This document discusses managing multiple hypervisors in an IT environment. It introduces tips and tricks for virtualization administrators ("vAdmins") dealing with the challenges of overseeing different hypervisors. These include issues with terminology, management interfaces, licensing, capabilities, integration with other systems, and vendor support. The document suggests some strategies for vAdmins to effectively handle multi-hypervisor environments, such as learning about each hypervisor thoroughly. It also introduces several management tools that aim to provide a unified interface for multiple hypervisors.

1. Becoming a vAdmin Rockstar! Tips &
Tricks for Managing Multiple
Hypervisors in Your Environment
Mike Nelson
Solutions Architect - nGenX
Level: Intermediate

2. Or…
Who Can Make Up The Longest
Session Title Ever & Get Away With
It!
Mike Nelson
Solutions Architect - nGenX
Level: Intermediate

3. Who Is This Guy?
• Solutions Architect – nGenX
• 25 years in tech
• CTP - vExpert - MCSE-PC
• mike.nelson@ngenx.com
• Twitter - @nelmedia
Mike Nelson 2014

4. What Are We Going to Talk About?
• Who are you?
• What, why, and how of what you do
• Are you the master of your domain? Really?
• Some Stats & Speculations
• Cover the basics
• Managing the mess
• Demo
Mike Nelson 2014

5. Updates
I like to draw ;-)
Updated slides, drawings, etc.
http://1drv.ms/1oHyNzP
Mike Nelson 2014

7. Questions for You
• What’s the difference between Type1 and
Type2?
• Can anyone name all the Type1 Hypervisors?
• Do you have a single or multiple hypervisors in
your datacenter now? Do you even know?
• Does your IT have any role in decisions by the
business? Who owns the technology?
• How many admin’s? Who does what?
• Are you bias? Paranoid? Or both?

8. Mike Nelson 2014

9. Mike Nelson 2014

10. Who Are (Major) The Players?
Mike Nelson 2014

12. Drivers For Multiple Hypervisors
• Mergers & acquisitions
• Hypervisor Vendor relationships, pressure, & deals
• Licensing
• Application vendor hypervisor support, pressure, and
risk
• I.T. as a Business, I.T. as a Service
• Ambiguous “cloud” services

13. Do you have a guy like this in the business?

14. Who gets schmoozed by a guy like this?

16. 65% in 2012 80% in 2014

19. The Wikibon conclusions from their survey:
• Overall growth of x86 virtualization is healthy, and shows no sign of stalling or topping
out.
• VMware is the dominant force with 76% of the installed base. The workload analysis
shows that all workload types are migrating to VMware, including mission critical and
database workloads.
• Even though VMware is projected to grow at only 24%, VMware will still hold 68% of
the overall market in 18 months time.
• Microsoft Hyper-V is projected to grow at 61% over the next 18 months, with an
emphasis on smaller Microsoft IT shops, and desktop virtualization.
• KVM is growing very fast from a small base, and is the leading open-source contender
by far. It is particularly strong it Hyperscale IT infrastructures (not represented in this
survey), an with other IT service organizations such as Cloud Service providers, ISVs,
VARs and other distributers.
• OVM from Oracle is focused on large-scale Oracle database installations, and seems to
be growing fast in this niche.
• From the evidence of this survey, Citrix Xen is challenged to remain a viable
hypervisor.
Ref: Wikibon Multi-Hypervisor Survey, August 2013

29. Mike Nelson 2014

30. Mike Nelson 2014

33. • Code injection in Hypervisor
Layer
• Requires compatible
hardware & device drivers
• No security patches or
operating system required in
the Controlling Layer
• No code injection possible in
Hypervisor Layer
• Device drivers do not need
to be hypervisor aware
• Controlling Layer requires OS
= less secure

34. vSphere 5.5
Linux:
 Asianux
 SUSE
 RedHat
 Fedora
 CentOS
 OS X (Darwin) *
 E-Com Station
 Debian
 FreeBSD
 Mandrake
 Java Desktop
 Oracle desktop *
 TurboLinux
 Ubuntu
 Solaris*
 SCO
 Netware
Windows:
 Server 2012 / R2
 Server 2008 / R2
 Server 2003 / R2
 Server 2000
 Server NT
 Windows 8.1
 Windows 7
 Windows Vista
 Windows XP
 Windows 98
 Windows ME
 Windows 95
 Windows 3.1
 DOS
Other?:
 OS/2 Warp

35. Linux:
 Asianux
 SUSE
 RedHat
 Fedora
 CentOS
 OS X (Darwin)
 E-Com Station
 Debian
 FreeBSD
 Mandrake
 Java Desktop
 Oracle desktop
 TurboLinux
 Ubuntu
 Solaris
 SCO
 Netware
Windows:
 Server 2012 / R2
 Server 2008 / R2
 Server 2003 / R2
 Server 2000
 Server NT
 Windows 8.1
 Windows 7
 Windows Vista
 Windows XP
 Windows 98
 Windows ME
 Windows 95
 Windows 3.1
 DOS
Other?:
 OS/2 Warp
Hyper-V 2012 R2

36. Comparison Sites
www.virtualizationmatrix.com - Andreas Groth
Perficient Whitepaper - http://bit.ly/1lKAFD2
Keith Mayer’s writeup - http://bit.ly/1e0icwW
Aidenfinn.com

37. Virtualization Matrix

38. VirtualizationMatrix Website

39. vAdmin Challenges
• Terminology
• Management
• Licensing
• Capacities & limitations
• “Core 4” compatibility
• 3rd party integrations
• Scaling
• Vendor support
• DR / HA / Compliance
Mike Nelson 2014

40. How Do We Manage Today?
• Multiple windows
• Multiple machines
• Multiple admins
• Steep learning curves
Mike Nelson 2014

41. VMware’s Rant on SCVMM
VMware Whitepaper:
 Opening line “Why trying to use SCVMM 2012 will frustrate
vSphere administrators”
 Microsoft is trying to convince vSphere administrators to
manage their VMware environment using System Center Virtual
Machine Manager 2012 (SCVMM 2012). However, vSphere
administrators will find that SCVMM 2012 -
 1. Increases Complexity While Adding Little Value
 2. Is Not a “Single Pane Of Glass Interface”, vCenter Server Is Still
Required
 3. Adds New Overheads, Delivers Little Benefit
 4. Degrades Operational Efficiency, Frustrating Administrators
 SCVMM 2012 offers only rudimentary management capabilities
for VMware environments and introduces unnecessary
complexity, overhead and frustration for vSphere
administrators.

42. F. U. D.

50. Mike Nelson 2014

51. Mike Nelson 2014
• Still limited to basic tasks
• Terminology & Standards issues
What about other Hypervisors?

52. OpenStack Compute (Nova)
https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/HypervisorSupportMatrix

53. Mike Nelson 2014

54. Mike Nelson 2014

55. Mike Nelson 2014
Ref: OpenStack User Survey – May 2014

56. Mike Nelson 2014

57. Mike Nelson 2014

59. Embotics v-Commander

60. Mike Nelson 2014

61. Mike Nelson 2014

62. Hotlink Video

63. Some Others To Look At
• WebCommander (Check Steven Kang as well)
• ProHVM
• 5Nines
• VMware MHM
• The next greatest….
Mike Nelson 2014

64. What About…
• Backup & Recovery?
• Monitoring – E2E?
• Compliance?
• Patching – Security & Updates?
• What else?
Mike Nelson 2014

65. Mike Nelson 2014

66. Mike Nelson 2014

67. Mike Nelson 2014

68. vAdmin
Know Your Hypervisor
Install – Config - Admin

69. Network
Storage
Cloud
vAdmin
Fundamentals
Management
Complex

70. What’s a vAdmin To Do?
• Pick your fights
• Learn about the hypervisors, what they can &
cannot do, how to configure & troubleshoot
• Read the best practices & capacity info
• Make your case & mark your territory, if you can.
• Learn the tools, try before you buy
• Deploy and play around, cop a feel
• Talk to some “smart” people, buy them beer
• Learn PowerShell!

74. Mike Nelson 2014