IT in Europe E-zine TechTarget - Building a Virtualised datacenter

ITinEuropeVIRTUAL DATA CENTRE
A special European edition of Virtual Data Centre e-zine | searchvirtualdatacentre.co.uk
JULY 2011, VOL. 1, NO. 2
Make plans up front to include governance, business
processes and infrastructure designs into your
virtualised data centre—or face the consequences.
PPLLUUSS::
5 WAYS TO IMPROVE
VIRTUALISED SERVER
INFRASTRUCTURE
PERFORMANCE
p

WHEN IT COMES to deploying a virtualised data centre infrastructure, you
need a plan to stay on track and avoid getting derailed. Advance plan-
ning pays off, says Daniel Eason, who advises IT professionals to create
aplanforhardware,storage,networkingandgovernancewellinadvance.
As more European companies turn to virtualisation to enhance their
environments, it is important to generate a solid IT roadmap and focus
on key areas such as architectural governance, technical design, vitual-
isation’s role in current and future business processes and, most impor-
tant, budget management for virtualisation projects. If you plan for the
worst, you can anticipate most disasters and avoid unwanted road-
blocks such as vendor lock-in and dried-up funds.
Whilst putting your plan together, consider your timeline and budget.
Ask yourself if your plans are realistic. Have you been seduced by pretty
flashing lights that you can’t afford, don’t need and don’t have time to
deploy?Rememberthatyou’llpresentyourroadmaptothepersonwho’s
holding the purse strings, so be prepared to justify your purchases.
In addition to an overall strategy, this e-zine advises you on the man-
agement aspects of your virtual environment once it’s deployed. Eric
Siebert writes about keeping your system healthy by being wary of secu-
rity hazards and virtual machine sprawl. Then, Rick Vanover, an IT infra-
structure expert, gives you five tips for running a smooth operation by
making incremental adjustments that boost performance levels.
If you choose not to set aside adequate time to plan a virtual infra-
structure deployment strategy in advance, chances are you’ll regret it.
Ensure you get things right the first time by being prepared for what-
ever comes at you and your team. I
Kayleigh Bateman
Site Manager, SearchVirtualDataCentre.co.UK
VIRTUAL DATA CENTRE EUROPE E-ZINE VOL. 1, NO. 2 • JULY 2011 2
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editor’s note
Virtual Infrastructure:
Don’t Skip the Small Stuff

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Sketching Out
Your Virtual Design
Make plans up front to include governance,
business processes and infrastructure designs
into your virtualised data centre—
or face the consequences.
BY DANIEL EASON
HILE SERVER virtualisation adoption is on the
rise,soliddatacentreplanninganddesignprocess-
esaresometimesconsideredanoneroustimesink.
Butvirtualisationtechnologychangesvariousareas
of IT and thus requires much more architectural
planning and strategic considerations than does
the legacy architecture that preceded it.
With virtualised resources, a data centre envi-
ronment is more dynamic and less transparent than a physical data
centreenvironment.So,ITprosneedtothinkabouttheirenvironments
and architecture designs at the very beginning of the project plan-
ning period.
Without a firm design strategy in place, a data centre environment
can easily fall prey to management and performance problems—
from virtual machine (VM) sprawl to poor consolidation ratios and
spotty server and application performance. Ultimately, these design
problems compel IT to focus on troubleshooting tasks rather than on
good management and governance of a virtualised infrastructure.
IT managers are encouraged to consider various aspects of data
centre architecture up front, including the following:
I IT roadmap strategy
I IT governance
I Project or business process alignment
I Technical design criteria
Consideringtheseelementsinadvanceofvirtualisationdeployment
W

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or expansion gives data centre professionals a better chance to get
their environment right the first time.
Mapping It Out
Before organisations can deploy or increase their use of virtualisa-
tion, the first order of business is to consider their IT roadmaps and
to start the deployment process knowing that virtualisation tech-
nologies should be able to support any strategic business require-
ments.
In constructing an IT roadmap, IT professionals should indentify
the following:
I Current areas of infrastructure that pose operational or technical
problems, such as the lack of service-fulfillment processes or dis-
aster recovery capability for virtualised workloads.
I Existingbusinessconstraintsandproductivitygapsthatcanbereme-
diated by introducing virtualisation features.
I Areas of business or IT processes that will benefit from new tech-
nological investment, such as disaster recovery or self-service
capabilities.
I External factors and IT innovation to ensure that your business is
ahead of the curve and business competitors.
Once data centre managers assess their IT environment and grasp
its initial scope, they should compile a timeline-driven document and
present it to business and IT stakeholders. This document will be the
foundation for gaining business-line buy-in and for making the finan-
cialcaseforvirtualisedresources.Thenroadmapactivitycanbesched-
uled into an IT portfolio and deployed as distinct IT projects.
Regarding virtualisation, an IT roadmap should focus on these key
areas:
I engaging business- or application-based IT stakeholders to estab-
lish potential future requirements for VM services (for example,
the implementation of an enterprise resource planning system);
I establishing future hardware platform choices and replacement

options for server hardware that will soon reach end-of-life
status;
I third-party vendor roadmaps for changes that can affect existing
technology and create vendor lock-in; and
I potential licensing and software renewal schedules for conflicts
and problems.
As you draft your roadmap, the first question to ask is this: Is the
level of transformation and the timeline of your roadmap realistic?
Consider the answer in light of how well IT and the business side
can adapt to change. If you believe that a three-to-five-year plan
can’t be reached because the time horizon is too far out, focus on a
more accomplishable, shorter-term roadmap of 12 to 18 months to
acclimate staff members and enable them to become familiar with
theroadmapprocess.Finally,ITmanagersshouldpresenttheroadmap
to various organisational leaders within IT and the business side to
gain acceptance and sponsorship.
Architectural Governance
For IT managers, technical architectural governance is a key consid-
eration,andit’simportantthatstakeholdersproposetheirownguide-
lines and come to an agreement on any policies that IT architects
propose. In virtualised environments, this might involve sizing for
VM service offerings or new service-request fulfilment.
An example of a basic governance policy to work towards—and
one that most organisations do unconsciously—is to agree on a cor-
porate-wide VM-first adoption policy. A VM-first policy stipulates
that any new server or application request should be hosted on a vir-
tualmachineplatform;physicalserverdeployments,ontheotherhand,
should require executive-level sign-off.
Gaining acceptance for this kind of policy is not simple, and suc-
cessrequirespromotionandaneducationprocessfortheentireorgan-
isation. Consider the following tactics for doing so:
I Promote to internal users the business benefits of VMs from a
commercial and availability perspective.
I Educate the business side and evangelise on the time-saving ben-
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efits of using virtual machines, such as reduced server provisioning
times.
I Gain acceptance from application teams to ensure that they fully
support a consolidated virtual infrastructure.
To reduce VM sprawl, a solid governance policy is also key. In phys-
ical environments, it was easy to control server deployments given
slower procurement and deployment times. But in a virtualised envi-
ronment, VM sprawl can become a real concern and often accom-
panies rapid deployment of VMs within an organisation. You’ll need
to institute control and governance mechanisms over VM deploy-
ments, and a rock-solid request process is paramount.
To counteract VM sprawl, organisations just starting on the virtu-
alisation journey should consider implementing new VM request
processes. Petitioning for a VM can then be filtered via service desk
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Same-Page Training
for Virtualisation Staff
ALTHOUGH SERVER VIRTUALISATION anddatacentreconsolidationprovideexcep-
tional technical benefits, you should also recognise that operations need to
be integrated into existing processes to support a virtualised environment.
From a service management perspective, virtual machines are sometimes
treated like physical servers when it comes to routine tasks such as planning
maintenance downtime and disaster recovery scenarios.
To change this mentality, IT managers should offer workshops to explain
the following areas:
I aRACI(responsible,accountable,consulted,informed)matrixforknock-
ing down the traditional divisions between virtualisation administrators
and other infrastructure admins;
I key areas that can change given the benefits of virtualisation (such as
host hardware upgrades);
I changes made to service-level agreements.

tool sets to monitor the total volume of requests and to ensure that
each business requirement is justified and IT-approved.
More mature organisations should consider investing in self-ser-
vice automation tool sets with standardised, pre-set VM images for
application use. This system gives IT the opportunity to delegate
responsibility and to retain control of the centralised adopted policy
for items such as VM size or the length of time a user will have access
to a VM.
Consider offering strategically sized “T-shirt-like” categories for
VMs to predetermine VM sizes as well as the number of applications
used, amount of memory used and so on. These preset categories
prevent IT managers from having to struggle with constant overallo-
cation and to prevent one VM from hogging resources.
Business Process and Project Alignment
At the start of a server virtualisation undertaking, data centre man-
agers should work towards reducing the risk that the project could
turn into an overly complicated and misunderstood endeavour. Con-
siderbeginninganengagementprocesswithincumbentprojectman-
agement teams to explain the technical and process differences
between “virtual” and “physical.”
Key areas of focus should include:
I Automation/deployments.Maketherelevantprocessesforchange
and external VM dependencies, such as IP/naming, a priority.
I Implementation tasks. Certain activities required for implementa-
tionwillnodoubtbemaderedundantwithinphysicalestates.Inmost
circumstances, VMs will be deployed into a pool of resources with
no dependency on physical infrastructure.
I Risks. Running within a shared multi-tenant virtual environment
means you must be vigilant about identifying risks. Be sure to struc-
ture and document processes clearly so that all parties have visi-
bility and can feel more comfortable that risk is being mitigated.
I Budgeting and the business case. Provide education on costs that
may change from being mainly opex- and capex-based. Give con-
siderationtoensuringthatsoftwarelicensingisappropriatelylicensed
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for a virtualised estate.
I Capacity management. Make leaner and meaner a goal in your vir-
tualised world.
Your project will be judged on how successful and efficient it is at
various stages and, once completed, at meeting its goals. Pay atten-
tion to the above criteria to avoid key measurables being affected in
order to deliver the new technology under budget and on time.
Technical Design Considerations
With shared multi-tenancy of virtual servers, the funding model for
hardware differs from the model for which individual physical servers
are procured. IT managers need to ensure appropriate funding for all
areas of infrastructure that support virtualisation.
It’s relatively easy to secure sufficient finances with the following
methods:
I Per-virtual machine costs: This number is calculated based on the
total cost of supportive host infrastructure—such as storage, net-
works and so on—divided by a total number of VMs on a single
host.
I Chargeback: This system is more common in US regions. It uses
tool sets to bill users and business departments for virtualisation
services based on resource usage, such as CPU, RAM and storage
consumption.
I Showback: Using the same tools that were used in a chargeback
system, IT divisions sometimes favour showback because of its
cost visibility for internal IT budget holders who can then assess
where most of the IT budget is being spent.
With any costing model, be sure to factor in future growth. You
may also need to educate stakeholders about the various standard
hardware requirements for a virtualisation estate. In addition, con-
siderthedifferentlicensingmodelstoensurethatVMsoftwarelicens-
ing is compliant.
Design considerations in a virtual data centre include planning for
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operations, hardware, storage and networking.
Operations. Within a virtualised data centre, it’s critical to develop
core operational competency built on virtualisation administrators’
skill sets.
Virtualisation admin roles have evolved from conventional server
admin positions to become more skilled IT roles that encompass
diverse infrastructure knowledge. So, in this role, core competency
requires less single-minded skill devoted to infrastructure hardware
and,instead,anewknowledgeofhow
the “logical layer” (the virtualisation
layer) integrates with and affects
external components, such as net-
working and storage.
IT managers need to give serious
thought to capacity management
tools, which provide visibility into the
architecture and enable proactive
planningoftheITroadmapandbudg-
et. Capacity management also gives
IT the opportunity to assess whether
virtualmachineswereoriginallyright-
sized, rather than oversized, and
whether they even need additional
resources allocated to perform
according to agreed-upon perform-
ance levels.
Hardware.Afterintroducing,deployingandsmoothingoutthekinks
ofvirtualisationtechnologyinyourorganisation,thecriticalnextphase
is to ensure that teams select the most appropriate IT resources to
support existing and future virtualised workloads. Needless to say,
selecting the right server hardware platform—one capable of sup-
porting existing VM workload requirements and future expansion—
is exceedingly important.
ExpertsandITusersalikehavelongdebatedthetypeofserverarchi-
tecture best suited for hosting virtualised workloads. At the defini-
tion stage, IT managers should perform due diligence on server plat-
forms and choose the most appropriate for their organisation.
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Capacity manage-
ment tools give IT
the opportunity to
assess whether VMs
need additional
resources allocated
to perform according
to agreed-upon
performance levels.

From a high-level perspective, blade servers have gained popular-
ity within data centres and rackmount servers are still a known quan-
tity and often a more popular choice for data centre architects.
Consider the following when selecting a server hardware platform:
I Scalability and density: Establish your VM sizing requirements
and application architecture. Typically blades are used for low-den-
sity scale-out VM deployments, whereas rackmount hardware can
facilitate a denser VM-to-physical-server consolidation ratio.
I Budget: Ensure that underlying hardware can be further deployed,
andconsidertheplatform’scostandlicensingfactors.Bladeservers
typicallyincurlargerup-frontcapitalcostexpendituresthandorack-
mount servers.
I Connectivity: Do you require per-port visibility into the cost of
SAN/LANinfrastructureusedforserviceswithrackmountservers?
Or can you split or recharge the cost of using a shared-blade back-
plane infrastructure, as you do for VM pricing?
I Security:Doyouhavesecuritycompliancecontrolsinplacetoensure
physical segregation of servers (a requirement for, say, PCI compli-
ance)?
Not all companies have the budget to procure new hardware. So if
you have existing servers that can support virtualised workloads,
consider server reuse as well as consolidated server platforms for
disaster recovery to reduce total hardware costs.
Storage. Virtualisation abstracts not only the underlying physical
server hardware but also the storage array to hosts with VMs. This
abstraction provides benefits such as the ability to mix various stor-
age area networks that have a variant disk media type and access
protocol. But it also creates new management issues.
Consider the following storage-related concerns:
I Performance: Selecting the most appropriate storage protocol to
access VMs is paramount. Consider hosting test and development
onnetworkedstorageandproductionVMsonFibreChanneloremer-
gent Fibre Channel over Ethernet-based arrays.
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I Disk media: If possible, invest in arrays that include the opportuni-
ty to use enterprise flash disk. Having such capability will allow you
to virtualise additional resource-intensive workloads in the future.
I Third-party integration: Ensure virtualisation vendor application
programming interface (API) support and integrate with storage
arrays.
I Disaster recovery/backup: Make certain that arrays and suppor-
tive software for array continuity are virtualisation-aware and fully
supported by your virtualisation vendor.
When it comes to storage selection, the above are just some of the
issues in a virtualised environment. In addition, be sure to bridge
gaps between storage and virtualisation design teams. In this vein,
consider holding design workshops to ensure that all your IT teams
understand and will plan for future growth.
Also, because virtualisation operates with storage arrays that are
likely multi-tenant, storage architecture teams should have com-
plete visibility into expected workload IOPS (I/O per second) that
hosted VMs require so as not to affect other running services.
Networking. In a virtualised environment, networking is probably
the least-used I/O, but it shouldn’t be neglected. Instead, IT man-
agers need a bulletproof strategy for the logical configuration and
management of virtual switches (vSwitches) that provide VM con-
nectivity.
Virtualisationtechnologyhasfarmorecentralisedmanagementand
visibility into server networking and security, and management APIs
offer greater opportunity to centrally manage VM configuration with
a policy-driven strategy.
Withconvergednetworkingtechnologies,provisioningavirtualised
and physical infrastructure is possible and provides new opportuni-
ties. The latest converged infrastructure management technologies
give IT managers a much greater ability to define and orchestrate the
implementation of network configuration policies to support physi-
cal networking. They can also perform logical virtualised switch net-
work configuration for VLANs and quality of service.
Whether it’s Ethernet or SAN, physical and virtualised connectiv-
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ity has conventionally operated in silo fashion. Convergence aims to
removesuchsilosthroughmoreholisticmanagementofsharedserv-
ices that run on physical infrastructure or a virtual hypervisor.
If you’re planning a new virtualised environment, get rid of existing
silos between virtualisation and network teams.
In the past, both teams would learn about the other’s technology
at the design stage to finalise an agreed-upon design. With the intro-
duction of third-party virtual switch capability, vSwitches can be
designed and operated at the virtualisation layer in the same way
that physical switches are. Third-party switch architecture is famil-
iar to designers and IT operations and reduces operational complex-
ityandstreamlinesregulartasks,suchasmigrationsordisasterrecov-
ery scenarios.
Finally, think about how you monitor networking performance
withinyourvirtualisednetwork.Managementtoolsetsprovideaholis-
tic view of performance levels of virtual machine network traffic.
Managementandperformancereportingwillalsoimproveroot-cause
analysisandvisibilityintopotentialissuesbetweenVMsandthephys-
ical services that are not feasible to virtualise.
Planning Pays Dividends
Solid virtualisation planning and design help you right-size your IT
infrastructureandpreventbudget-bustingdecisionsorpurchasesthat
createvendorlock-in.WhileITprosmaybehesitanttoinvestthetime
in these planning and design phases, these tasks pay exponential
dividends as you deploy and manage your virtualised infrastructure.
For IT managers who find the foregoing discussion daunting, here
are some last pieces of advice:
I Educate anyone who works with policy on the benefits and justifi-
cation for any of your proposed strategy.
I Develop solid analysis and evidence to gain acceptance of your vir-
tualised infrastructure and trust from stakeholders.
I At a minimum, get clarity on IT spending—even in basic form—for
departmental knowledge, not organisational knowledge. I
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management
Virtualisation
Infrastructure Monitoring:
Eat Your Veggies
Monitoring for virtual machine sprawl, security risks
and resource bottlenecks is like eating your spinach:
It ensures a healthy virtualisation environment
and keeps downtime to a minimum.
BY ERIC SIEBERT
onitoring your virtualisationenvironment
is the cornerstone of maintaining your infrastruc-
ture’s health. And, let’s face it: Many virtualisation
administrators fail to pay adequate attention to
security,resourcerequirementsandvirtualmachine
(VM) monitoring tasks that their environments
require. Giving these factors short shrift can invite security breach-
es, VM performance problems and system downtime.
Sopayattentiontothefinerpointsofvirtualisationdeploymentproj-
ects and learn how to secure, populate and monitor your environ-
ment.
Securing Your Virtual Environment
When implementing a virtual environment, administrators often fail
to take the time to properly secure the environment, which is a big
mistake.
Most bare-metal hypervisors are reasonably secure out of the box,
but there is always room for improvement. In addition, it’s fairly sim-
ple to make a hypervisor less secure by changing default settings or
through misconfiguration. Security is amplified in a virtual environ-
ment, where a single physical server runs many virtual servers, and
inadequate security on a physical server can directly affect the secu-
rity of all virtual servers running on that host.
M

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management
Traditional security practices don't always apply to virtual envi-
ronments, and there are special considerations you should be aware
of. My advice is to take the time to understand security in virtual
environments and apply recommended security settings to all the
components that make up your virtualisation environment, including
hosts, VMs, networks and management servers.
Protecting host servers cannot be
emphasised enough. Think of a host
server as a castle with VMs protect-
ed inside it. If an attacker compro-
misesyourcastle’sdefenses,hegains
free access to everything inside as
well.Youshoulddoeverythingyoucan
to make sure your castle’s defenses
areadequate,anddonotforgettoput
water in the moat and raise the draw-
bridge.Manythird-partyvendorsoffer
securityproductsspecificallytomon-
itor and secure VMs, hosts and virtual networks.
Often, security administrators are wary of virtual hosts because of
the increased security risks and some misperceptions about what
makes VMs insecure. Take the time to explain to your security team
how security works in a virtual environment. Also, outline the extra
steps you have taken to further protect hosts and VMs. Once you
educate them about virtual security, they should be more comfort-
able and willing to work with you.
Populating a Virtual Environment
It’s easy to create a VM—in fact, it’s too easy. VMs can cause sub-
stantial problems once they propagate. One of the biggest problems
in virtual environments is VM sprawl, or the uncontrolled growth of
VMs in a virtual environment. Star Trek fans may recall how the cud-
dly aliens in the popular episode “The Trouble with Tribbles” repro-
duced so quickly that they threatened to overwhelm the host ship’s
food supplies.
VM sprawl is similar in that virtual machines are often created
without regard for the resources that they consume and, thus, these
VMs can overwhelm the host server’s resources.
To address sprawl, you can implement one of the many products
Many third-party
vendors offer security
products specifically
to monitor and
secure VMs, hosts
and virtual networks.

thatsupportchargebackandthecreationofreportsonresourceusage
for virtual environments. In addition, limiting the number of people
who can create VMs and establishing a formal process for request-
ing new VMs can prevent sprawl and unmonitored machines.
You should consider requiring justification for requests for any
new virtual machines and institute an approval process to force users
to think twice about whether they need to create new VMs. Finally,
creating resource pools helps limit the amount of resources available
on your host servers for new VMs.
It’simportanttocontrolsprawlearlyon.Otherwise,beforeyouknow
it, you may use all your host resources and create bottlenecks that
reduce the performance of VMs. Make your IT staff aware that VMs
are not free and that they bring an associated cost, regardless of how
they are configured. Having tight controls on your virtual environ-
ment is the key to limiting the growth of virtual machines on host
servers.
Monitoring Your Virtual Environment
To ensure that a virtualisation environment stays healthy and func-
tions properly, monitoring it is imperative. Often, problems may not
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management
Tool Up
HERE ARE THREE ofthemostflexible,feature-richvirtualinfrastructuremon-
itoring tools:
I Quest Software’s vFoglight. This virtualisation management tool has
performance monitoring, capacity planning, chargeback and service
management.
I Veeam Monitor. This tool provides the data needed for troubleshoot-
ing, trend reporting and capacity planning.
I VKernal vOPS Performance Analyzer. This tool determines abnor-
mal trends and root cause, impact and resolution of immediate VM
performance issues.

be obvious, and a good monitoring system alerts you to them so they
can be resolved. In virtual environments, even small problems can
have major effects because so many VMs run on a single host, and
they all have to contend for that host’s resources. So don’t ignore
monitoring; without it, your virtual environment may be trying to tell
you something that you’d never know about if you weren’t listening.
You should monitor several
things: performance, server hard-
ware and virtualisation software-
specific alarms and events. Host
hardwarefailurescanbedisruptive
in virtual environments despite
technologies such as high avail-
abilityandfaulttolerancedesigned
to minimise system downtime.
Knowingwhenafan,driveormem-
ory module has failed, and acting
upon it, minimises disruptions to
your environment.
Virtual machines compete for host resources, and a single bottle-
neck can greatly undermine VM performance. Resource bottlenecks
arenotalwaysobvious,andmonitoringtheperformanceofhostshelps
identify lurking bottlenecks that need correction. When monitoring
VM performance, rely on tools that are designed for virtual environ-
ments because many operating system tools such as Windows Per-
formanceMonitorarenotawareoftheunderlyingvirtualisationlayer
and may give inaccurate results on certain counters and measure-
ments.
Often, the root cause of a performance issue is not obvious and
can have a ripple effect on virtual machines and host servers. Con-
figure monitoring into your environment and understand the metrics
and data that are reported to proactively eliminate bottlenecks and
other problems. Many third-party tools for monitoring and reporting
are more robust and powerful than the tools that are built into virtu-
alisation products and greatly enhance monitoring abilities.I
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EDITOR’S NOTE
SKETCHING OUT
YOUR VIRTUAL
DESIGN
VIRTUALISATION
INFRASTRUCTURE
MONITORING:
EAT YOUR VEGGIES
FIVE WAYS
TO IMPROVE
VIRTUALISED
SERVER INFRA-
STRUCTURE
PERFORMANCE
management
Resource bottle-
necks are not always
obvious, and monitor-
ing the hosts helps
identify lurking
bottlenecks that
need correction.

performance
Five Ways to Improve
Virtualised Server
Infrastructure Performances
To keep virtualised server infrastructure performance
at a high level, admins must continually tweak
components. Here are five tips for optimising a
virtualised server infrastructure.
BY RICK VANOVER
YSTEMS ADMINISTRATORS arealwayssearch-
ing for incremental performance enhancements
and operational efficiencies to fine-tune a virtu-
alisedserverinfrastructure.Assuch,makingseem-
ingly minor adjustments and tweaks can ensure
thatacomplexvirtualenvironmentmaintainshigh
performance levels for users and clients.
There are five things nearly every administrator can do to optimise
a virtualised server infrastructure's effectiveness. Even though some
of these practices may seem small in scope, they can greatly affect
your infrastructure performance.
1Boost virtualised server infrastructure
performance with file server consolidation.
File servers can be a big pain point for administrators. Often, when
file servers are consolidated from physical systems, they’re simply
converted and loaded onto a virtualised server infrastructure. As a
result, administrators miss an opportunity to delete, consolidate and
organise potentially unstructured data. So let’s consider a slightly
different approach to optimise file servers.
One option is to use a storage area network (SAN) to perform file
serverfunctions.ManystoragesystemscanserveasaCommonInter-
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S

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performance
net File System (CIFS) endpoint on a network for an easy connection
to an Active Directory domain. This method virtualises all of your file
servers.
Another consideration is to use a cloud-based virtual file server.
With this approach, you should allocate approximately 10% of your
file server storage to local machines and archive the other 90% in
the cloud. From a functionality standpoint, a virtual file server pres-
ents all the stored data as if it were stored locally on your network.
Furthermore, a virtual file server can connect to Active Directory and
support full NT File System permissions for easy management, sim-
ilar to physical servers.
The final option is to run a virtual machine (VM) as a file server. In
this configuration, you should consolidate the computer names to
reduce the number of file servers. Windows systems are capable of
serving multiple computer names, or NetBIOS names, that users
connect to through a short name (eg, ServerName).
Many administrators prefer a large file server instead of adminis-
tering multiple, smaller file servers. Windows servers can serve addi-
tional NetBIOS names by adding the OptionalNames value in the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetservices
LanmanServerParameters area of the Windows registry.
2Disband Microsoft clustering.
It’s common to convert a pair of servers running Microsoft Cluster
Service (MSCS) into a VM. MSCS provides application-level failover
within a VM that isn’t possible with VMware High Availability and
Fault Tolerance. But this arrangement may be redundant for many
virtualised server infrastructures.
For VMware environments, MSCS is one of the few configurations
that requires a raw device mapping virtual disk in lieu of the popular
Virtual Machine File System data store. This setup complicates stor-
age provisioning but in a minor fashion.
Disbanding clusters in MSCS, however, has a hidden benefit: You
can reduce your licensing costs. (See “To Disband a Cluster...” on
page 19.) Your Windows systems are probably licensed at the Enter-
prise level or higher. If the MSCS cluster is moved to a VM that runs
WindowsServerStandard,youcanloweryourlicensingrenewalcosts.

To Disband a Cluster...
DISBANDING A CLUSTER involves removing each member and then remov-
ingthecontroller.Beforeremovingeachmember,youshouldsetthemem-
ber offline and drain existing connections.
1 In the Application Center snap-in, right-click a member.
2 On the pop-up menu, point to All Tasks, and then click
Remove Server from Cluster.
3 Repeat steps one and two for each member (except the controller).
4 After you have removed all members from the cluster, right-click
the controller.
5 On the pop-up menu, point to All Tasks, then click Disband Cluster.
6 Click OK to confirm disbanding of the cluster.
When a cluster is disbanded, the applications and other content are still
intact on the controller. Only Application Center features are stopped. I
SOURCE: MICROSOFT
3Improve OS management in your
Fine-tuning your virtualised server infrastructure with various man-
agement tools and processes can pay major dividends in terms of
infrastructure performance. For instance, having clean Group Policy
configurations with limited local customisations is a best practice
and makes for very quick server deployment through a VM template.
Enterprisesystemmanagementsoftwarealsohelpsvirtualisedserv-
erinfrastructuredeployments.Mostvirtualisationadministratorsdon’t
wanttosetupprograminstallationsmapnetworkdrivesandlocalised
configurations.
AndwhileActiveDirectory’sGroupPolicyissufficientformostsmall
environments, larger environments use Microsoft System Center,
HOME
EDITOR’S NOTE
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VIRTUALISATION
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MONITORING:
EAT YOUR VEGGIES
FIVE WAYS
TO IMPROVE
VIRTUALISED
SERVER INFRA-
STRUCTURE
PERFORMANCE
performance

AltirisandNovellZENWorksmanagementutilities.Thesetoolscoor-
dinate application delivery and manage interaction with guest virtu-
al machines via policy.
4Plan antivirus scans of your
There are several commonplace practices in nonvirtualised environ-
ments that snowball into major issues for consolidated virtual envi-
ronments. To circumvent notorious antivirus scanning problems, for
example, consider a policy that performs a full-system antivirus scan
at 3 am on Sundays for every server (assuming that’s not a busy time
for your organisation in some other part of the world). You can also
apply this principle to physical servers because their processors are
likely idle at this time.
Additionally, antivirus scans can raise concerns in SANs because
they place a tremendous amount of strain on local processor inven-
tory. If you rearrange the pieces in a virtualised server infrastructure,
you'll realise that the host processor inventory is severely affected
when every guest simultaneously runs a full scan.
To fix this issue, stagger scans across a group of VMs. Schedule 15
VMs for a 3 am scan, for example, another 15 VMs for 5 am, and so
on. It’s important to schedule these scans in such a way that tech-
nologies like VMware’s Distributed Resource Scheduler can migrate
workloads based on cluster compute capacity.
5Forgo P2V conversions for new builds.
A physical-to-virtual (P2V) conversion is a straightforward process,
but a new build is always cleaner. In Windows systems, a P2V con-
version leaves many residual configurations—such as hardware driv-
ers, unnecessary software and file system clutter—that can adverse-
ly affect system performance.
To achieve the optimum performance from new systems, it’s best
to deploy a new VM and provision the required software, including
the reinstallation of custom applications, transferring code and con-
figurationinformation,anddatabaserestoresonnewdatabaseservers.
Still, P2V conversions are very useful because many administrators
don’t have the time to perform a new build. I
HOME
EDITOR’S NOTE
SKETCHING OUT
YOUR VIRTUAL
DESIGN
VIRTUALISATION
INFRASTRUCTURE
MONITORING:
EAT YOUR VEGGIES
FIVE WAYS
TO IMPROVE
VIRTUALISED
SERVER INFRA-
STRUCTURE
PERFORMANCE
performance

Daniel Eason is an
infrastructure architect
at a multinational com-
pany. He also has a per-
sonal technology blog
(http://www.vmlover.com) and is
based in the UK.
Eric Siebert is a 25-
year IT veteran who spe-
cialises in Windows and
VMware system admin-
istration. He is a guru-
status moderator on the VMware
community VMTN forums and main-
tains VMware-land.com, a VI3 infor-
mation site. He is also the author of
the book VI3 Implementation and
Administration, from Pearson Pub-
lishing. Siebert is also a regular on
VMware’s weekly VMTN Roundtable
podcast.
Rick Vanover
(vanover-rick@usa.net)
has vExpert, VCP,
MCITP, MCTS and
MCSA certifications. He
is an IT infrastructure manager for
Alliance Data in Columbus, Ohio, and
an IT veteran who specialises in vir-
tualisation, operating system support
and technology management. Follow
Rick on Twitter @RickVanover.
HOME
EDITOR’S NOTE
SKETCHING OUT
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DESIGN
VIRTUALISATION
INFRASTRUCTURE
MONITORING:
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FIVE WAYS
TO IMPROVE
VIRTUALISED
SERVER INFRA-
STRUCTURE
PERFORMANCE
about the authors
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