1. Drive Workload Optimization in a Virtual Infrastructure
Virtualization enables workload optimization by optimizing systems and system
management
Optimizing workloads—to meet or exceed target service levels while using the fewest
resources possible—is a major goal for the enterprise today.
However, before workloads can be optimized the systems that drive them must be
optimized first. And system optimization is exceptionally hard to achieve in a
conventional infrastructure, in which services are tied on a one-to-one basis with
commodity hardware such as low-end x86 systems. Commonly, such an infrastructure
will be idle more than 90 percent of the time—generating costs but not business value.
And should more resources be required for an unexpected spike in workloads, those
resources may not be available.
Virtualization represents a much better approach, through which workload resources can
be shifted in real time wherever they are required, service levels can be enhanced as a
result, and both idle time and overall costs can be minimized—essentially, a vision of
workload optimization. But realizing this vision via a virtualized infrastructure will also
typically mean moving to a new management paradigm.
A modern solution such as IBM Systems Director will be needed in order to consolidate
and simplify overall management by tracking status/health levels of different servers and
hosts, and by fulfilling everyday tasks such as software provisioning and problem
isolation. Systems Director elegantly unifies management across multiple operating
systems, IBM server groups and certain non-IBM servers—taking the focus away from
the details of the technology per se and turning it toward the optimized utilization of the
IT infrastructure in the pursuit of business goals.
Create and manage system pools with IBM Systems Director VMControl Enterprise
Edition
Now, IBM has taken the next evolutionary step in system optimization through
virtualization management.
IBM Systems Director VMControl Enterprise Edition, a plug-in extension that works
within the general Systems Director environment, allows the enterprise to create virtual
system pools: groups of virtualized resources (servers, storage and network). Because
they can be managed as a single entity, system pools thus function as building blocks that
administrators can use to optimize systems more easily, more quickly and more
consistently—mitigating business risks by enhancing availability, reducing costs by
better linking resource allocation to business demands and driving service levels to new
heights.
To see how system pools work, begin with the fact that successful virtualization will
almost always require careful management of system images. Images contain the

2. complete software stack of operating system, middleware, applications, data and other
elements required for a virtual server; IT organizations will therefore usually have many
images created for many business purposes. When the number of images proliferates,
management complexity scales as well, and with it, costs and risks. These challenges
demand a fast, efficient and consistent solution to manage images, one designed to take
advantage of best practices and yet also adjust easily to the unique demands of a
particular organization’s context. They also demand a more holistic, comprehensive
approach to managing the overall infrastructure, in order to reduce the number and
complexity of management tools as much as possible.
VMControl Enterprise Edition, utilized within IBM Systems Director, represents just
such a solution. VMControl Image Management features provide a way for managers to
capture system images and store them in a library. Subsequently, they can quickly and
easily be provisioned to any target virtual system, and even customized with specific
elements that may be required, such as drivers or data. This approach delivers a number
of significant wins: much more consistent image deployment, improved security,
simplified regulation compliance, higher system availability, faster time-to-value for
virtual systems and the services they support and, generally, lower costs.
Once provisioned, virtual systems can themselves be clustered and managed as a logical
group—a system pool—and dynamically assigned to changing business demands in real
time. This is the heart of the system pool concept: extending virtualization across host
systems to render resource utilization even more fluid and cost-efficient while reducing
management complexity even further. One system pool is simpler, easier and less
expensive to manage than a variety of hardware hosts running a variety of virtual servers.
Get transparent updates, automated resilience and minimized downtime
System pools, as managed by IBM Systems Director VMControl, thus represent a great
way to optimize systems. Because resources can be even more closely, quickly and easily
paired with business demand, waste is minimized, and yet service level targets are
invariably hit. The fact that multiple physical hosts are deployed in the pool, each itself
running multiple virtual servers, is no longer directly relevant, and managers need only
concern themselves with bigger-picture business goals and how well they are being
fulfilled holistically.
Many specific benefits will accrue as well. For instance, consider the common business
challenge of service outages; these might occur either on a planned basis (in order to
carry out firmware or software updates) or an unplanned basis (due to catastrophic,
unpredictable system failure). Both situations are substantially improved via VMControl-
managed system pools.
Imagine a data center in which system pools have been deployed and in which one of the
hardware hosts in a pool has failed. Because that pool can be monitored and managed as
a logical whole, failure of one host does not translate into failure of the pool. An
administrator can simply shift the services from the failed host (or any group of them) to
other virtual systems within that pool or across pools—dramatically decreasing the

3. negative business impact of the failure.
This approach, when combined with policy-driven management tools, can be automated
as well. Should monitoring tools detect the failure, conditions of a logical policy will be
fulfilled, and the policy will be executed. The service supported by the failed host will be
automatically transferred to a healthy system, along with whatever necessary
computational resources are required to optimize its workload. At no point will an IT
team member be required to take action or even notice the existence of the problem.
Overall downtime and costs dramatically fall, and workloads are fulfilled in a far more
optimized fashion.
(In fact, if in this scenario, the organization wisely selects best-in-class hardware such as
IBM Power Systems hosts, imminent physical failure can be anticipated and reported
automatically to VMControl, which can then take appropriate, policy-driven action. In
this scenario, the business impact of the hardware failure is zero.)
VMControl can effectively make planned outages a thing of the past as well, because
services need not be taken offline for systems to be updated. They can simply be shifted
temporarily to another logical location while updates are applied to the original systems
and subsequently shifted back. Users and customers need never know, or care, that an
update took place at all. Overall service availability and resilience of the data center
climbs as a result, and with it user productivity (for internal services) and customer
satisfaction and revenues (for external services).
Gradually develop a cloud over time
System pools can also be seen as a logical stage (or building block) in the development of
a full cloud computing environment. A cloud represents an even higher level of
abstraction in which multiple system pools combine to flexibly and scalably deliver all
the necessary resources for optimization across as many business contexts, systems,
services and applications as needed, and yet the cloud itself is managed as an integrated,
holistic entity.
Not all organizations are prepared to transition to the cloud computing today, though. For
those seeking a more gradual migration, at a pace that matches their requirements going
forward, IBM Systems Director VMControl Enterprise Edition can make that possible—
delivering substantial business wins today and laying the foundation for more tomorrow.
Additional Information:
System pools overview:
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/virtualization/infrastructure/virtualsystempools/index.ht
ml
VMControl overview:
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/management/director/about/announcement/20091020.ht
ml

4. VMControl Enterprise Edition:
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/management/director/plugins/syspools/index.html
Bullets:
• Virtualization simplifies workload optimization—but requires a new management
approach
• IBM Systems Director, empowered with the new VMControl Enterprise Edition,
delivers consolidated, simplified management of virtualized infrastructures.
• VMControl allows IT to create and manage system pools to optimize workloads more
easily and quickly.
• System pools also represent a logical building block for complete cloud environments.
Talking points:
See above
Tweet tagline: Optimizing systems just got simpler. New VMControl plug-in lets Sys
Director create and manage system pools: low costs, high uptime, easy management.
Drive Workload Optimization in a Virtual Infrastructure
IBM VMControl Enterprise Edition, a plug-in for IBM Systems Director, can help you to
optimize systems in a complex virtualized infrastructure via system pools. Because
system pools can be monitored and managed as easily as a single system, they simplify
the process of ensuring changing workloads get the resources they need—in real time.
Tags/keywords: workloads, workload optimization, VMControl, virtualization, cloud,
cloud computing, provisioning, automated