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VT Central Computing Infrastructure

VT Central Computing Infrastructure. Increasing Virtualization William Dougherty Director of Systems Support Network Infrastructure & Services. Past: Big Blue. Mainframe, Mainframe, Mainframe MVS VM Very small UNIX (mostly DEC VAX) and other proprietary Operating Systems and equipment.

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VT Central Computing Infrastructure

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  1. VT Central Computing Infrastructure Increasing Virtualization William Dougherty Director of Systems Support Network Infrastructure & Services

  2. Past: Big Blue • Mainframe, Mainframe, Mainframe • MVS • VM • Very small UNIX (mostly DEC VAX) and other proprietary Operating Systems and equipment. • Proprietary systems • HP MPEiX • DEC VMS • SGI Irix • Windows NT William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

  3. Present: Distributed and Varied • Administrative, HPC/Research, and Instructional Computing spread across a variety of vendors’ servers and storage; no common ground. • Over 350 individual servers and devices, many in load-balanced clusters, dedicated to specific administrative services. • Most major vendors’ equipment represented. • Several Linux/UNIX blends, Windows, and proprietary Operating Systems in play. • Research systems running on Apple (PowerPC), SGI, and Sun. William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

  4. Present: Advantages (on the Administrative Side) • Plenty of platforms for specific application needs. • Similar computing power in different tiers; development, test, pre-production, production. • Ample cycles for day-to-day operations and cyclical/seasonal peaks. William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

  5. Present: Disadvantages • No way to centrally administer servers. • No way to recover or capture “spare” cycles. • Electric power and cooling = high impacts. • Managing power is complicated. • Data Center space dwindling. • Specialization required for each server platform. • Not enough computing resources for research; primarily aimed at Graduate and Faculty needs. Undergrads mostly disenfranchised. William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

  6. Current Virtualization Efforts • UNIX/Linux environment: • Solaris Zones • Linux VServer • Xen • VMWare Server (have started testing ESXi) • Windows environment: • Windows Virtual Server 2005 • Windows Hyper-V: can now use multiple processor cores on a “Guest” OS (now only SuSE Linux supported) • Tried VMWare, but potential support issues caused concerns. William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

  7. Current Virtualization Efforts; Details: • Solaris Zones • Application: ITA Purchasing and related applications • OS: Sun Solaris 10 • Hardware: Sun V440, Sun V490 • CPU: SparcIII, SparcIV+ • Count: 2 Physical systems, 3 Solaris Zones • Notes: The base systems also run application components. This effort consolidated 5 physical systems into 2. William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

  8. Current Virtualization Efforts; Details: • Linux VServer (case #1) • Application: Middleware Java Servlet Hosting environment • OS: Debian Linux • Hardware: Dell 1850, Dell 1950 • CPU: Intel Dual-core Xeon • Count: 6 Physical systems, 18 Virtual systems • Notes: This is a hosting environment for Java servlets. The goal was to provide in a fashion that protects hosted servlets from one another. William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

  9. Current Virtualization Efforts; Details: • Linux VServer (case #2) • Application: Middleware infrastructure support/Java J2EE • OS: Debian Linux • Hardware: Dell 1950s • CPU: Intel Quad-core Xeon • Count: 3 Physical systems, 10 Virtual systems • Notes: Virtualized development and preprod J2EE services, primarily for server consolidation. William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

  10. Current Virtualization Efforts; Details: • Linux Xen • Application: Banner Luminis Portal • OS: RedHat Linux • Hardware: Dell 1950 • CPU: Intel Quad-core Xeon • Count: 6 Physical systems, 9 Virtual systems • Notes: The Banner approach to application reinstall requires a reinstall of the OS. This configuration allows us to quickly deploy a base system preconfigured to our security and management standards. William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

  11. Current Virtualization Efforts; Details: • VMWare Server • Application: Learning Technologies Projects/Services • OS: Debian Linux • Hardware: Dell 6950, Dell 2950 • CPU: AMD Dual-core, Intel Dual-core Xeon • Count: 2 Physical, 9 Virtual systems • Notes: Long term, the 2950 will be replaced by another Dell 6950. William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

  12. Current Virtualization Efforts; Details: • Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 • Application: Windows Administration support (Domain controllers, CITRIX, etc.) • OS: Windows 2000 Server • Hardware: Dell 1950, Dell 2950 • CPU: Intel Quad-core Xeon • Count: 3 Physical systems, 8 Virtual systems • Notes: Plan to migrate to Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V. William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

  13. Current Virtualization Efforts; Details: • Microsoft Implementation Group Pilot • Virtual Dedicated Windows Servers (VDWS) • Running Windows 2008 Datacenter, System Center Enterprise Suite, and Hyper-V. • One-half of university’s production Active Directory Domain Controllers will migrate. • Base “Guest” systems: • 1.86GHz x86 CPU • 1GB of RAM • 30GB RAID-5 disks • 1GB Ethernet NICs • Twenty guests “invited” into Pilot; A.D. Child domain controllers would be best candidates. • Pilot will run from Nov 2008-June 2009. • Platform will be a Dell 2960 (Dual Quad core 3.16GHz/64 bit CPU; 32GB RAM; 6X450GB 15K SAS drives in RAID 1+0). William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

  14. The Future: Consolidation and Increased Virtualization

  15. Resources:Dwindling; more with less. Funds, personnel, space, etc. Research: Increasing need for computing; strategic goal of university, etc. etc. Currently maintaining System X, plus SGI and Sun hosts centrally. Utilization: Estimates for utilization of admin servers 5-30% leaving 70-95% free cycles, but still paying for electricity and cooling even if the machine is idle. HPC equipment is on average 70-95% busy. Virtualization: Already investigating and some in production. Project with IBM would be to broaden scope to support research use. Part of a “greener” data center. Reasons for the Project

  16. Future: Consolidation and Virtualization • Desire to reap spare cycles associated with off-peak operations; dedicate to research applications where possible and practical. • Desire to control electrical power and cooling requirements. • Desire to extend life of Data Center. William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

  17. High Performance Computing And Storage Virtual services for both research and administrative applications. Secure, isolated and insulated. Increased Overall Capacity National / International Research Networks – direct connection with specialized access High Performance Storage Contribution toward Strategic Advantage And Research Competitiveness over utilized under utilized RESEARCH APPS Virtualized Architecture Admin Application Servers ADMIN APPS Research Computing Funds Space/Power Resources Programming / Operations / Maintenance jmc090308

  18. Virtualization Advantages • Most servers do not come close to peak operating capacity on any given day. In fact, according to Gartner’s white paper Data Center Power and Cooling Scenario Options for the World Ahead, (April 2007) during a 24 hour period less than 10% of the typical x86 /x64 server computing capacity is used. • By decoupling the physical hardware from the operating system and applications, virtualization allows server consolidation, thus improving utilization and manageability. This can yield cost savings and benefits including:1. Reducing server and networking costs; fewer servers, fewer connections.2. Reducing growing power, cooling, and facilities costs. (Server performance tripling, while energy efficiency only doubling every 2 years.) 3. Improving business agility; as computing resource needs or an application’s needs change, resources can be more quickly deployed. 4. The possibility of decreasing Disaster Recovery time as less equipment would require replacing and Hot Site/Cold Site setup is simplified.

  19. Applications Queued for Virtualization • GIS related Google Earth Enterprise-Google Fusion • Digital Repository/Image Archive DB • Sakai instance for Instructional Technologies • Web app for communications billing system • Center for Creative Technology & the Arts William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

  20. Challenges of Virtualized Environment • Migration of existing applications. • Need for utilities/tools to aid central management of servers: • Configuration, day-to-day administration, security (both host-based and network related). • Root cause analysis, capacity/performance monitoring and planning, accounting. • Managing a mix of physical and virtual servers. • Software Licensing compliance (ORACLE). • Specific requirements of commercial applications and chip architecture. (Power PC versus Intel versus AMD; the Ring 0 issue) • Standardization versus Diversification • Overcoming institutional anxiety and “tradition.” • What about cloud services? William Dougherty-VT: CSG 01/08/08

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