Agenda Hardware Virtualization Concepts Hardware Virtualization Implementations VMware’s Technology Building Blocks ESX Boot Process Drivers and ESX Virtualization as an Enterprise Computing Infrastructure Problems Solved Virtual Infrastructure Demo

VMware Virtualization Concepts A large file can function as the logical disk for an OS and its applications. This file is commonly referred to as an image, a stack, or a container. The virtualization layer is software that mimics “generic” server hardware and hides the particular details of the real underlying hardware (in this case, a Dell PowerEdge server). When an image is executed by the virtualization layer, it becomes a Virtual Machine, or simply a “VM.” Multiple VM’s can run simultaneously, sharing physical resources through scheduling and multiplexing capabilities of the virtualization layer.

Hardware Virtualization Implementations Example: VMware ESX Server Examples: VMware GSX Server Microsoft Virtual Server

VMware’s Technology Building Blocks ESX Server virtualizes shared x86 resources for apps by enabling multiple Operating Systems to run concurrently and independently on one server. How: The ESX OS microkernel runs directly on HW and emulates x86 resources. VirtualCenter deploys and manages x86 servers as a single pool, including security, image deployment, monitoring, and Server and VM management.. How: Middleware API on VM database and image repository. VMotion migrates live, stateful apps between servers with no noticeable interruption in service to end users. How: Uses a combination of memory copy and SAN file system redirection.

ESX Boot Process ESX vmkernel PowerEdge Server VM Linux LiLo Boot Linux Service Console ESX vmkernel Red Hat Linux PowerEdge Server Linux LiLo Boot

Drivers and ESX ESX vmkernel PowerEdge Server VM Linux Service Console The Service Console retains drivers and control for non-essential devices such as floppy, CD-ROM, video, etc. VMkernel can access these through the Service Console OpenManage Disney installs here. VMs use well-known, widely available, already-in-the-OS drivers Except for the processor, VMs do not see the actual PE hardware. VM Linux Service Console ESX vmkernel PowerEdge Server Linux OpenSource Drivers recompiled into ESX by VMware. Usually only for “high performance” devices such as RAID, NIC, and HBA.

Virtualization as an Enterprise Computing Infrastructure

Problems Solved Consolidation: Reducing the total number of physical servers by converting many of them to virtual machines and hosting them on a few physical systems. Normalization: Shield software from hardware peculiarities and change. Isolation: Partition applications into private containers enforcing resource allocations and containing crashes. Replication: Quickly deploy software stacks from a read-only archive, called a “gold master library” by cloning them within a matter of seconds. Relocation: Software stack (guest OS and applications) can move freely between available virtualized platforms, even while executing, simplifying hardware maintenance and load-balancing.