources over time. Combined with the data on your virtualization envi-ronment that Guided Consolidation has already gathered, this performance

data can be used to recommend where to place virtualized physical servers in

your virtual infrastructure. The second element of Guided Consolidation is the

VMware Converter Enterprise application. Once you accept the recommenda-

tion from Guided Consolidation, it can also virtualize servers with Converter

Enterprise.

I

5nine P2V Planner (for VMware and Hyper-V virtualization). Available in acommercial and a free edition, P2V Planner analyzes an environment’s physi-

cal servers’ configuration and utilization. From there, it tells you which virtu-

alization hypervisor offers your company the most return on investment and

total cost of ownership. An upcoming release will perform the physical-to-

virtual (P2V) conversion for you.

Other P2V conversion tools that perform various levels of assessment include

Vizioncore Inc.’s vConverter, PlateSpin Ltd.’s PowerConvert and VMware Go,which offers P2V conversion at no charge.

While I recommend automated assessment tools such as Guided Consolidation,

these applications will never understand your company’s applications the way you

do. You are an integral part of the assessment process because you know which ap-

plication does what, how it uses resources and how critical it is to your company. I


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

. . . . . . . .

Assessment

ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST

http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-server/

http://5nine.com/p2v-hyper-v-vmware.aspx

http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vControl/

http://www.platespin.com/products/powerconvert/

http://www.vmware.com/go/vmware-go-beta


http://5nine.com/p2v-hyper-v-vmware.aspx

http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vControl/

http://www.platespin.com/products/powerconvert/

http://www.vmware.com/go/vmware-go-beta



II. Planning and Design

a f t e r y o u c o m p l e t e your assessment and know which servers to virtualize

and which applications run on these servers, you can begin the planning and

design phase of virtualization deployment. During this phase, you need to select

a virtualization platform and develop an infrastructure and deployment plan.

SELECTING A VIRTUALIZATION PLATFORM

During the deployment process, one of the most important decisions to make is

which virtualization platform to choose. While there are several virtualization

technologies from which to choose, today most companies choose between

VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V R2.

Because administrators differ in their experience and skill level and because

every company has different needs, it is up to you to choose the best technology for

your company’s environment. But here are some key factors to consider.

I Test-drive platforms. If you’re just beginning and want to test various virtualiza-

tion platforms, you can download VMware ESXi for free or a 60-day evaluation

of vSphere as well as a free version of Hyper-V at their respective sites.

I TCO and ROI. For most businesses, a product’s total cost of ownership and return

on investment are the key factors that direct an IT manager on which product to

choose. Making this determination on your own can be complex; there are hun-

dreds of factors to consider, and they vary greatly from organization to organiza-

tion. If you want hard numbers to compare VMware vSphere with Microsoft

Hyper-V virtualization, I recommend evaluation products such as 5nine’s P2V

Planner (as described previously). For other—while biased—recommendations

consider VMware’s TCP Calculator or Microsoft’s Windows Server Virtualiza-

tion Calculator.


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

. . . . . . . .

Planning and Design

ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST

http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv-main.aspx

https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/index.php?p=free-esxi&lp=1

https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/index.php?p=vsphere&lp=1


http://www.microsoft.com/hyper-v-server/en/us/how-to-get.aspx

https://roianalyst.alinean.com/ent_02/AutoLogin.do?d=593411470991915416

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/calc_2.htm


http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv-main.aspx

https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/index.php?p=free-esxi&lp=1



http://www.microsoft.com/hyper-v-server/en/us/how-to-get.aspx

https://roianalyst.alinean.com/ent_02/AutoLogin.do?d=593411470991915416





I Past experience. While not a major factor, your prior experience with a product

or virtualization provider may be a factor in which platform you choose. As a re-sult, the vendor’s technology may already be compatible and integrated with

other software in your environment, or the learning curve may be less steep.

I Consolidation ratios. While you would generate these numbers in a TCO and ROI

calculation, consolidation ratios are important factors on their own. When shop-

ping for virtualization platforms, ask yourself, “Which virtualization platform

has the least overhead?” “Which platform offers memory overcommitment and

transparent page sharing?” (And the answer here is VMware’s ESX, ESXi andvSphere.)

I Feature set. Even within each platform, different versions have different feature

sets. VMware offers features such as Fault Tolerance, memory overcommitment,

Update Manager, vShield and more—features that aren’t included in any Hyper-

V package.

I

Add-on applications. Does the virtualization vendor offer add-on applications toyour hypervisor, and which ones? Microsoft offers System Center Virtual Ma-

chine Manager (SCVMM) and App-V, but not much else. In addition to vCenter,

VMware offers a long list of add-on applications, such as VMware Chargeback,

VMware Data Recovery, VMware Site Recovery Manager and much more.

I Industry analysis. It can be invaluable to read vendor-neutral, independent indus-

try analysis and ratings of the leading virtualization providers (VMware, Hyper-V

and XenServer). What do Gartner Inc., Burton Group and others recommend?

I Third-party application support. If you want to buy an application and add func-

tionality, make sure that you can find it. How many third-party applications are

available for a given virtualization platform? There are hundreds available for

VMware vSphere, but not as many for Microsoft Hyper-V.


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

. . . . . . . .

Planning and Design

ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST



I Education and grass-roots support. Are educational opportunities such as books,

training videos and classes available to learn the nuances of the virtualizationplatform? Does the technology have “grass-roots support”? Are there how-to

resources available to help you?

DEVELOPING AN INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN

Once you select a platform, you need to analyze your existing infrastructure and,

probably, make some changes. Here are some things you should know:

I To run vSphere or Hyper-V, you need servers with 64-bit CPUs that have either

Intel-VT or AMD-V—hardware-assist technologies that boost virtualization soft-

ware performance and improve application response times—enabled.

I To exploit certain virtualization features such as VMware’s VMotion or Fault

Tolerance, you need specific models of Intel or AMD CPUs, and all participating

servers need to have CPUs of the same model.

I To store virtual machines and use high-availability features or VMotion, you

need centralized storage connected to all virtual servers and, equally important,

storage that is compatible with your respective virtualization platform.

I Your centralized storage needs to be able to expand to support these VMs.

I You will need a strong network with Gigabit Ethernet connected to all servers

that allows you to move VMs that are being virtualized as well as to communi-cate with an iSCSI storage area network (SAN). I have listed general recommen-

dations here, but depending on the size of your infrastructure, you may need to

plan more extensively to factor in servers, storage and networks. I


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

. . . . . . . .

Planning and Design

ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST



III. Deployment and Configuration

at this point in the process, you have assessed your environment, selected your

new virtualization platform, readied your storage and network infrastructure, and

created your virtualization deployment plan. Now comes the most exciting part of

a virtualization deployment project: deployment and configuration.

STEPS IN DEPLOYING A VIRTUAL INFRASTRUCTURE

So what is your plan for deployment? Now is the time to develop it.

Virtualization expert Eric Siebert lays out the various deployment steps in his

article “Virtualization Deployment: The Assessment and Planning Phases.” Below

I have expanded on each of the phases he describes and have included additional

considerations and questions to ask.

I Build your virtual environment. During this phase, install servers, load your cho-

sen virtualization hypervisor (ESX Server or Hyper-V, for example), load the

centralized management platform (Microsoft SCVMM or VMware vCenter), and

add the virtual hosts to the management platform.

I Configure your virtual environment. During this phase, configure servers with

their static IP addresses and correct network settings and configure network

VLANs if necessary.

I Secure your virtual environment. During this phase, set a complex root password

on all virtual hosts, create a group in Windows Active Directory and add author-

ized VMware administrators to this group, authorize that group to be adminis-

trators in VMware vCenter, and remove domain admin. If you have other kinds

of users administering their virtual machines (i.e., SQL admins and developers),

consider using additional groups and roles.


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

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Deployment andConfiguration

ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST

http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid94_gci1357919,00.html




I Populate your virtual environment. During this phase, add new virtual machines

to the virtual infrastructure by (1) creating fresh VMs and installing a clean OS,(2) performing a P2V conversion with tools such as VMware’s Converter

Enterprise (or other tools mentioned in section two), or (3) downloading virtual

appliances from the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace. Consider the kind

of P2V migration that you’ll use.

I Monitor your virtual environment. During this phase, at minimum, you want to

monitor your new virtual host using basic tools such as the graphs included with

the free version of ESXi Server and the vSphere Client. More likely, you want touse more advanced performance graphs offered by vCenter, which can be config-

ured to alert you about performance issues. As time goes on, it’s also likely that

you will want a more sophisticated performance monitoring tool, such as those

covered in the “Management Tool Selection” section on page 14.

I Maintain your virtual environment. Maintenance may be simple and involve a

single virtual host and a handful of VMs. But as your infrastructure grows, you

will need maintenance tools. The primary task of the maintenance phase—whichshould not be confused with the monitoring phase—is patch management.

Thankfully, if you use VMware’s vSphere, every commercial edition includes

Update Manager. With Update Manager, you can keep the patches on your ESX

servers current as well as those for the operating system and even some applica-

tions. If you use VMware’s Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), ESX Server

can be updated without creating downtime for end users.

I

Back up your virtual environment. Just as with physical servers, proper backup of virtual servers is paramount. When you virtualize physical servers, valid back-

ups must be conducted from day one. While backups can be performed using the

existing backup agents already on physical servers, this method isn’t optimal for

virtual machine backup. To back up virtual machines, use virtualization-specific

backup programs that understand which VMs are on which host and that can


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

. . . . . . . .


ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/get.html


http://www.vmware.com/appliances/

http://www.vmware.com/products/update-manager/

http://www.vmware.com/products/drs/



http://www.vmware.com/appliances/

http://www.vmware.com/products/update-manager/

http://www.vmware.com/products/drs/



identify when VMs have moved to a new host. These backup applications sup-

port Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to ensure application-consis-tent backups and may support other features such as file- and image-level

backups, data deduplication, and replication. Examples of virtualization-specific

backup applications include VMware’s Data Recovery, Veeam Software’s Backup

and Vizioncore vRanger.

I Troubleshoot your virtual environment. Hopefully you won’t encounter issues with

your newly deployed virtual infrastructure. But if you do, you should have docu-

mentation and diagrams of your environment. You should also have support in-formation and a support contract (which is recommended) for your servers,

SAN, network, storage and virtualization software.

I Educate and document. While this final phase isn’t included on Siebert’s list, edu-

cation and documentation is a crucial step. Part of any good deployment plan in-

cludes the education of other admins at your company and the documentation of

the new virtual infrastructure and common administrative tasks. While a virtual

server may look like a physical server to other administrators, the administra-tion and troubleshooting of VMs is quite different from that for physical servers.

Training classes should be held so that support staff and junior administrators

can understand the changes to their physical infrastructure and how to perform

the same tasks in a virtual environment.

DEPLOYMENT PITFALLS TO AVOID

While following your plan based on the steps above can prevent problems duringdeployment, there are specific deployment pitfalls for you to avoid. Let’s explore

some of these dangers below.

I Underestimating the amount of RAM needed in virtual hosts. Even if you use

VMware’s memory overcommitment, it’s likely that your production virtual


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

. . . . . . . .


ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST

http://www.vmware.com/products/data-recovery/

http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esx-backup.html


http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vRangerPro/







hosts will use all the RAM you can provide them. Many virtual hosts in produc-

tion environments have 16 GB of RAM or more. As you add more virtual ma-chines, monitor memory closely.

I Underestimating the amount of storage needed in your shared storage. While

VMware’s new vStorage Thin Provisioning helps reduce the amount of storage

utilized by virtualization, virtual machines can quickly gobble up storage in your

centralized storage. If possible, use VMware’s Thin Provisioning on your SAN to

save on disk utilization. You can also use tools such as Vizioncore’s vOptimizer

Pro to reclaim overallocated storage.

I Virtualizing faster than the rate of training and documentation. Virtualizing a physi-

cal server is easy and can be done in a matter of minutes, but training junior ad-

mins and updating documentation can take far longer. Don’t fall prey to

virtualizing all your physical servers and then have to troubleshoot virtual ma-

chine problems or face the wrath of an application development manager whose

systems have been moved without permission.

I Overprovisioning. During initial deployment and over time, it is easy to overprovi-

sion virtual machines because the creation of a new VM is so easy. Just as with

physical servers, you should provision only VMs that the business side needs.

Every new VM uses additional server resources and costs another OS license.

I Lack of testing. Test running an application as a VM, which can be as simple as

doing a test P2V conversion into VMware Workstation and verifying the results.

In my view, 99% of all applications work on a VM, but watch for applicationsthat are graphics-intensive (such as running computer-aided design, or CAD, in-

side a virtual desktop) or applications that require license-key FOBs. While an

application may be compatible, you also want to ensure that your virtual infra-

structure can handle the application’s demands and provide the same level of

performance as that provided by a physical server. I


SERVER

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ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST

http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vOptimizerPro/






IV. Management Tool Selection

once you have deployed your virtual infrastructure, how will you manage it?

You have several tools—and in a variety of categories—from which to choose. Let’s

categorize them as centralized management tools, monitoring tools, security tools,

admin utilities and backup tools. Because there are so many tools out there, we can

break down virtualization tools into even more categories and list additional tools.

But for our purposes here, let’s focus on this list of core tools in the most important

categories.

CENTRALIZED MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Unlike other management tools listed here, centralized (or native) management

servers fulfill most requirements if you have a large number of servers. These

management tools offer several advanced features and ease the management

burden for a larger number of servers.

I Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager. This tool is the centralized

management server for Hyper-V. SCVMM can also manage VMware ESX

(but not at the level of vCenter), and an evaluation version is available.

I VMware vCenter. This tool is the centralized management server for all ESXi

and ESX servers that enables the advanced features of vSphere (such as host

profiles, Guided Consolidation, Distributed Resource Scheduler, Update Man-

ager and many more). VMware vCenter is available in Foundation and Stan-

dard editions, and a 60-day evaluation is available.I Citrix XenServer Essentials. This tool manages XenServer and Hyper-V with a

free 30-day evaluation.

It’s likely that you will choose a centralized management tool based on the virtu-

alization platform you have chosen. While SCVMM supports vSphere management,


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

. . . . . . . .

ManagementTool Selection

ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/virtualmachinemanager/en/us/default.aspx



http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=1687093



http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=1687093



for example, more than 99% of users opt to manage vSphere with vCenter because

it offers many more features than does SCVMM. SCVMM might be used only tomanage vSphere if you had several Hyper-V servers and just one vSphere server.

MONITORING TOOLS

While your centralized virtualization management tools provide current and his-

torical performance information and alerts, you may need more feature-rich and

flexible virtual infrastructure monitoring tools. Here is a list of three of the most

well-known tools.I Vizioncore’s vFoglight. This tool offers performance monitoring, capacity plan-

ning, chargeback and service management.

I Veeam Monitor. This tool is available in a free and commercial edition. Monitor

is coupled with the free business view to monitor and report the way that your

business is structured. Monitor also provides the data needed for trou-

bleshooting, trend reporting and capacity planning.

I VKernel Capacity Planner. This tool is a virtual appliance-based capacity plan-

ning technology for VMware ESX and vSphere.

SECURITY TOOLS

While traditional security products can help secure your virtual infrastructure,

there are several benefits to having security products that are designed for your

virtual infrastructure (and thus understand which virtual machine is on which

server). Further, virtual security solutions can be so much more efficient for a vir-

tual infrastructure than are traditional tools (i.e., using a physical firewall versus avirtual firewall).

I VMware vShield Zones. VMware’s virtual firewall for vSphere is included in

vSphere Advanced or higher editions.

I Altor Networks Virtual Firewall. This firewall runs inside your VMware infra-

structure (and a free trial is available).


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

. . . . . . . .


ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST

http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vFoglight/

http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esx-monitoring.html

http://www.vkernel.com/solutions/capacity-analyzer

http://www.vmware.com/products/vshield-zones/

http://altornetworks.com/products/features/

http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vFoglight/

http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esx-monitoring.html

http://www.vkernel.com/solutions/capacity-analyzer

http://www.vmware.com/products/vshield-zones/

http://altornetworks.com/products/features/



I Catbird Virtual Security Assessment (VSA). This free utility assesses the secu-

rity of your virtual infrastructure.I Tripwire ConfigCheck. This free utility performs a security audit of an ESX

server.

ADMIN UTILITIES

Every Windows administrator has a list of tools at the ready that he uses daily.

Virtualization administrators are no different. Here are my favorite virtualization

admin tools.I Veeam FastSCP. This tool copies files to and from ESX servers that by default

allow only one Secure Shell (SSH)/SCP.

I PuTTY. This small but powerful SSH client connects to the command prompt

of your ESX server.

I Trilead VM Explorer. This tool moves virtual machines from a SAN to an ESX

server, backs up VMs, creates and removes snapshots, and manages ESX

servers from the command line. For more information, see “Trilead VM Ex-

plorer: A Standalone Free VM Management Tool.”

And for additional information on great free admin tools, check out my “Best

Free Virtualization Tools Guide.”

BACKUP

Our virtualization deployment plan included a step to ensure that we backed up

our new virtual infrastructure. While you can use your traditional physical server backup program, if it doesn’t understand which VMs are on which virtual hosts, it

will be difficult to back up these VMs. But there are third-party backup tools avail-

able. Here are the top three virtualization-specific backup programs.

I VMware’s Data Recovery. With vSphere 4, VMware launched its own backup

application that is included with four of the six vSphere editions. It offers file-


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

. . . . . . . .


ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST

http://www2.catbird.com/our_services/vsa.php


http://www.tripwire.com/configcheck/


http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esxi-fastscp.html

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

http://www.trilead.com/








http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esxi-fastscp.html

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html









and-image level backup and restore, VSS support, vCenter integration, and

data deduplication.I Veeam Backup. This backup technology offers backup and replication func-

tionality in a single tool, ESXi support without VMware Consolidated Backup,

file-level recovery, near-CDP replication, database-consistent backup with

VSS, deduplication, and rollback.

I Vizioncore vRanger Pro. As one of the longest-standing virtualization backup

programs available, vRanger Pro offers local area network-free backup, ESXi

support and image-level backup support. I


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

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ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST







Summary

w h i l e e m b a r k i n g o n a virtualization deployment can be daunting at first, fol-

lowing the four stages outlined here enables you to attack the project with inten-

tion, organization and without becoming overwhelmed. In this handbook, we

have covered the four phases of virtual infrastructure deployment:

1. assessment;

2. planning and design;

3. deployment and configuration; and

4. management tool selection.

During the assessment phase, it’s essential to analyze your existing environment

to identify your servers and applications and their resource use. During the plan-

ning and design phase, it’s essential to create an infrastructure and a deployment

plan. Next, in deployment and configuration, we covered the steps to take during

each phase of deployment. And finally, during the management tool selection

phase, it’s important to consider various management tools—native and external

to your virtualization platform—to gain control of and insight into your new vir-

tual infrastructure. Remember, up-front planning is essential and will help inform

your platform and management tools choices. And finally, your preparation before

you begin to deploy virtualization will determine whether your virtual infrastruc-

ture deployment is a success or a failure. The next move is yours. I


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

. . . . . . . .

Summary

ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Davis is the director of infrastructure at TrainSignal.com, the global leader in video training for IT

pros. He holds several certifications including vExpert, VCP, CISSP, and CCIE #9369. Additionally, Davis has

authored hundreds of articles and nine video-training courses at Train Signal. His most popular course is the

VMware vSphere 4 video-training course. His personal website is VMwareVideos.com. You can follow

David on Twitter or connect with David on LinkedIn.

http://www.trainsignal.com/VMware-vSphere-Training-P76.aspx

http://www.vmwarevideos.com/

http://twitter.com/davidmdavis

http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmdavis

http://www.trainsignal.com/VMware-vSphere-Training-P76.aspx

http://www.vmwarevideos.com/

http://twitter.com/davidmdavis

http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmdavis



A VIRTUALIZATION DEPLOYMENT CHECKLIST

I. Assessment

I Make the business case for virtualization.

I Analyze physical server CPU, RAM, disk, network utilization and applications.

I Create an inventory of physical servers and their applications using manual

methods (such as a spreadsheet) or automated tools.

I Understand the types of applications and business criticality of each application.

I Use manual methods or automated tools to determine which servers should be

consolidated onto which virtual hosts.

II. Planning and Design

I Select a virtualization platform and consider total cost of ownership as well as re-

turn on investment, past experience, consolidation ratios, feature set, applicationadd-on potential, industry analysis, third-party application support, grass-roots

support and educational opportunities.

I Develop an infrastructure plan to determine where upgrades will be performed

on your environment’s storage area network, local area network and, potentially,

physical servers.

I Develop a deployment plan to build, configure, monitor and maintain the new virtual

infrastructure.

III. Deployment and Configuration

I Install virtual servers and load the virtualization platform.

I Configure virtual servers.

I Secure virtual servers.

I Populate your virtual environment.

I Monitor your virtual environment.

I Maintain your virtual environment.

I Back up your virtual environment.

I Troubleshoot your virtual environment.

I Train staff and document your environment.

I Consider deployment pitfalls.

IV. Management Tool SelectionI Consider centralized management capabilities (management tools native to your

virtualization platform).

I Investigate additional monitoring tools.

I Investigate security tools for your virtual infrastructure.

I Consider admin utilities.

I Explore backup tools.


SERVER

DEPLOYMENT

. . . . . . . .

Checklist

ASSESSINGTHE

ENVIRONMENT

PLANNING

AND DESIGN

DEPLOYING AND

CONFIGURING

A PLATFORM

CHOOSING

VIRTUALIZATION

MANAGEMENT

TOOLS

SUMMARY

SERVER DELPLOYMENT

CHECKLIST



qWindows Servers and Storage: Planning Your Server Room

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