virtualization: a case study from the it trenches - darren schoen, broward center for the performing...
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Virtualization: A Case Study from the IT TrenchesTRANSCRIPT
Red Riders and Pink Nightmares: A Journey into Virtualization.
Darren SchoenDirector of Technology Infrastructure,
Broward Center for the Performing Arts
First Things First….
Did you say Virtualization????
Red Ryders=Awesome
Pink Nightmare =Not so Awesome
Business Need
•Employees at Remote Location•On Separate Network that had stringent
security.•Able to get to Internet•Cheap•Needed BCPA internal network access
Solution(s)!
•Remote Access Solved (GoToMyPC)
•Buy each employee PC and set up in vacant Cube (not cost effective)
•VIRTUALIZATION!
What about this Virtualization?
•Density, Density, Density•Ease of Administration•Cost Effectiveness•Best use of hardware
Amount of Bacon
Tasti
ness
Density of VMs in Environment
Amou
nt o
f Sav
ings
Vendors We Looked At
•XenServer (Citrix)•VMWare ESX 3.5•Microsoft (Not Hyper-V at that time)•Virtual Iron (Xen Based)
Basis of Comparison
•Ease of Implementation•Support Structure (Online and by Company)•Price•Scalability•Product Maturity
ResultsVMWare Citrix (Xen
Based) Microsoft Virtual Iron (Xen Based)
Ease of Implementation Red Ryder Red Ryder Pink Nightmare Red Ryder
Support Red Ryder Pink Nightmare Red Ryder Pink Nightmare
Price Pink Nightmare Red Ryder Red Ryder Red Ryder
Scalability Red Ryder Red Ryder Pink Nightmare Red Ryder
Maturity of Product Red Ryder Red Ryder Pink Nightmare Red Ryder
Conclusion
Bacon
Why?•Online Support Community•Maturity of Product (It’s bulletproof!)•Scalability•Transparent Page Sharing•Memory Overcommit•Memory Overcommit•Memory Overcommit!!
Density of VMs in Environment
Amou
nt o
f Sav
ings
My Roadmap
Build Server
Install Free VMWare Server Product (at the time, this ran on top of Windows)
Rock and Roll with VMs!
Establish Proof of Concept and start scaling up VMWare environment!
The Joys of ESX Implementation
•Red Ryders:• Ease of Installation• Stability• Migration of current VM objects
•Pink Nightmares:• Hardware, Hardware, Hardware• Licensing, Licensing, Licensing
The Story, Just After Implementation
•1 Stand-Alone ESXi 3.5 VMWare Box w/2TB+ storage.• 16GB RAM, Dual Quad-Core Procs.• Total of 10 VMs (not close to being maxed out)• Managed as a stand-alone box, no cloning or migration.
•All Windows XP OS VMs•All used as ‘desktops’ for remote users connecting by GoToMyPC•No Backup scheme implemented•Total Spent: ~$3500…approximately $350 per VM.•Total Savings up to this point: $3000.
The Story, 2yrs later….•4 Stand-Alone ESXi Boxes, each with 2TB+ internal storage• Total of 63 VMs (not maxed out by a longshot)• Minimum of 42 VMs on at any given time• Managed by Vcenter• Scheduled tasks to clone mission critical VMs to different
VM host on separate partition.• Backup SW on each server VM
•VM objects include:• Exchange Servers• SQL Servers• Application/Web Servers• Workstations
•Total Spent: ~$30,000..about $476.70 per VM•Approximate Savings: ~$75,000
What about Hyper-V?
•Overhead• From our experience, more than VMWare• Even ‘bare-metal’ install uses most of Server 2008 install files
•Performance• No Transparent Page Sharing• No Simultaneous Live Migration• No Memory Overcommit!
Final Thoughts
•Bottom Line (based on my first hand experience):• You don’t need to spend $50,000 to get a
robust Virtual Environment, you can start with 10% of that.• For any Mission Critical Application, VMWare
is the only solution that I would feel comfortable implementing
Questions?