VIRTUALIZATION ACTUALIZATION Balacom Services Daniel R. Bennett, Kyle Campbell, Jimmy Schmalzl Virtual Server Farm

INTRODUCTION Group Background Project Overview ITCS Servers Networking Backups Storage UPS ESX Stress Testing ISP’s Lessons Learned Conclusion Questions Virtualization Actualization

GROUP BACKGROUND Group Formed in 2010 Worked Together on a Perl project Studied Together Weekly Shared Common Interests Virtualization Actualization

Project Overview Our Client is Balacom Services Designed a Virtual Server Farm Proof of concept Capable of hosting 50 VMs Smallest possible footprint Virtualization Actualization

Interested in ITCS? This project coincides with the ITCS curriculum ESX, server stress testing and configuration, OS setup, networking Virtualization Actualization

Servers Test server was configured in the ITCS project lab Server implemented was an HP DL385G7 Other server manufacturers considered include Dell and Gateway Virtualization Actualization

Servers Server required for VMware Virtual Center Allows for administration of virtual servers Suggested system is the Dell PowerEdge T310 Windows computer is also required for vSphere Virtualization Actualization

Networking Selected switch was a Cisco ESW Network design keeps production and management traffic separate Cat5e chosen over Cat6 for gigabit Ethernet Virtualization Actualization

Backups Backups are done for loss prevention not file retrieval Backup scheme involves a weekly copy of the virtual machine virtual disk file using tar and cron Chosen media is the hard drive as opposed to other traditional methods Virtualization Actualization

Expanded Storage The NAS box is a Buffalo TeraStation III Data is transferred using iSCSI TeraStation III is capable of storing 8TB of data Other researched alternative is the Dell PowerEdge NX3000 running Windows Server 2008 R2 Virtualization Actualization

UPS Optional UPS’ Considered: SMT3000 SMT1500RM2U The UPS Selected: SMT2200 Why it was selected Cost and Performance Virtualization Actualization

VMware ESX vs ESXi ESX Red Hat Linux console ESXi Free of charge Why we selected ESX over ESXi Virtualization Actualization

STRESS TESTING Web Load Tester Graphical user interface(GUI) Very versatile Siege Run from the command line Virtualization Actualization

ISP’s Internet Service Providers Virtualization Actualization ShawTELUSRogersBell Cost/Month$301.95$345.00$169.95$ Upload Speed5 Mbps1.5+ Mbps2 Mbps800 Kbps Download Speed15 Mbps1.5+ Mbps10 Mbps6 Mbps Bandwidth200 GB/MonthUnlimited 300 GB/Month SupportWeekdays, 24hours24/7 Provision of Domain NoYes No. Of Static IP's1 Static IP5 Static IP's 1 Static IP

LESSONS LEARNED AND CHALLENGES Pre-Planning Communication Time Management Read The Manual Don’t Rush Virtualization Actualization

CONCLUSION Virtualization Actualization We are the Virtualization Actualization workgroup Our project involved designing a virtual server farm for Balacom Services This project was a proof of concept We researched and planned for the networking, physical hardware and software for the server farm

QUESTIONS? Virtualization Actualization