Virtualization Strategies for the CIO
The popularity of server virtualization technology has reached a point where virtualization implementations are now present in data centers of all sizes. To keep pace with the demands and problems that occur in a wide variety of data centers and virtual environments, server virtualization technology continues to change, adapt and grow.
This virtualization optimization and implementation guide covers important topics for IT professionals and virtualization administrators, such as virtualization hypervisors, security strategies, storage infrastructures and more.
Requires Free Membership to View
These tips and strategies from our Introduction
to Virtualization e-book can be applied to any data center no matter the size, virtualization
deployment stage or level of IT staff expertise.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Combining virtualization technology with disaster recovery
• Server virtualization optimization
• Server virtualization test and development procedures
•Creating high-availability virtual infrastructures
• Virtualization's effect on storage infrastructures
• Virtual environment security strategies
• Selecting the best hypervisor technology for your data center
environment
Using virtual servers for disaster recovery: The pros and cons
Learn how to incorporate virtualization
technology in disaster recovery plans and procedures. Some benefits include server
consolidation, flexibility, and live migration of storage and virtual machine (VM) workloads to
remote sites running different hardware. But there are downsides, such as increased administrative
and network complexity.
Virtualization disaster recovery best practices
Before you can integrate a disaster recovery strategy with virtualization technology, you need to
consider several factors. Careful scrutiny of network, server, storage and software limitations is
imperative for disaster recovery success. In this article, learn disaster
recovery best practices to guarantee solid networking and hardware performance.
Differences between physical and virtual data migrations
Adding virtualization strategies to disaster recovery plans has numerous implications. The most
obvious complication for virtualization administrators is learning the various data migrations
associated with VMs and server hardware. This article covers the difference between physical
and virtual data migrations to ensure virtual machine migration success.
Ease disaster recovery operations, save money with server consolidation
Virtualization products allow firms to dramatically reduce
data center costs by reducing power, hardware and floor space requirements. Further, it allows
virtualization administrators to quickly re-deploy, rebuild or restore VM data from a snapshot. In
this article, learn how a Pennsylvanian realty company expected to save $60,000 a year by
virtualizing half its server infrastructure.
Virtual storage access methods for improved disaster recovery
Virtual
storage access methods and tools facilitate storage flexibility and nondisruptive migration.
But there are numerous virtual storage approaches available. Find out which virtual storage access
method and tools will help your firm's disaster recovery implementation.
Server virtualization project breathes new life into 'shelfware'
Server virtualization projects can be an expensive endeavor, costing $30 million-plus for a
Michigan temporary employment placement agency. In a little more than a year after the
virtualization consolidation project began, however, the firm retireds 50 of its 269 servers, while
improving its AC power situation. In this article, learn how virtualization projects can economize
power and cooling for a longer
server hardware shelfware life.
Create a server consolidation plan to avoid sprawl
Because server virtualization allows quick and easy VM provisioning, numerous problems can arise --
such as VM sprawl, software licensing violations and maintenance difficulties. The best way to
manage these virtual machine problems is to have a clearly defined server
virtualization consolidation plan. Find out how to draw up a consolidation plan and how to
protect against hardware failure.
Right-sizing enterprise VM allocation
The goal of server consolidation is to leverage unused computing power. But the key is to find the
correct VM consolidation ratio so that the system performance and user experience don't suffer.
While there is no single recipe for enterprise VM allocation ratios, here are some ways to manage
and monitor VM resource needs.
Virtual server performance improves with resource throttling
In any virtualization environment virtual
server performance problems are bound to emerge. One way to address virtualization performance
issues is through resource throttling. Another optimization option is identify elevated resource
usage through virtual server performance tests.
Test and development virtualization on a budget
Virtualizing volatile IT environments, such as test and development labs, is a relatively simple
operation. It doesn't have to be costly either, because current physical server hardware offers a
cost savings in terms of dollars for processing power over previous generations. This tip provides
step-by-step instructions for ensuring a painless, cost-effective virtualized
environment implementation.
Virtual server consolidation for test and development environments
IT professionals and developers require constant access to complex technologies, such as directory
services, email services, databases and Web servers for test and development purposes. Virtual
server consolidation projects can reduce the resources necessary to support and maintain these
services. Learn how virtual server consolidation can decrease your organization's carbon footprint
while maintaining consistency in your virtual environment.
When outsourcing, virtualization support can be a problem
When building test and development labs in a virtualized environment, obstacles are inevitable. For
one Michigan automotive parts supplier, virtualization caused contractual problems with its
outsourcing partners. Read how it overcame the challenges of mixing
outsourcing and virtualization.
Beyond a basic virtual test and development lab
Sophisticated test and development labs may require additional VMs, storage and other resources.
While some of these add-ons can be expensive, they don't automatically have to cost additional
money. Discover how to expand
a virtualization project, navigate through licensing issues and select the right monitoring
tools when building a permanent laboratory
Which high-availability strategy is best for your VMs?
A high-availability environment can keep business-critical workloads online during unexpected
failures. There are three principal high
availability strategies for VMs: host clusters, guest failover clusters and network
load-balancing clusters. This tip describes each approach to help you decide which is best for your
organization.
High-availability pitfalls in virtual environments
The benefits of a high-availability virtual environment are fairly obvious, but there are potential
pitfalls as well. Having capable hardware and diligent resource monitoring are necessary for a
successful high-availability implementation. Learn more about these drawbacks and other
high-availability deployment risks.
Three methods to make virtual machines highly available
For the availability of a virtualization environment, it's important to develop different ways to
protect production workloads. The best approach, however, is a combination of various methods. In
this tip, find out three techniques for making virtual machine
workloads highly available.
Storage area networks vs. network-area storage for virtual storage
Storage area networks (SANs) and network-attached storage (NAS) are both viable in a virtual
environment. Each setup poses strengths and weaknesses, however. In this tip, learn why many
organizations virtualize
only SAN storage, leaving NAS for secondary tasks.
Virtual storage area network meets backup, disaster recovery needs
Sometimes, virtual storage area network backups encounter problems that baffle the best virtual
administrators. When these problems arise, it's time to call in the experts. Find out how a
Montreal-based law firm solved its virtual
storage area network backups problems with DataCore's SANmelody software.
Maintain virtual logical unit number reliability and performance
Storage virtualization doesn't hinder the ability to resize logical unit numbers (LUNs), but
dynamic re-sizing often requires specialized or storage system-specific software tools. Done
properly, however, creating and resizing LUNs gives storage administrators a lot of flexibility.
Discover how storage-specific
tools can help IT staff get the best possible performance from virtualized storage
environments.
Four ways to select and manage storage virtualization
Storage virtualization consists of the following four categories: software, appliances,
switch-level and array-level. To identify the right method for your virtual environment, you need
to strike a balance among the factors of cost, technical complexity, performance, flexibility, ease
of use and interoperability with storage types and subsystems. In this tip, find out how to select
and manage the storage virtualization method that satisfies your infrastructure's needs.
What storage virtualization brings to the enterprise
Server virtualization technology directly affects storage efficiency. Through overprovisioning or
neglect, unused storage resources can be "orphaned" as storage volumes increase. Learn how storage
virtualization can achieve a balance among such factors as performance,
management efficiency and flexibility.
Resource pool security procedures in a virtual infrastructure
Server virtualization technology doesn't necessary have to change security strategies. Securing the
resource pool and managing who has access to it are still critical security principles. In this
tip, learn how to identify people entering
your secured virtual infrastructure.
Don't sacrifice secure virtualization for more functionality
Security is a main concern for healthcare providers. Securing a newly implemented virtual
environment, however, adds another layer of complexity to a data center. Read how a healthcare
industry software vendor was able to properly
balance a secure virtual environment with regular business functionality.
Server virtualization security issues require attention to detail
Physical and virtual environment security strategies have a lot in common. The key to any secured
environment -- traditional or virtual -- is attention to detail and vigilance. In this article,
learn about virtual
environment security risks and various protection strategies to secure your data center.
Hypervisor installation: 7 features to consider first
A hypervisor installation is relatively simple, but you should consider
several factors before deploying a virtualization technology. Issues such as vendor lock-in and
workload support may make certain hypervisors more attractive than others. This tip outlines the
steps you should take before installing a hypervisor in a data center environment.
Bare-metal hypervisors vs. hosted hypervisors
Bare-metal hypervisors are the most commonly deployed type. A hosted hypervisor, on the other hand,
runs within an operating system and allows additional OSes and applications to run on top of it.
Learn about the pros
and cons of bare-metal and hosted hypervisors before deploying a virtual environment in your
data center.
Hypervisor technology: Out of the lab and into production
Even seasoned IT veterans encounter hypervisor problems at times. This server virtualization
technology, however, is essential to any dynamic data center -- and well worth the trouble. Learn
how to achieve
desirable levels of server consolidation through server virtualization while supporting
application streaming to clients.
This was first published in December 2009
Join the conversationComment
Share
Comments
Results
Contribute to the conversation