VMware vSphere Tips for SMBs

VMware vSphere Tips for SMBs

This searchsmbstorage.com eguide gives a

Contents
VMware vSphere 4 best practices: A review of what's new for storage administrators 10 ways to improve data protection in VMware environments

comprehensive review of vSphere as it looks at some of the features in vSphere that are most important to data storage managers as well as best practices for vSphere. This eguide also offers a list of the most common and affordable shared storage options for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) from different vendors. VMware vSphere 4 best practices: A review of what's new for storage administrators
By: Eric Siebert vSphere 4 is VMware's latest bare-metal hypervisor that is the successor to Virtual Infrastructure 3 (VI3) and includes more than 140 new features. vSphere competes with several other hypervisors including Microsoft's Hyper-V, Citrix's XenServer and Oracle's Oracle VM. This review of vSphere looks at some of the features in vSphere that are most important to data storage managers as well as best practices for vSphere. vSphere 4 and different storage types Data storage is critical to virtualization, and vSphere supports several different data storage types including local storage using SCSI, SAS or SATA drives; network-based storage using iSCSI or NFS; and more expensive Fibre Channel (FC) data storage. To take advantage of many of vSphere's advanced features like VMotion and high-availability (HA), you should use a shared storage device. Fortunately iSCSI and NFS are both supported and provide affordable solutions that perform well enough as alternatives to Fibre Channel for all but the most intensive disk I/O workloads. vSphere has a software iSCSI initiator and NFS client built right into it so connecting to iSCSI or NFS storage targets is simple to set up. Also, vSphere supports using hardware iSCSI initiators with TCP/IP offload engines to reduce the CPU overhead on the host.

Page 2 of 10

Sponsored by

VMware vSphere Tips for SMBs

In addition, vSphere uses a special high-performance cluster file system called Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) that allows concurrent access by multiple host servers. VMFS volumes take away the backend storage complexities from the virtual machines (VMs) by presenting a single unified storage volume to them. One of vSphere's best storage features is thin provisioning, which makes more efficient use of disk space by growing a virtual disk and blocks are written to it instead of allocating it all at once when it is created. This allows you to overcommit your storage and take advantage of the often un-used disk space inside a guest VM's operating system. Some additional storage-related features of vSphere include the following: Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) support Jumbo frame support for iSCSI and NFS Ability to hot extend virtual disks Ability to grow VMFS volumes Storage paravirtualization VMDirectPath for VM direct I/O access vStorage APIs vSphere 4 and networking The vSwitch is the heat of a virtual nework, and vSphere has several options you can use based on your requirements. The simple standard vSwitch is easy to use, and provides fault tolerance and load-balancing across NICs. For larger environments that have many hosts and vSwitches, the vNetwork Distributed Switch lets you create global vSwitches to configure multiple hosts instead of configuring each host sepearately. vSphere can also support third-party vSwitches. Cisco's Nexus 1000v is the first virtual switch with vSphere support. This allows for tighter integration between the physical and virtual networks. All vSwitches in vSphere support advanced features such as VLAN tagging, NIC teaming and layer two security policies. Some additional network-related features of vSphere include: Virtualization is all about putting all your eggs in one basket, so maintaining high-availability is critical. If a single host fails, then all the VMs running on it

Contents
VMware vSphere 4 best practices: A review of what's new for storage administrators 10 ways to improve data protection in VMware environments

Page 3 of 10

Sponsored by

VMware vSphere Tips for SMBs

will also fail, but vSphere includes features that can minimize or eliminate the amount of time that VMs are down due to a host failure. vSphere's highavailability feature allows VMs on shared storage to quickly be re-started on other hosts in the event that a host fails, minimizing downtime for the VMs. The fault tolerance (FT) feature takes this a step further and offers continuous availability by keeping a secondary VM on another host that is continuously updated in real-time using a Lockstep technique. This completely protects a virtual machine against a host hardware failure and results in zero downtime and data loss for the VM. While these features protect against unschuled hardware failures, there are also features that make planned maintenance easier. VMotion allows a running VM to move from one host to another on the same storage volume and Storage VMotion allows a running VM to move from one storage volume to another on the same host. These features let you perform maintenance on host hardware or storage devices without downtime. vSphere 4 management vSphere 4 also has tools for managing the virtual environment. The vSphere Client is a Windows application that serves as the primary management tool for vSphere. There is also a web user interface for managing virtual machines on ESX hosts (not ESXi) and command line management tools such as the vSphere CLI (vCLI) and the VMware Management Assistant (vMA). vCenter Server provides centralized management of hosts using the vSphere Client, and has features such as alarms, performance reporting, automation, and templates. Features such as high-availability, distributed resource scheduler (DRS) and VMotion require a vCenter Server. Multiple vCenter Servers can run in linked mode to provide centralized management of multiple virtual environments. Ease of use The vSphere hypervisor comes in two editions, ESX and ESXi. ESX has a larger footprint (1.7 GB) and a more complex Service Console that runs a full Linux OS. ESXi has a simpler management console, and smaller footprint (70 MB). As a result, ESXi can be installed in a few minutes and with almost no interaction. VMware also has a free service called VMware GO that helps users who are new to virtualization get up and running quickly. VMware's

Contents
VMware vSphere 4 best practices: A review of what's new for storage administrators 10 ways to improve data protection in VMware environments

Page 4 of 10

Sponsored by

VMware vSphere Tips for SMBs

free Converter product and vCenter Server's Guide Consolidation feature also simplify virtualization by converting a physical server into virtual machines. Security vSphere is a controlled and secure environment, and the hypervisor has never been compromised. vSphere's security is due in part to a set of security APIs called VMsafe that allows third-party applications to have tight integration for providing even better security controls. vSphere also includes a product called vShield Zones that provides a virtual firewall and IDS that can be used to provide better protection for virtual machines. Data backup and data protection vSphere has several data backup and recovery features that come with it. For example, virtual machine snapshots can be used to roll back to a previous virtual machine state. This feature is useful when patching guests or installing applications, so you can easily recover from any problems that may result. vSphere also includes a product called VMware Data Recovery (VDR) that can perform backups of virtual machines to any disk storage device using inline deduplication and compression. In addition, the vSphere APIs for data protection allow third-party backup applications to have tight integration for backing up and replicating virtual machines. Scalability vSphere hosts and virtual machines scale well enough to allow almost any application or workload to be virtualized. With support for 1 TB of physical memory and 64 logical CPUs, vSphere hosts can support up to 256 running VMs per host. Plus, virtual machines can be assigned up to eight vCPUs and 255 GB of RAM to support even the most demanding applications. Using advanced memory techniques like transparent page sharing (TPS) and memory overcommitment, vSphere can allow more virtual machines to run with less physical resources. Cost savings Virtualization can help save money on power and cooling, but vSphere takes it even further with advanced features like Distributed Power Management

Contents
VMware vSphere 4 best practices: A review of what's new for storage administrators 10 ways to improve data protection in VMware environments

Page 5 of 10

Sponsored by

VMware vSphere Tips for SMBs

(DPM) and Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS). DPM allows hosts to be automatically powered down and virtual machines migrated to other hosts during periods of low activity. When the resource demands increase, hosts are powered back on and VMs move back onto the hosts. DVFS allows host CPUs to dynamically change power states (p-states) when resource demands are low to reduce a host's energy consumption. CPU frequency and voltages are lowered and raised based on demand from virtual machines. When these two features are combined, it can help save money, especially in environments with regular extended periods of inactivity. Extensibility vSphere has many APIs and SDKs that developers can use to write applications for vSphere. There are also scripting languages available such as Javascript, Perl and PowerShell to automate tasks and help manage the virtual environment. This allows for many free tools and scripts to be developed that can be used in place of more expensive add-on software.

Contents
VMware vSphere 4 best practices: A review of what's new for storage administrators 10 ways to improve data protection in VMware environments

10 ways to improve data protection in VMware environments

By: Lauren Whitehouse With backup vendors revising their offerings to take advantage of VMware vSphere 4's new features, an upgrade to vSphere in 2010 could protect your organization's data storage. Because a virtual machine (VM) is an encapsulation of an operating system, applications and data, protecting a production virtual disk is vital. IT organizations face several challenges when it comes to protecting their virtual machine disk image (VMDK) files. Finite shared physical resources on the host system and in-guest I/O-intensive backup processes have the potential to bring VM performance to a crawl. The increase in the amount of data in VMware environments can impact the backup window. VMware Inc.'s release of vSphere 4 in the first half of 2009 introduced several data protection enhancements over VMware Infrastructure 3-era tools. And now that backup vendors have had several months to revise their

Page 6 of 10

Sponsored by

VMware vSphere Tips for SMBs

offerings to take advantage of its new features, an upgrade to vSphere in 2010 could greatly improve your organization's data protection.

Contents
VMware vSphere 4 best practices: A review of what's new for storage administrators 10 ways to improve data protection in VMware environments

Here are 10 backup-related reasons why you should consider a vSphere upgrade in 2010: 1) VMware vStorage APIs for Data Protection. VMware introduced VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) command line utilities in ESX 3.0 to simplify data protection by offloading backup from ESX Servers to one or more centralized proxy servers. It allows a live system image to be captured without disrupting the VM-resident applications or overwhelming the host's CPU. With VCB, backups occur off-host so there's no "backup window" to contend with. This method also removes the need for an agent in every virtual machine and provides VM-level recovery. But it requires either a twostep backup or recovery to perform a file-level recovery. In vSphere, VMware completely rearchitected the facilitation of backup. Instead of acquiring VCB and implementing it with your backup application, your backup vendor now leverages vStorage APIs (virtual machine file system, or VMFS, drivers) to access data on VMFS volumes. This integration makes for a much better backup implementation. 2) VMware Data Recovery (VDR). For those who prefer to use a native backup tool, VDR is an agentless, disk-based (local or Fibre Channel, iSCSI or network-attached storage shared disk) backup solution that employs snapshots and data deduplication. Running in a virtual machine as a Linux virtual appliance, VDR backup and recovery tasks are launched through VMware vCenter Server. Because VDR takes advantage of the vStorage APIs for Data Protection, a VM-level backup is performed that enables fast backup and recovery. Granular (file-level) recovery is possible from the VMlevel backup. Using block-level data dedupe, it keeps required disk space to a minimum. VDR is included with vSphere Enterprise Plus, Advanced and Essentials Plus editions. 3) Granular recovery. File-level recovery is now possible from a VM-level backup without a two-step process. This allows organizations to perform an

Page 7 of 10

Sponsored by

VMware vSphere Tips for SMBs

image-level backup (with no impact on the CPU of the host system) and to later do either a bare-metal-like or individual file recovery.

Contents
VMware vSphere 4 best practices: A review of what's new for storage administrators 10 ways to improve data protection in VMware environments

4) Changed block tracking (CBT). In the past, copying VMDKs for backup purposes meant moving large files around your LAN, WAN and/or SAN. The effect? An increase in network traffic and backup time. VMware introduced CBT in vSphere 4 to markedly improve performance. CBT allows the VMkernel to track changed blocks of a virtual machine's virtual disk. Backup applications using vStorage APIs can immediately identify the blocks that have changed since the last backup and copy only those blocks -- cutting down the time it takes to capture and transfer data, as well as reducing traffic on the network. 5) No physical proxy server required. Previously, a physical machine was required for the VCB backup proxy server. But organizations can now reduce their infrastructure commitment because the proxy system that mounts the LUNs can be a virtual machine. 6) vCenter Server plug-ins. Monitoring and management improvements are gained via vCenter Server integration. Backup vendors offering vCenter Server plug-ins can provide views of a virtual machine's backup status, including success/failure, method of backup and schedule. Some even automate the process of assigning backup policies to new VMs as they come online, eliminating protection gaps. 7) Direct backup from shared storage. When the backup data path includes a proxy system, it can create network bottlenecks and inefficiency. Now, a direct-to-target architecture is employed, allowing backup data to go from the ESX host to the storage target. Leveraging the vStorage APIs, virtual disk data is read directly from the SAN storage device. 8) iSCSI enhancements. Organizations using software iSCSI initiators to implement shared storage in virtual server environments could see performance improvements with vSphere. More disk I/O throughput and reductions in CPU overhead benefit I/O-intensive backup processes.

Page 8 of 10

Sponsored by

VMware vSphere Tips for SMBs

9) Thin provisioning. VMware made some improvements in vSphere for thin provisioning: the ability to overcommit disk space. Not only is it easier to create, maintain and monitor "thin" disks, but using them could help improve backup performance, as well as the capacity of space used on host's data stores. Here's why: When a VM is created, storage is allocated. Virtual machines typically don't use all of the storage space assigned, so the VMDK file could be unnecessarily larger. Backup applications are able to recognize "empty" file system space to avoid backing them up, but the process takes up valuable time. Thin provisioning results in smaller VMDK files and faster backups. 10) Data deduplication. Data deduplication is not a feature of vSphere unless you use VDR for backup. Therefore, it's likely that you will look to your backup application provider for this feature. Since taking advantage of vSphere features, such as CBT, vStorage APIs for Data Protection and vCenter Plug-ins, requires you to also upgrade your backup application, you'll likely gain dedupe features in the upgraded backup application. Given the tendency for duplicate data in backup processes, eliminating duplicates -at the "source" VM or the proxy server -- will reduce the amount of data transferred and stored, and improve performance.

Contents
VMware vSphere 4 best practices: A review of what's new for storage administrators 10 ways to improve data protection in VMware environments

Page 9 of 10

Sponsored by

VMware vSphere Tips for SMBs

Contents
VMware vSphere 4 best practices: A review of what's new for storage administrators 10 ways to improve data protection in VMware environments

Free resources for technology professionals

TechTarget publishes targeted technology media that address your need for information and resources for researching products, developing strategy and making cost-effective purchase decisions. Our network of technology-specific Web sites gives you access to industry experts, independent content and analysis and the Webs largest library of vendor-provided white papers, webcasts, podcasts, videos, virtual trade shows, research reports and more drawing on the rich R&D resources of technology providers to address market trends, challenges and solutions. Our live events and virtual seminars give you access to vendor neutral, expert commentary and advice on the issues and challenges you face daily. Our social community IT Knowledge Exchange allows you to share real world information in real time with peers and experts.

What makes TechTarget unique?

TechTarget is squarely focused on the enterprise IT space. Our team of editors and network of industry experts provide the richest, most relevant content to IT professionals and management. We leverage the immediacy of the Web, the networking and face-to-face opportunities of events and virtual events, and the ability to interact with peersall to create compelling and actionable information for enterprise IT professionals across all industries and markets.

Related TechTarget Websites

Page 10 of 10

Sponsored by