virtual infrastructure · • itil and vim • introduction in itil and vim • usage itil and vim...

HP IT-Symposium 2006

www.decus.de 1

Copyright © 2006 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.

Virtual InfrastructureImplementation of High Availability andBusiness Continuation Solutions

Seva SemouchinTechnical Account ManagerVMware International Limited

2Copyright © 2006 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved.

What this Presentation is About

HA• High Availability

DR• Disaster Recovery

VI • Virtual Infrastructure


www.decus.de 2


Agenda

• HA and DR in Adaptive Enterprise • ITIL and VIM• VI and High Availability • VI and Business Continuation• VIM Implementation of HA and DR

• Implementation of High Availability Solutions• HA Classic (ESX 2.5.x / VC 1.x)• HA Advanced (ESX 3.0 / VC 2.0)• Aligning with VIM

• Business Continuation Solutions• DR Best Practices• Aligning with VIM

• Conclusion


HA an DR in Adaptive Enterprise

• ITIL and VIM• Introduction in ITIL and VIM• Usage ITIL and VIM to Implement Adaptive Enterprise

• VMware VI Technology basics• ESX Server• Virtual Center

• VI and High Availability • HA Implementation Practices• VI Added Values

• VI and Disaster Recovery• DR Implementation Practices• VI Added Values


www.decus.de 3


IT Infrastructure Library - ITIL

• Best Practice Framework

• Process based• De facto standard

worldwide

Service DeliveryIT Service Continuity Management -> Disaster RecoveryService Availability Management -> High Availability


Virtual Infrastructure Management - VIM

Assess Plan Build Manage

Virtual Infrastructure Methodology (VIM) is a four-phased methodology developed and employed by VMware Professional Services to consistently deliver comprehensive solutions to assess, plan, build and manage VMware virtual infrastructure.


www.decus.de 4


In Other Words - VIM

• Is being practiced by VMware PSO – consulting branch of VMware and partners

• Is deliverable based• Is a collection of best practices gathered by VMware profesional

• Is ITIL aligned• Is under development


VIM Impacts

People• New responsibilities and procedures may require new skills or staff

role changes or additions

Process• New paradigms may require new procedures• Impact on existing procedures must be addressed

Technology• Includes not just new servers, but impacts networking and storage

Business strategy• Financial objectives and requirements should be addressed


www.decus.de 5


VIM Phases and Objectives

• Identify opportunities for virtualization, and model scenarios• Identify goals, methods, impacts, and scope

Assess

Plan

Build

Manage

• Implement virtual infrastructure solution and train staff in-depth• Generate confidence and acceptance

• Introduce VI concepts through prototyping and whiteboard sessions• Define architecture, implementation plan and validation test criteria,

• Support ongoing maintenance and operations• Identify opportunities for next iteration


VMware ESX Server


www.decus.de 6


VMware Virtual Center

ESX Server Farm

Virtual Center Database. Management and Performance Data

Virtual Center server

Virtual Center Agent


VMotion


www.decus.de 7


High Availability

Works against:• Unplanned outages a.k.a. Failures• Planned outages a.k.a. Maintenance

Usual Practices• Cold Standby• Warm Standby• Hot Standby (cluster)

Based on• Service Level Agreemens (SLA)


VI Added Value to High Availability

Cold Standby• Use the same standard server for all virtualized applications

Warm Standby• Redeploy Broken VM from template• Use VM repository

Hot Standby• Use VMotion to prepare maintenance• Cluster VMs• Cluster VM and Physical Boxes• Cluster two ESX Boxes• Use VMware HA (since ESX 3.0 / VC 2.0) instead of clusters


www.decus.de 8


Disaster Recovery

Works Against• Complete lost or heavy damage of the whole facility

Usual Practices• Own Standby Facility • Outsourced Standby Facility• Partial Standby Capacity • Data Replication• Data Backup• Continuous Trainings

Based On• Service Level Agreements


VI Added value to Disaster Recovery

Standby Facility• Old, non standard equipment may be used• Easy to outsource • One standby facility for many production facilities• By partial capacity easy to adapt to SLAs. Decision, which VMs

should run and which not can be quickly revised

Replication and Backup• Replicate VMs as data• Use the same processes to redeploy VMs from template or

repository as for HA• Use VMs to recover physical boxes (P2V)

Disaster Simulation• Implementation is easier and cheaper


www.decus.de 9


Implementation of High Availability Solutions

• HA “Classic” (ESX 2.5.x / VC 1.x)• Clustering Virtual to Virtual• Clustering Virtual to Physical• Clustering with VCS

• HA Advanced (ESX 3.0 / VC 2.0)• VMware HA (previous DAS)• VMware HA vs. Failover Cluster (MSCS for example)• VMware DRS

• Aligning with VIM• HA on Assesment Phase• HA on VIM Plan and Implementation Phase• HA on Management Phase


VMware „Classic“ Clustering


www.decus.de 10


Veritas VCS Solution

Shared Storage

VCS Software

VCS VM Agent


VMware HA (previous DAS)

• Solves the “all my eggs in one basket (one ESX box)” problem

• Detects an ESX hardware failure• Automatically restarts virtual machines

on remaining boxes• Complementary to DRS. DRS places

the VM’s• Requires shared storage

• Built-in alternative to clustering (for selected applications)

• Available as VirtualCenter add-on in 2005

Server Farm

2-way System

2-way System

4-way System

8-way System


www.decus.de 11


VMware HA (previous DAS)

• Solves the “all my eggs in one basket (one ESX box)” problem

• Detects an ESX hardware failure• Automatically restarts virtual machines

on remaining boxes• Complementary to DRS. DRS places

the VM’s• Requires shared storage

• Built-in alternative to clustering (for selected applications)


Server Farm

2-way System

2-way System

4-way System

8-way System


VMware DRS

• Farm-level resource balancing

• How it works• VM’s are automatically VMotion’d

to boxes with more spare capacity

• Leads to 60%-80% server utilization• Intelligent placement• Continuous optimization through

VMotion


Server Farm

2-way System

2-way System

4-way System

8-way System


www.decus.de 12


VMware DRS

• Farm-level resource balancing

• How it works• VM’s are automatically VMotion’d

to boxes with more spare capacity

• Leads to 60%-80% server utilization• Intelligent placement• Continuous optimization through

VMotion


Server Farm

2-way System

2-way System

4-way System

8-way System


Implementing HA with VWware HA and DRS

• Availaible with ESX Server 3.0 / Virtual Center 2.0• VMware HA and DRS both are plug-ins for Virtual Center• Shared Storage is Required• In Big Environments use Folders to Separate HA Groups• Better used together

• First VMware HA restarts failed VMs• Then VMware DRS distributes load on survived servers

• Best practice is the implementation of ITIL Capacity Planning.• You can have necessary ressources to restart VMs

• Provides services comparable with Failover Cluster• With VMware DRS even more value


www.decus.de 13


VMware HA vs. Failover Cluster

Cluster• Failover group• Quorum• Cluster Database• For unintended failover

need application restart• The same for intended

failover• No load balancing

VMware HA• Virtual machine• Virtual Center• VC Database• The same

• No restart is necessary(VMotion)

• Load Balncing with DRS


VC is Not The Singe Point of Failure

VirtualCenter

• Agents distributed on ESX Servers maintain heartbeat network

• Automated install & configuration via VirtualCenter

• Independent of VirtualCenter after initial configuration

Heartbeat NW


www.decus.de 14


Aligning VMware HA Solutions with VIM


•HA on Assesment Phase•HA on VIM Plan and ImplementationPhase•HA on Management Phase


Disaster Recovery Solutions

• DR Best Practices• Transactional vs. Crash Consistent Data• Possible DR policies• VI Advantages for DR Solutions• Replication and Redeployment• VMware DRS

• Aligning with VIM• DR on Assesment Phase• DR on VIM Plan and Implementation Phase• DR on Management Phase


www.decus.de 15


Transactional vs. Crash Resistent Data

Some data, can survive the crash of host computer • it is crash consistent data• Examples OS Disk, Journal Files

Other data, could be damaged through application abort • it is transactional data• Example Datababase tablespaces

We need different approach for different kind of data. • Crash consistent data could be replicated as is• Transactional data should be replicated in consistent state

• Quiesce application (like Oracle ‘begin backup’ )• Clone data at storage array level• Only then replicate

‘With a little bit of luck’ you can replicate transactional data ‘as is’ and it will be still consistent.


VM Data Types

Local Storage• VM Configuration file (.vmx)

Stoarage Are Network• Virtual disk file - .vmdk• Raw LUN, RAW LUN linked to VMFS

.VMDK

Local file system

VMFS Volume

.VMX

.VMDK .VMDK

Raw LUN


www.decus.de 16



Replication Candiates

VMFS volumes (vmdk files) • Array Replication• Network replication

Raw devices• Array Replication.

VMX files – Network Replication• Network replication


www.decus.de 17


VMFS Replication

Do not place too much VMs on one VMFS volume• For example 2 VMFS volumes with 10 VMs each per ESX server

in production mode and 3 such volumes per ESX server in DR mode

Place on different VMFS volumes VMDK files • … with transactional data

• database files

• … with crash consistent data• Operating System Disks• Application Executables• Redo logs and generally log files

• In the case of crash consistent data you may separate frequently changed data and stable data. For example OS disks and redo log disks.


Raw Device replication

• Note that RDM files on replicated VMFS volumes are points to “original” raw devices, not to replicated ones. This will require recreation of RDM files after the site failover.


www.decus.de 18


.VMX (VM Configuration) Files Replication

Must be copied to failover site only when changed • Changes aren’t frequent

Copies used for DR can be edited by script • Use less virtual RAM• Different location of VMDK files on failover site. VMFS volumes

possibly will be mounted to other mount points


Use Highest VM density on Failover Site

• Production:Failover – 1:2 or 2:3

• Place less VMs on VMFS volumes to better distribute them over survived ESX servers

• Use scripts to change configuration (.vmx) files of VMs moved to failover site


www.decus.de 19


Use Bidirectional Replication

• Place some of active VMs to failover site. This will allow them to stay alive during disaster

• In this case data must be replicated in both directions from production to failover site and vice versa


Use VMs instead of Cluster Groups

• Reuse HA Techniques for Disaster recovery• Less administrative overhead. We need to bring online

only one LUN with VMFS volume for many VMs and not one LUN pro cluster group

• Same effect. Failover in MSCS means ‘restart this application on another node’

• We don’t need Windows advanced server licenses for each VM


www.decus.de 20


Disaster Recovery Scenario

• Identify a disaster (cigarette smoked nearby to smoke sensor is NOT a disaster)

• Bring LUNs with VMFS volume with OS VMDK and other crash consistent data online (script)

• Make them visible to ESX servers on failover site (script)

• Mount VMFS volumes (script)• Recreate RDM files for raw devices (script)• Change vmx files if necessary (script)• Start VMs of dedicated ESX servers. For VMs with

transactional data use special startup procedure to initiate data recovery prior to start the application (script)


Disaster Recovery Optimized for Critical VMs

• Replicated data can be cloned on failover site using TimeFinder

• VMFS Cloned LUNS could be made available for ESX servers and mounted there.

• In case of disaster we need just to start VMs• Clones should be updated as frequently, as

necessary.• Since more storage is necessary should be used for

critical VMs only


www.decus.de 21


Desaster Recovery P2V


Aligning VMware DR Solutions with VIM


•DR on Assesment Phase•DR on VIM Plan and ImplementationPhase•DR on Management Phase


www.decus.de 22


Conclusion

Virtual Infrastructure increases cost effciency forimplementing DR and HR solutions


Reference Customer #1

• 110 Virtual Machines • Applications:

• SQL servers• Infrastructure servers

• custom insurance application servers.• ESX Server is a 4-way IBM x366 with 16GB RAM.• SRDF/a and SANCopy used in replication strategy• Replication over 1500 Km away.

A large insurance company in the USA is using a VI DR Solution based on SRDF. These applications wererunning on physical machines when the DR Initiative came up, but were moved into Virtual Machines due to the fact that replication would be easier. This drove over90 machines to be P2V'd into VMs.


www.decus.de 23


Reference Customer #2

• 700 Virtual Machines 350 of them used for VDI• Applications: on VDI – just desktop OS

• 95% Windows XP• 5% Widows 2000 professional and Windows NT workstation

• 56 ESX Server • 8-way IBM x445 with 32GB RAM.

• SRDF/a and TimeFinder used in replication strategy• Total amount of data being replicated 7 TB• Replication over 300 Km away.

Guardian insurance implemented virtual desktop infrastructure(VDI) to make this solution desaster resistant SRDF was introduced


Other References

• Volvo IT• Vector SGI (Dallas)• Infineon (Cary USA)• Eastman

Implemeted

• Montag and Caldwell (Investment)

Under Investigation

virtual infrastructure · • itil and vim • introduction in itil and vim • usage itil and vim...

Documents