Melbourne VMUG, 9 December 2010

VMWare at La Trobe

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Presenter

Peter Harms (RHCE)Unix Systems Team LeaderLa Trobe University, Bundoora

VMWare Evangelist

p.harms@latrobe.edu.au03 9479 5163

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Presenter History- First used VMware in 2000 (Workstation v1)- Heavy user of Workstation v3 and v4 from 2000 – 2005- No exposure to GSX or ESX before starting at La Trobe

in 2006, took over ESX admin role in 2007- Now look after the entire VMware deployment at the

University

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VMware “View” 10 years old?

In early 2001 a colleague and I developed a system using Workstation 3 and advanced snapshot management

REDO log files were manipulated in such a way that we could rapidly deploy applications and maintain user settings using VMware Workstation

The concept was presented to my then employer, promoting the benefits of using virtualisation in the classroom/lab environment

VMware “View” 10 years old?

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VMware “View” 10 years old?

The process was completely automated and went into production soon after, and was still in use in 2006

The workstation and server specifications were quite low...

• Dual Pentium class CPU running at 750MHz or greater

• 512Mb RAM (1Gb preferred)

• 60Gb hard drive (minimum) for storing user settings between sessions

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Server specifications

• Pentium class CPU running at 750MHz or greater

• 256 Mb RAM (512Mb RAM if running Windows 2000 Server)

• Quality video card (TNT2 class)

• 10Gb hard drive9

Workstation specifications

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Original La Trobe Environment

In 2006/2007 the ESX environment at La Trobe was small:• 3 ESX hosts• Ver 2.5 (maybe even earlier)• Dual core server CPU’s• 16 GB RAM• Few datastores• Few VM’s

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Current Environment

Over the last 4 years the environment has grown substantially:

• ESX Enterprise Plus – Ver 4.0 Update 2, transitioning to ESXi 4.1

• 2 vCentre servers• 33 Hosts in 3 datacentres• 438 Virtual Machines• 8 clusters• 78 SAN datastores• 38 networks

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Production Environment• 14 Hosts

– 10 HP BL 460c G6• Dual socket, quad core, 72GB RAM

– 4 IBM 3850 M2• Quad socket, hex core, 72GB RAM

• 200 Virtual Machines• 1 Datacentre• 3 Clusters

– 1 Linux, 2 Windows– HA and DRS– Site Recovery Manager

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Dev Environment• 15 Hosts

– 8 HP BL 460c G1• Dual socket, dual core, 32GB RAM

– 2 HP BL 480c G1• Dual socket, dual core, 16GB RAM

– 5 IBM x3655• Dual socket, dual core, 32GB RAM

• 160 Virtual Machines• 2 Datacentres• 4 Clusters

– 1 Linux, 2 Windows, 1 Test– HA and DRS

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DR Environment• 3 Hosts

– 3 HP BL 460c G1• Dual socket, dual core, 32GB RAM

• 4 production virtual machines sharing the hosts• 1 Datacentre• 1 Cluster

– HA– DRS– SRM– 8 datastores being replicated

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Current VM Workload• Public website www.latrobe.edu.au and Intranet

– Legacy and CMS– Application servers

• PHP, Perl, Tomcat, IIS– Database servers

• Postgres, MySQL, Oracle

• Student Management System– Physical v Virtual performance testing

• Learning Management System– WEBCT– Moodle

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Current VM Workload• DNS master and secondary nodes• Lectopia management node• Email gateways and quarantine DB• Listserv• Squid proxies• Windows File and Print• WINS• Monitoring

– Cacti

Physical v Virtual Testing

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Physical v Virtual Testing

Physical machine Specification: 12 Core, 32 GB of Ram

• Users supported: 85 VUs (CPUs peak >= 80% beyond 85 users)

 6 VMs on the same hardware:• Users Supported: 150 VUs

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Physical v Virtual Testing

Conclusion: • VMware is more efficient in handling

number of users with better response times as compared to Physical hardware

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Environment Considerations• CPU compatibility

– Essential for vMotion– Difficult to maintain over a 3 or 4 year hardware cycle

• RAM utilisation– Never seem to have enough RAM– Physical OS separation to maximise shared memory

• Storage– LUN sizing– VM grouping– Never seem to have enough storage

• Network

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Design Considerations• Cluster design

– To pool or not to pool– Physical separation– OS grouping– Host consistency

• Cluster Sizing– HA considerations– Time to evacuate– Impact of failed host– VM density

• Getting the right CPU/RAM balance• 8G per core

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Design Considerations• Monitoring

– Be prepared to defend the environment• Oh, it’s virtual – there’s your problem...• This application is not supported in a virtual environment

– Know what the environment is doing• Percent ready creep• Balloon blowouts

– Know how to produce performance reports• Confidence must be tangible

– Buy the right tools• vCentre does not do it all

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Performance Monitoring• VMWare AppSpeed• Quest vFoglight

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Performance Monitoring• VMWare AppSpeed

– Agent on selected ESX hosts• Connected to vSwitch

– Management VM– Plugin to vCentre– Monitors performance of applications

• Http• Mssql

– In depth analysis of database and web server performance– Reply Size, Latency, Hits and Throughput– Automatically discovers and categorizes traffic

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VMWare AppSpeed

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VMWare AppSpeed

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VMWare AppSpeed

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VMWare AppSpeed

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Performance Monitoring• Quest vFoglight

– Many automated reports– Performance history– Alarm explanation– Fault prediction– Capacity planning– Resource hungry!

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Quest vFoglight

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Quest vFoglight

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Quest vFoglight

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Performance Monitoring Examples

Performance Monitoring Examples

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Environment Consistency• Concept of server “Classes” developed in 2009

– Standardise the server hardware– More flexible usage options– Better fault recovery

• Drop in replacement an option• Mobile datacentre possibilities

• 5 classes for blade and rack servers– Single socket, quad core, 6GB RAM to:– Dual socket, quad core, 72GB RAM– All with 300G internal disk mirror– Blades preferred

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Environment Consistency• Concept of server classes further developed in 2010

– More emphasis on ESX hardware– Anything less than a Class C will be virtual by default– Target is 90% Virtual within 12 months

• Sell the benefits of virtualisation– Low density hosts are worth it– DR made easy– Cut the hardware ties– Application mobility and uptime

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High Density Virtualisation• Virtualisation Challenges

– Large Enterprise Applications • SAP• SQL/Oracle farms

– Domain Controllers– Desktop Virtualisation– Patching un-clustered high availability servers– True high availability– Fault Tolerance

Low Density Hardware

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Medium Density Hardware

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High Density Hardware

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Next Environment• CISCO UCS being deployed

– 15 B200 M2• Dual socket, hex core, 96GB RAM• General purpose ESX – high density low spec

– 10 B200 M2• Dual socket, hex core, 48GB RAM• Specific purpose ESX – low density high spec

– 3 C200 M2• Dual socket, hex core, 48GB RAM

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The Cloud• Was a cloud sceptic, now a convert!• Private Cloud with vCloud Director

– Centralised IT management– Remove the “I need access to the console” problem– Delivering true “Infrastructure as a Service”– “Virtualise” the ESX hosts

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Questions

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Thank You