VMware vSphere Fault Tolerance for Multiprocessor

Virtual Machines - Technical Preview

Jim Chow, VMware

Wei Xu, VMware

BCO5065

#BCO5065

2 2

Disclaimer

This session may contain product features that are

currently under development.

This session/overview of the new technology represents

no commitment from VMware to deliver these features in

any generally available product.

Features are subject to change, and must not be included in

contracts, purchase orders, or sales agreements of any kind.

Technical feasibility and market demand will affect final delivery.

Pricing and packaging for any new technologies or features

discussed or presented have not been determined.

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ft what is it?

4 4

why this is really good for you.

ft

5 5

kind of like magic. ft

6 6

never misses a beat.

ft

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point and click. no keyboard necessary.

ft

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we’ll keep the lights on for you.

ft

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protects the stuff you care about.

ft

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vCenter Server

Central management server

Continuous availability difficult

Multiprocessor FT makes it simple

• Natural fit

VMware

vCenter Server

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Backing up FT VMs

Support for vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP)

• API for non-disruptive snapshots

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technology that scales with you.

ft

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hw crashes: no more.

as simple as it looks.

takes care of the nitty gritty.

protects the stuff you care about.

scales up and scales out.

ft

THANK YOU

VMware vSphere Fault Tolerance for Multiprocessor

Virtual Machines - Technical Preview

Jim Chow, VMware

Wei Xu, VMware

BCO5065

#BCO5065

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Backup Slides

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thanks for listening.

questions?

ft

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Performance Numbers

0

20

40

60

80

100

Microsoft SQLServer 2-vCPU

Microsoft SQLServer 4-vCPU

OracleSwingbench 2-

vCPU

OracleSwingbench 4-

vCPU

% Throughput (FT/non FT) (higher is better)

Similar configuration to vSphere 4 FT Performance Whitepaper

• Models real-world workloads: 60% CPU utilization

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43% of companies experiencing disasters never

re-open, and 29% close within two years.

(McGladrey and Pullen)

93% of business that lost their data center for

10 days went bankrupt within one year. (National Archives & Records Administration)

Top executives say 10 hours to recovery;

IT managers say up to 30 hours. (Harris Interactive)

Disasters Happen. Do You Need Protection?

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Do You Need Protection?

Server failures happen

• Google released some data about their server failures

• 2% to 4% servers fail, 1% to 5% of disk drives crash.

• 20 rack failures: 40-80 machines instantly disappeared

• 1-6 hours to get back

Sources

http://content.dell.com/us/en/gen/d/large-business/google-data-center

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vSphere Offers Protection at Every Level

NIC Teaming,

Storage

Multipathing

High Availability,

Fault Tolerance, vMotion,

DRS

Storage

vMotion

Site

Recovery

Manager

Component Server Storage Data Site

Backup Solutions

Protection against hardware failures

Planned maintenance with zero downtime

Protection against unplanned downtime

and disasters

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vSphere Availability Portfolio

Coverage

Hardware

Guest OS

Application

Fault Tolerance

App Monitoring APIs

none minutes Downtime

Guest Monitoring

VM

Infrastructure HA

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Background

2009: vSphere Fault Tolerance in vSphere 4.0

2010: Updates to vSphere Fault Tolerance in vSphere 4.1

2011: Updates to vSphere Fault Tolerance in vSphere 5.0

Details: http://www.vmware.com/products/fault-tolerance/

Problem:

• FT only for uni-processor VMs

• Is FT for multi-processor VMs possible?

• An impressively hard problem

• Concerted effort to find an approach

Reached a key milestone

• We’d like to share it

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A Starting Point: vSphere FT

vLockstep

vSphere ESX

(Primary)

vSphere ESX

(Secondary)

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A Clean Slate

vLockstep

vSphere ESX

(Primary)

vSphere ESX

(Secondary)

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A Clean Slate

vSphere ESX

(Primary)

vSphere ESX

(Secondary)

Next: FT in practice

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Turning on Multiprocessor FT

Creating two VMs

A new VM, but identical configuration

• vRAM, # vCPUs, vNICs, etc.

Each VM owns a complete set of VM files

• Separate vmdks completely owned by each VM

Primary VM

Disk 2

Config

Disk 1

Secondary VM

Disk 2

Config

Disk 1

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Datastores

Primary VM

Disk 2

Config

Disk 1

Secondary VM

Disk 2

Config

Disk 1

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Datastores

Primary VM

Disk 2

Config

Disk 1

Secondary VM

Disk 2

Config

Disk 1

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Datastores

One datastore must be common

Ensures only one running copy of the VM at any time

Primary VM

Disk 2

Config

Disk 1

Secondary VM

Disk 2

Config

Disk 1 Tie

Break

Datastore