1. Windows Server Virtualization
Infrastructure Planning and Design Series

2. What Is IPD?
Planning and design guidance that aims to clarify and streamline the planning and design process for Microsoft® infrastructure technologies
IPD:
Defines decision flow
Describes decisions to be made
Relates decisions and options for the business
Frames additional questions for business understanding
Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) is a series of planning and design guides created to clarify and streamline the planning and design process for Microsoft® infrastructure technologies.
Each guide in the series addresses a unique infrastructure technology or scenario.
These guides include the following topics:
Defining the technical decision flow (flow chart) through the planning process
Describing the decisions to be made and the commonly available options to consider in making the decisions
Relating the decisions and options for the business in terms of cost, complexity, and other characteristics
Framing the decision in terms of additional questions for the business to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the appropriate business landscape
The guides in this series are intended to complement and augment Microsoft product documentation.

3. Planning for virtualization
Getting Started
This guide was created to enable infrastructure planners to design virtualization infrastructure solutions. This guide includes specific design information, including:
Activities that encourage sound planning. Each activity includes:
Prerequisites and background on the activity
Tasks that will be performed to complete the activity
Reference information regarding the activity’s impact on characteristics such as cost, complexity, and capacity of the solution
Questions to ensure business needs are captured and reflected in the solution
This guide is written for information technology (IT) infrastructure specialists who are responsible for planning and designing a virtualized server infrastructure.
Planning for virtualization

4. Why Use Virtualization?
Here are four virtualization scenarios:
Server Consolidation
Application Migration
Increase IT Agility
Software Development and Training
<Use this slide to discuss broad justifications for choosing virtual server solutions.>
Most organizations explore virtualization for one of the following reasons:
Server consolidation – By consolidating multiple server instances on one set of hardware, efficiency is gained by more fully using the hardware.
Application Migration – Some applications do not run on newer server operating systems, creating a need for the ability to host virtual instances of legacy operating systems to run these applications.
Increase IT Agility – Provide the ability to rapidly add and move servers to respond to changing business needs.
Software Development – By saving and restoring a set of template virtual hard drives (VHD), developers can rapidly cycle through test scenarios during software development processes.

5. Purpose and Overview Purpose: Agenda
To provide design guidance for Microsoft® Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 or Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™
Agenda
Determine Application Requirements
Design the Host Infrastructure
The purpose of this guide is to focus on the considerations that organizations should take into account when designing a virtualization infrastructure.
This will be accomplished by enabling planners to determine application requirements and, using those requirements, design a Microsoft® Virtual Server infrastructure.
Details about disaster recovery, server support, and server hosting are outside the scope of this guide.

6. The Role of Server Virtualization in Infrastructure Optimization
<This slide shows the effect server virtualization has on infrastructure maturity as reflected on the Infrastructure Optimization Model>
According to the Core Infrastructure Optimization Model (Core IO), organizations that are actively pursuing server consolidation for production workloads with virtualization are meeting one of the requirements to move to the Rationalized level. This guide will assist in planning and designing the infrastructure for virtual workloads using Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V™ and Virtual Server 2005 R2.

7. Decision Flow Diagram
This slide depicts the entire planning and design flow for server virtualization. This sequence proceeds in a logical order to first determine requirements and then design an appropriate infrastructure.
Where a step represents decisions the organization must make, this guide presents a corresponding list of common response options. Other steps in this list represent tasks the organization must complete; they appear in this guide because they are needed to complete the infrastructure design.

8. Tips for the Planning Process
Use a spreadsheet or database to track application and host server requirements
Involve the entire organization
Ensure management’s commitment to the virtualization project
Gather requirements and business input
Validate all assumptions with business and technical experts
<Use this slide as an opportunity to share best practices for infrastructure planning.>
Some tips:
Ensure management stakeholders are made part of the planning process. This ensures that there is commitment to successful completion, that business needs are captured and reflected in the plan, and that budgets can be justified.
A “Job Aid” spreadsheet or other data capture method is recommended, as most organizations will have many applications and scenarios for virtualization.

9. Decision Tree Part 1: Determine Application Requirements
1. Determine Virtualization Scope
2. Create the List of Applications
3. Determine Resource Requirements
4. Select the Backup Approach
5. Select a High-Availability Approach
6. Sum and Analyze Application Requirements
Part 1 focuses on details related to the applications that will reside on the virtual infrastructure.
Emphasize that organizations must consider both business and technical requirements before designing the host infrastructure. By enumerating these requirements, it becomes possible to design infrastructure solutions for the proper scale and availability.
At the end of Part 1, the complete requirements should be enumerated and documented.

10. Determine Virtualization Scope
Which part of the infrastructure will be virtualized?
Option 1: Enterprise
Option 2: Hub
Option 3: Satellite
Business Validation
Define virtualization goals/benefits
Define the scope and timeline for implementation
Virtualization technology can apply to all areas of an organization. In this step, businesses should document their primary goals for virtualization. By the completion of this step, an approach to virtualization should be identified and validated with the business.
Many organizations will have the need to deploy virtualization using all three options. Specific design decisions in subsequent steps should keep these decisions in mind.
For the audience, define or explain:
Option 1: Enterprise – The entire organization
Option 2: Hub – Centralized location
Option 3: Satellite – Smaller location, possibly with limited connectivity to central office resources 1

11. Create the List of Applications
Task 1: Determine Application Compatibility
Processor architecture requirements
Number of required processors
Memory requirements
Graphics adapter requirements
Special hardware requirements
Task 2: Verify Business Requirements
Task 3: Document Decisions
Application name
Application version
Is the application supported?
Will application be virtualized?
Application owner
Approved by business
Outlook Web Access
2007
Yes
Server Admin
Microsoft System Center Essentials
IT Service Desk
Application 3
Application 4 …
**ANIMATED SLIDE**
<In this slide, we begin to inventory applications and determine whether they are candidates for virtualization.>
Step 2 involves determining whether applications should run on a virtual server. Compatibility and availability requirements are documented for each application to be used later on when mapping guests to hosts and determining high-availability needs.
The other tasks in this step involve the collection and documentation of business requirements, such as those related to security and performance. 2

12. Determine Resource Requirements
Sources of performance data:
Real-world/Historical performance data
Specifications and requirements
Benchmark/Load-testing results
Tasks:
Object
Counters or Criteria
CPU
% Processor Time
Memory
Committed Bytes
Disk
Space and Performance
Network
Bytes/sec, bandwidth
Backup
Backup required?
Availability
Determine method
Coexistence and Isolation
Workload segregation
Determining expected hardware resource utilization requirements is an important step.
Organizations should plan to collect and analyze performance statistics based on available data.
Details can be stored in a spreadsheet or database in order to provide easy analysis in future steps.
Some example performance counters:
Processor (CPU)
Process (memory)
Committed bytes (memory)
Physical disk (disk)
Network interface (network) 3

13. Select the Backup Approach
Application Backup Options:
Option 1: Per Application
Option 2: By Guest
Option 3: By Host
Considerations:
Performance
Downtime/availability
Storage capacity and limitations
Ease of recoverability
Complexity of implementation
Discuss the implications of various backup methods for disaster recovery and business continuity.
Backup requirements should be based on:
Data loss limitations (risk tolerance)
Recovery intervals (may be typified by Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with the business)
Storage limitations (storage infrastructure costs)
Organizations will likely use a combination of backup methods based on specific requirements for each application. 4

14. Select a High-Availability Approach
Application Availability Options:
Option 1: Network Load Balancing
Web servers (stateless)
Option 2: Application-Specific Clustering
Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS)-aware applications
Option 3: Host Clustering
Last resort option (host in an MSCS cluster)
Characteristics:
Availability, manageability, interoperability
In this step, map the requirements you identified in Step 3 to specific options for implementing high-availability virtual systems.
Option 1: Network Load Balancing
Stateless applications such as Web servers can have high-availability support by establishing network load balancing.
Option 2: Application-Specific Clustering
Many enterprise applications that customers consider to be mission critical have fault-tolerance capabilities built into them through cluster awareness.
Option 3: Host Clustering
Good faith effort for high uptime. Does not offer fault tolerance beyond what applications may possess. 5

15. Summarize Application Requirements
Purpose: Determine complete requirements for the host infrastructure
Tasks:
Task 1: Summarize Guest Hardware Resource Requirements
CPU, memory, disk (performance and storage capacity), and network
Task 2: Group Applications
Backup, co-existence, physical isolation, high-availability requirements
This step aggregates all of the recorded requirements. This information will be used in succeeding steps to map resources to workloads.
By the end of this step, you should have a completed spreadsheet or database that summarizes all the requirements for the applications and operating systems that will move to the virtual infrastructure. 6

16. Decision Tree Part 2: Design the Host Infrastructure
7. Select a Form Factor for the Hosts
8. Determine Server Placement
9. Map Guests to Hosts
10. Determine the Host Backup Approach
11. Design High Availability
12. Design the Storage Infrastructure
13. Design the Network Infrastructure
14. Validate the Overall Approach
Part 2 focuses on using information collected in Part 1 to design the host infrastructure. Details include mapping business, technical, and resource requirements to host resources.
Based on host infrastructure design considerations, it is likely that some decisions made in Part 1 will need to be revisited.

17. Select a Form Factor for the Hosts
Begin designing the host infrastructure
Options:
Option 1: Leverage existing hardware
Option 2: Purchase new hardware
Characteristics:
Cost
Performance
Availability/Reliability
Manageability
This is the first step in mapping guest application requirements to the host infrastructure.
Decision points will be based largely on the organization’s current technology investments and future directions.
Discussion: Using existing servers can be cheaper initially, but this can lead to higher maintenance costs and lack of uniformity. 7

18. Determine Host Server Placement
Determine where servers should be placed based on:
Costs
Manageability
Security
Performance
Availability
Options:
Option 1: Data Centers (Centralized)
Option 2: Branch or Satellite Offices
Based on the scope of the virtualization project, organizations must determine where physical host servers should be placed.
Most organizations will deploy some servers to remote locations with the majority of computers placed within centralized data center environments.
Discussion: Centralized versus distributed infrastructures and the effects on cost, manageability, security, reliability, and availability. 8

19. Map Guests to Hosts
Goal: Determine the optimal allocation of workloads based on application requirements
Tasks:
Task 1: Determine Target Host Resource Utilization Goals
Task 2: Draw a Host/Guest Plan
Task 3: Re-evaluate Infrastructure Capacity
Process will likely be iterative and can require trade-offs
Mapping guests to hosts can be a complicated process due to the number of variables involved.
Organizations should plan to spend significant time and effort in determining the optimal mappings.
It is likely that some business requirements will need to be revisited at this point.
Discussion: If possible, discuss some examples of guests that should not be placed on the same host. (Examples: Guests participating in an MSCS cluster or guests that intensively use the same resources, such as CPU, disk, or memory.) 9

20. Determine the Host Backup Approach
Option 1: Guest-Level Backups
Treat virtual machines (VMs) as physical machines (use of backup agents)
Pros: Reduces storage requirements; more control over backups
Cons: Requires guest operating system support; recovery can be complex and time-consuming
Option 2: Host-Level Backups
Back up entire VMs from the host file system
Pros: Rapid recovery from failures; consistent backup method
Cons: Can require third-party hardware and software; requires large amounts of storage capacity
Host backup selections are often based on application backup requirements.
Discuss requirements of specific applications for backup and restoration. Emphasize that point-in-time recovery usually requires special agents or snapshot services and is easier to achieve with Option 1.
Specific goals, such as quick recovery or the maintenance of a disaster recovery site, will lead to Option 2. 10

21. Design High Availability
Decisions will be based on application requirements
Option 1: Host Clustering
Option 2: Other Clustering Options
Protects against VM and hardware failures
Network clustering
Requires shared storage
Guest clustering
Requires additional reserved capacity for failovers
Application-specific clustering
For each application identified in Step 5 that requires network load balancing, determine how many additional VM instances of the application are needed, and then map them onto physical host systems.
In Step 9, you mapped all the applications onto physical servers. Count the number of physical servers that have applications requiring an MSCS cluster or host cluster as defined in Step 5. This number represents the number of active cluster nodes required. 11

22. Design the Storage Infrastructure
Tasks:
Task 1: Design for Parallelism
Task 2: Evaluate Direct-attached Storage
Task 3: Evaluate Network-based Storage
Network-attached Storage
Storage Area Networks (SAN)
iSCSI
Task 4: Evaluate Virtual Hard Disk Types
Fixed-size versus dynamically expanding VHDs
Undo disks and differencing disks
Storage design involves many considerations, including the organization’s current investments.
Network-based storage can be accessed from host systems or from within virtual machines through the SMB or iSCSI protocols.
VHD decisions will be based on functional requirements (for example, VM rollbacks), as well as storage space versus performance trade-offs. 12

23. Design the Network Infrastructure
Translate guest requirements to host
Task
Strategy
Determine VM Network Requirements
No connectivity
VM-only networks
Guest-Host connections
Physical network access
Host Bandwidth Requirements
Summarize VM bandwidth requirements
Public/Private/Internet network access
Plan for Reliability & Availability
Network adapter teaming
Switch and NIC redundancy
Load balancing and automatic failover
Standard network design approaches can be leveraged in virtual environments.
Specialized options, such as VM-only networks, can offer interesting options for communications between guest systems.
Network security options for the physical network include:
Virtual Local Area Networks (VLAN)
Firewalls
Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS)
Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS)
Network Traffic Monitoring and Analysis Solutions
Discussion: Discuss the process of mapping guest networking requirements. Will this change guest to host mapping? 13

24. Validate the Overall Approach
Goals:
Verify that all decisions are aligned with business requirements
Validate changes to initial requirements
Tasks:
Task 1: Validate Application Requirements
Task 2: Validate Host Infrastructure Design Decisions
This step will require input from all areas of the organization.
Keeping track of changes to requirements definitions can be helpful in identifying areas that should be reviewed.
If necessary, organizations should iterate over all of the primary guest and host decision points, based on new information that has been collected.
Discussion: Review entire plan. Does it satisfy all stated business goals? Does it achieve required criteria for availability, capacity, and cost? 14

25. What’s Next? Implement your design Quantify return on investment
Repeat as appropriate for:
Enterprise
Hub
Satellite
Provide feedback on the documentation to
Repeat for other sections of your environment.
Repeat as appropriate for:
Option 2: Hub
Option 3: Satellite

26. Summary and Conclusion
Organizations should base the design of their Virtual Server infrastructure on business and technical requirements
Considerations should include:
The scope of virtualization
Technical requirements and considerations
Additional business requirements
Designing a host infrastructure to meet those requirements
Validating the overall approach
Stress the need for ensuring that a virtualized infrastructure serve the requirements of the business. It should not be virtualized for the sake of virtualization, but should solve some need for reducing cost, improving performance or reliability, or reducing complexity.

27. Find More Information The Microsoft Solution Accelerators Web site
microsoft.com/technet/SolutionAccelerators
Contact the IPD team
Download the full document
Online resources:
The Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 Home Page provides a central location for information about the Virtual Server platform.
The Virtual Machine Technology FAQ provides answers to commonly asked questions about Virtual Server functionality, licensing, and deployment options.
The Microsoft TechNet Server Virtualization Forum provides a location in which architects, implementers, and end users can discuss issues related to designing and deploying Microsoft Virtual Server.
The Technical White Paper, Improving IT Efficiency at Microsoft Using Virtual Server 2005, provides details on how Microsoft has implemented a Virtual Server infrastructure. An associated Webcast is also available.
Microsoft TechNet Radio: How Microsoft Does IT: The Future of Server Virtualization.