Virtualization Solutions and Software
A Look at Server Consolidation in Managing Resources
Oct 6, 2009
Virtualization is a buzz word that has taken the IT industry by storm. Many vendors refer to the phenomenon as “cloud computing”, “server consolidation” and other such terms, but what is it and how can it benefit a company?
Server Virtualization Explained
Simply put, server virtualization means putting many virtual computers on to one physical computer.
The software that accomplishes this “fools” the operating system of the virtual computer that it is running on physical hardware. Virtualization software manages the access each virtual server has to the physical hardware without the virtual computer being aware of it.
Server virtualization can represent a huge cost saving to the company since instead of having, for example, five physical servers running in a server room, there is now one physical server “hosting” five virtual servers.
Typically, a server will not use all its resources one hundred percent of the time. For example, a server might have five gigabytes of RAM, but the operating system running on the physical hardware will normally never use all of that RAM all of the time which means most of the resources available to the operating system will go to waste most of the time.
The memory requirement of the operating system will spike every now and again, requiring close to the five gigabytes of physical memory installed, so the physical memory can't be taken out. But what if another operating system or systems could use the memory when idle? This can be accomplished by server virtualization.
The virtualization software will manage each virtual server's access to the physical hardware so that little or no degradation in performance will be noticed.
Granted, the physical server will still need to be robust enough to handle the requirements of all the virtual servers it looks after, but one big server will work out a lot cheaper than many smaller ones whose resources are wasted most of the time.
In addition, one big server running at full capacity will use far less energy that many smaller servers. While a large server room may have consisted of a thousand physical servers before virtualization, after wards it might consist of one hundred physical servers.
More Benefits of Server Virtualization
While the physical hardware may differ between servers, the virtual hardware that the operating system runs on does not. This means that a virtual server can be moved from one physical server to another completely different physical server without having to load new drivers for new hardware, since the virtual hardware will be the same.
In fact, a virtual server can be moved from one physical server to another without the virtual server being powered down, or the users accessing the virtual server being aware of the move. This being the case, an administrator can “move” virtual servers around on physical servers to suit the work load and requirement of each server.
For example, a web server used for booking tickets for seasonal events might be accessed more at certain times of the year than other times and thus need more physical resources during those times of high usage. The administrator could move the web server to a physical server with more resources for a few months of the year as required.
Some virtualization solutions offer a fail safe solution between two or more physical platforms. In other words, virtual servers can be “cloned”, in real time, to another physical server on the same network. Should the primary physical server crash, the virtualization software on the secondary physical server will immediately take over. The seamless transition to the secondary physical server will go unnoticed to users accessing these virtual servers
Who Provides Virtualization Solutions?
Vmware is probably the leader in virtualization. Vmware have a range of virtualization solutions including some which are free that run on both Microsoft and Linux platforms. The Vmware flagship product will apparently run on a “stripped down” Linux kernel, thus eliminating a resource hungry base operating system.
There are other vendors that offer virtualization solutions, Microsoft and Linux to mention just two.
Redhat (a flavour of Linux) claims that the newly released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 update is the first product to deliver commercial quality open source virtualization featuring Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor technology.
Whomever the vendor, one thing is for sure, virtualization is an upcoming trend.
The reader who enjoyed the above article may like to read the following computer related articles. General research is important in understanding all the risks associated with a computer environment. For example, an in depth understanding of how to enhance computer network security is a good place to start in understanding these risks.
Other areas of research could include a closer look at proxy servers, internal hackers and network security solutions. Not to be overlooked would be research on how to implement a secure system to protect against computer theft.
Computers will get viruses along with other problems, so how the IT department handles these issues when the arise is vital in avoiding prolonged downtime for the company. A good help desk solution will help the IT department manage these problems efficiently.
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