Virtualization is a rapidly growing technology used by many organizations
today. Most companies understand the purpose and value of integrating a virtual
infrastructure but may not understand how
to properly integrate this new technology
into their traditional IT management framework and processes.
“Although virtualization technology may be
complex, many management tasks related to
virtualization are simplified compared to traditional systems,” says Brian Capoccia, disaster recovery practice manager at Agile360, A
Division of Entisys Solutions, Inc.
Smart Business talked with Capoccia for
his insight into the best practices in managing
your virtual infrastructure.
Do I manage my virtual machines in the
same way I manage my physical systems?
In many ways, yes. Software updates, security patches and service packs are all applied
in the same manner as they would be to a
physical machine. However, there are also
many management tasks that relate to virtual machines (VMs) that do not exist for physical machines. Tasks such as rapid provisioning, live migrations between physical systems and snapshot capabilities are performed with VM management software. This
software also provides administrators performance and resource information about
the host system and the VMs that run on it.
Does virtualization increase the complexity
of my IT environment?
The initial implementation will add to the
level of complexity as a whole, however,
many administrative tasks will be simplified.
Virtualization brings new and simple ways to
accomplish tasks that are traditionally more
complex on physical systems. For example,
implementing virtualization can offer protection against server hardware failure that is
comparable to clustering. However, implementing and maintaining a clustered system
is much more complex than maintaining the
same system in the virtual infrastructure.
Virtualization can also simplify the recovery
process for failed systems. VMs are recovered
as easily as restoring deleted files. In contrast,
the recovery process for physical systems may require that the system is recovered to
identical hardware, which will usually include
the installation of a base operating system,
applications and then the restoration of critical files from full and incremental backups.
Can I monitor virtual machines with my current system management software?
Yes, most system management software
packages have the capacity to manage and
monitor VMs in the same way as physical systems. HP Insight Manager, Dell OpenManage
and IBM Director all have this capability.
Administrators that are already familiar with
these tools are able to leverage their existing
knowledge to also manage host machines in
the same way.
In addition to these system management
tools, virtualization solution providers have
management products that are designed
specifically for VM management.
What kinds of tools and processes can I use
to prevent ‘server sprawl’?
Virtualization itself combats server sprawl
by allowing for the consolidation of many
physical servers. However, compared to physical servers, VMs are relatively easy to build, duplicate and deploy. This leads to a new phenomenon known as ‘virtual machine sprawl.’
The provisioning process for physical
machines has built-in controls that manage
machine sprawl. Cost and the procurement
process are probably the biggest factors. The
VMs should be viewed similarly. The key to
managing VM sprawl is to manage the provisioning process just as the procurement
process is managed for a physical server. A
provisioning process should include the
requestor of the resource, the reason for the
request and an approval process. Only then
should a VM be created.
Controls exist in the virtual infrastructure
to prevent unauthorized personnel from creating VMs. Only administrators directly
responsible for managing the virtual infrastructure should be assigned this right.
Can I back up VMs the same way I back up
physical servers?
Yes, VMs can be backed up just like any
other server in the environment. However,
careful planning should be considered when
backing up VMs. Traditional methods can
cause a lot of strain on the system if multiple
VMs are backed up simultaneously on the
same host. This is because the backup agent
is designed to utilize the processor on the
server that is being backed up.
There are several methods that exist that
can augment traditional backup methods.
They include SAN based backups, disk-to-disk-to-tape backups and virtualization specific consolidated backup frameworks that
allow for the off-loading of the CPU processing to a backup proxy.
What effect does server virtualization have
on my backup window?
Certain virtualization technologies have the
capacity to allow for a ‘hot backup’ of VMs.
This means that the VM is briefly put on
pause to allow for a backup to occur with little impact on performance. This provides the
ability to back up VMs during production
hours, virtually eliminating the traditional
‘backup window.’
BRIAN CAPOCCIA is disaster recovery practice manager at Agile360, A Division of Entisys Solutions, Inc.. He can be reached at (949) 278-8065
or at [email protected].