Server Virtualization

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Server Virtualization
Brendan OBrien Alberto Rodriguez Stephen
Sutherland Mark Wheatley
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Presentation Overview

• 4 main sections
• Introduction to topics
• Application of the technology
• Impact of the technology
• Examples

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Introduction to Server Virtualization

• See Handout
• Video

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Applying Server Virtualization

• Examples of Server Virtualization Software
• Virtual Machine Model VMware ESX Server
• Hardware Agnostic
• Virtualizes several pieces of integral hardware
• Host provides pass-through drivers
• Migration between virtual machines is easy
• VMotion
• Paravirtual Machine Model XEN
• XEN hypervisor
• dom0 modified Linux, NetBSD, Solaris
• domU modified Unix-like OS
• Can Windows be used?
• Requires OS modification.

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Applying Server Virtualization

• Virtualization at the OS Level Virtuozzo
• Cuts out the Hardware emulation
• Shares the central kernal among all virtual
  machines
• Sandboxes each VPS
• Primarily used for large-scale, homogeneous data
  centers

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Impacts of Server Virtualization

• Benefits
• Lower Costs
• Consolidation
• Practice of Redundancy
• Disadvantages
• Increase complexity of IT environment
• Physical failures become serious
• Bleed-over

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Server Virtualization Case MedStar Health

• Challenge
• The information team of MedStar Health
  Organization is expanding technology capabilities
  of the organization to reduce server sprawl by
  initiating a virtualization solution.
• Solution
• MedStar along with Dell Services implemented a
  VMware virtualized environment to help simplify
  operations and dramatically reduce the number of
  servers needed.

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Server Virtualization Case MedStar Health

• Benefits
• Cost-effectively simplify operations and
  institute easier management processes
• Over 20 percent fewer physical servers
• Helped the IS team move forward with initiatives
  to improve communication among healthcare
  providers and ensure more accurate, higher
  quality patient care.