What is Virtual? – Definition of Terms

Virtual [Latin] :

- the power or opportunity to present; anlagemäßig, simulated, artificially, seemingly

Virtual :

- the system as a way to present; not really, But really appearing

Virtual [French] :

- fachsprachlich “seemingly”, “not really”, the system as a way to present

The history of virtualization of IT systems

1970is

- Mainframes and Partitonierung

1980is

- Virtual networks

1990is

- Desktop and server virtualization

2000is

- Virtual Data Center

IT Solutions for virtualization of IT systems

Fixed memory :

• Partitioning
• Composite of hard disks (RAID)
• Speichernetzwerk (SAN)

Main memory :

• “Pagefile” / Swap
• Virtual address space for Windows NT
• Überprovisionierung in virtual environments

Hardware :

• Hardware Partitioning (HP, IBM, Sun)
• Mainframes (IBM, Unisys)

Network :

• Virtual networks (VLAN) Switch independence
• Virtual Router Redundancy (VRRP) / Internet access

Applications :

• Web 2.0
• Terminalservices / Citrix Metaframe, XenApp
• Application Streaming (ThinApp, XenApp, Softgrid)

Operating system :

• Windows operating system virtualization / Linux
• Server Virtualization
• Desktop Virtualization

Digression: Storage Area Network (SAN)

Server Virtualization

Definition of Terms

Virtualization is an abstract level, the physical hardware from the operating system is decoupled and thus allows a greater utilization of IT resources and greater flexibility.

Variants of virtualization

Resource Optimization

• Utilization of existing CPUs
• i.d.R. only a fraction
• Modern CPUs provide many times more than a few years ago
• Servers operate with a CPU load of about. 80% economically -> Efficiency
• Working memory load on the server very uneven
• Hard disk storage is often distributed very unfavorable

Physical to Virtual

• Transition of existing physical servers to virtual infrastructure – No reinstallation is required
• Installation of new servers into the virtual infrastructure
• Migration / Upgrade of applications
• Serverkonsolidierung

Why Virtualization?

Cost savings in the purchase or. Implementation

• Serverkonsolidierung
• Revision of existing concepts
• Less server hardware required
• “One Service one Server” feasible
• Simple migration scenario, the existing infrastructure
• License Benefits of Virtualization (zB. Windows Server, MS SQL,…)
• Cluster without an operating system or. Application support implemented (Licenses)

Flexibility and efficiency

• Abstraction layer between the hardware and operating system
• Easy migration from existing physical machines
• Provisioning of new servers and applications
• Future platform migrations
• Easy to implement test scenarios
• Hardware maintenance without downtime of services
• Independence of the physical hardware

Reduction in operating costs

• Energy costs (Strom-Zufuhr/Klimatisierung) -> 20-40% Savings
• Simplify infrastructure management
• Increase the availability of services by "high availability"
• Reduction of disaster recovery times

What must be considered when the virtualization of IT systems?

Cost

• i.d.R. Software licenses required for virtualization
• Breakeven analysis important!

Conditions

• Air conditioning
• Power Supply

Data Storage

• Central data storage -> SAN required (Exception: Single server solution)
• Performance -> due to the density of the high throughput required VMs

Data Backup

• Mixture of “classical” Backup and “Image” Fuse
• Disk-to-Disk-to-Tape sinnvoll

Special hardware required?

• ISDN cards (zB. Faxservices)
• Meters / industrial facility on multiple COM-ports
• Some software license dongle
• Some USB devices

A server operating

• “Small Business” Concept
• Kostenloser Hypervisor (VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V) still makes sense

A server solution

2 Cluster Server with storage unit

“Small” BladeSystem solution with SAN

“Grosse” BladeSystem solution with SAN