Antony Jo The University of Montana

Virtualization  The process of abstraction; making something more abstract  Many types: Server Desktop Application etc (Storage, Memory)

Terminology  Virtual Machine (VM) Software that emulates a machine.  Hypervisor Also known as the Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM), the hypervisor is the software that allows hardware virtualization. Provides the layer of abstraction between hardware and software.

Terminology (cont.) Comparison Hardware OSHypervisorOS TraditionalType 1Type 2 Hypervisor VM OS VM OS

The Big Three  VMWare  Citrix  Microsoft

I Have Some Issues (…with servers)  We need to buy more servers and they are expensive  I just did a major patch on my server and now my server is BSOD  I need a bigger server room to fit all my servers  And the list goes on…

Server Virtualization Why?  Minimal usage on server hardware  Hardware consolidation = $$$ Less power consumption Less datacenter costs  Flexibility (snapshots, migration, templates, etc)

Offerings from the Big Three  VMWare ESX ESXi is free  Citrix XenServer Upgrade to XenServer Essentials for advanced features  Microsoft Hyper-V Free

Considerations  Start simple Store locally Backup VMs as necessary No high availability  Or design a redundant solution with shared storage Multiple Hosts Use a shared storage (i.e. SAN) Redundant, but high cost

Other Considerations  Not everything should be virtualized SQL Server, Peripherals  Redundancy concerns if not using shared storage solution  Be careful of IO Operation/sec (IOPS)  More variables in troubleshooting

What We Do  Tested both VMWare ESXi and Citrix XenServer  Decided to go with Citrix XenServer Goes great with XenApp Better hardware utilization on the free version  Considering shared storage solution  P2V tools are a lifesaver

DEMO An insider look to one of the virtual server hosts Citrix XenServer 5.5

A New Challenge Appears! DESKTOPS!  As number grows, management becomes more difficult  Short list of issues: Security Hardware Failures Application compatibility Lifecycle Power Consumption etc

Desktop Virtualization Why?  Server Virtualization is so great, so why not virtualize Desktops?  Enable users to customize, but still give Administrators ability to manage  Ability to access your desktop from anywhere (not tied to physical machine)

Two Different Approaches  Terminal Services (TS) Users login to terminal servers, where applications are installed centrally. Less customization, Easy to maintain  Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Provide users with virtual desktops provisioned by hypervisor. More customization, Difficult to maintain

Illustration VDI Hardware OS User TS Hardware Hypervisor VM OS User

Other considerations TS  Easy to set up Server 2003 / Server 2008 TS Client Access Licenses (CALs) VDI  Considerable complexity  OS Licenses, Storage, Performance, etc.  VMWare View & Citrix XenDesktop

In Our Environment  Terminal Services with Citrix XenApp ICA sessions vs. traditional RDP sessions Manage loads / logon restrictions  Promote Thin Clients  Citrix Access Gateway for off campus users  We’re looking into VDI, but we’re probably not going jump into it, yet

DEMO This is a good to time to show some examples Citrix Delivery Services Console (DSC)

Wait! I still have other problems I just upgraded my Internet Explorer to version 8, and now my Death Star doesn’t work.  IT’S A TRAP!

Application Virtualization Let’s separate the application from the user environment Some of the applications that can help VMWare ThinApp Citrix XenApp Microsoft App-V

Other Interesting Topics Client Virtualization Type 1 Citrix XenClient Interesting idea, still very new Type 2 Parallels for Macintosh, XP Mode in 7 Works quite well, but VMs take a performance hit

Other Topics  Empowered Users  Bring Your Own PC (BYOPC)  Others…

Closing Remarks  Server Virtualization is very useful Try it out if you haven’t already  Desktop Virtualization TS is good, VDI is still too early  Other Virtualization Depends, it might be useful

Questions Any further questions?

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