Microsoft Virtual Server: Overview and Roadmap

1
Microsoft Virtual ServerOverview and Roadmap

• Mike Neil
• Product Unit ManagerWindows Virtualizationmikene
  il _at_ microsoft.com
• Microsoft Corporation

2
Session Outline

• Overview of Virtual Server 2005
• Overview
• Architecture
• Usage scenarios
• Server configurations
• Server Virtualization Roadmap
• Virtual Server 2005 SP1
• Overview of enhancements
• Windows virtualization futures

3
Session Goals

• Attendees should leave this session with the
  following
• A solid overview of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005
• A better understanding of the roadmap for
  Microsoft Virtual Server and Windows
  virtualization

4
Virtual Server 2005 Overview

• Windows server virtual machine solution
• RTMd October 2004
• Hosted on Windows Server 2003 (32-bit)
• Windows XP supported for non-production use
• Supported guests
• Windows NT4
• Windows Server 2000
• Windows Server 2003
• Many x86 operating systems run, but are not
  Supported
• Virtual Server is licensed per physical machine
• Standard Edition 499 (1-4P)
• Enterprise Edition 999 (unlimited)

5
Virtual Server 2005 Overview

• Windows service with a web interface
• Designed for remote administration

• Fully documented COM API for scripting and ISVs
• Virtualizes everything you find in a x86 system
• Provides virtual disks (VHD), virtual networking
  and virtual video

6
Virtual Server 2005 Architecture
Host OS
Guest OS
Provided by
Microsoft
Virtual Server WebApp
Virtual Server Service
IIS
Guest Applications
Virtual Server
ISV
Ring 3
OEM
Ring 1
Ring 3
VS Additions
Windows (NT4, 2000, 2003)
Ring 0
Windows Server 2003 or XP
Ring 0
Kernel
VMM.sys
VMM.sys
Designed for Windows Server Hardware
7
Virtual Server 2005 Usage Scenarios

• Production server consolidation
• Consolidation of low-utilization workloads
• Early adopters running around 3 workloads per CPU
• Physical constraints one of the key drivers
• Development and test
• Rapid provisioning of virtual machines
• Undo-disks and saved states help reproduce issues
• MSDN licensing covers scenarios
• Legacy application re-hosting
• Consolidate legacy OS and application on 2003
• Legacy OS is still a management issue
• Reduces costs of older hardware

8
Virtual Server 2005 Server Configurations

• Memory
• A virtual machine needs as much memory as a
  physical machine
• Plus overhead (25MB per virtual machine)
• Overhead for MMU virtualization, video emulation,
  etc
• CPU
• Virtual Server provides CPU allocation controls
• Maximum (not to exceed)
• Reserve (will always have enough)
• Weights (weighted average)
• One virtual processor per virtual machine
• Scales multiple virtual machines across multiple
  processors

9
Virtual Server 2005 Server Configurations

• I/O
• Virtual machines will be sharing disk and
  networking paths
• A virtual machine doesnt do less I/O than
  aphysical machine
• Configure systems with multiple I/O paths
• Multiple spindles for disks
• Controllers can become the bottleneck
• Multiple NICs for performance, isolation and
  resilience
• Fault resilient hardware
• With consolidation, all your eggs are in one
  basket

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Server Virtualization Roadmap

• Today
• Virtual Server 2005 RTM
• Virtual Server 2005 SP1 Beta
• This year
• Virtual Server 2005 SP1 RTM
• Future
• Windows virtualization
• Windows hypervisor

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Virtual Server 2005 SP1 Overview

• 64-bit
• x64 hosts - 32-bit guests
• Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition
• Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
• 64-bit port of VMM and service
• Better scaling from larger kernel address space
• x64 systems typically can have more RAM
• Additional guest supported
• Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition Service Pack
  1
• Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2

12
Virtual Server 2005 SP1 Overview

• Performance enhancements
• Improved shadow page table management
• Improved performance of guest process switching
  and memory intensive application
• 65 increase in internal TPC-C in memory tests
• Early customer saw a 50 drop in CPU utilization
• PXE booting
• Emulated Ethernet card now supports PXE booting
• No need for a RIS floppy
• Integrates virtual machines into deployment
  infrastructure

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Virtual Server 2005 SP1 Overview

• Other improvements
• Bug fixes
• Improved Hyperthreading support
• F6 Disk (SCSI driver)
• Virtual disk pre-compactor
• Open necessary ports at install time
• Reserve space for saved states

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Windows Virtualization

• Virtualization for Windows Server
• Windows hypervisor
• Uses Intel VT and AMD Pacifica virtualization
  extensions
• Very thin layer of software below all OSes
• Provides basic mechanisms for creating partitions
• Does not contain device drivers
• Virtualization stack
• Runs as a foundation role with a minimal set of
  components
• Provides the virtualization and emulation of
  devices
• WMI interface for management and configuration
• Virtualization Service Providers (VSPs)
• Hardware sharing architecture
• Microsoft will provide storage, network, video,
  USB, input, time

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Windows Virtualization Architecture
Primary Partition
Child Partitions
Applications
Virtualization Stack
VM Service
WMI Provider
VM Worker Processes
Ring 3
Virtualization Service Providers (VSPs)
MinWin
Virtualization Service Clients (VSCs)
Windows Kernel
Windows Kernel
IHV Drivers
VMBus
VMBus
Enlightenments
Ring 0
Ring -1
Windows hypervisor
Designed for Windows Server Hardware
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Windows Virtualization

• Some proposed features
• 32-bit and 64-bit guests
• x64-only hosts
• Guest multiprocessing
• Virtualized devices (VSPs)
• WMI management and control API
• Save restore
• Snapshoting
• Server-specific features
• CPU and I/O resource controls
• Tuning for NUMA
• Dynamic resource addition removal
• Live migration

17
Community Resources

• Windows Hardware Driver Central (WHDC)
• www.microsoft.com/whdc/default.mspx
• Technical Communities
• www.microsoft.com/communities/products/default.msp
  x
• Non-Microsoft Community Sites
• www.microsoft.com/communities/related/default.mspx
  
• Microsoft Public Newsgroups
• www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups
• Technical Chats and Webcasts
• www.microsoft.com/communities/chats/default.mspx
• www.microsoft.com/webcasts
• Microsoft Blogs
• www.microsoft.com/communities/blogs

18
Additional Resources

• Email msvirtex _at_ microsoft.com
• Web Resources
• http//www.microsoft.com/virtualserver
• MSDN for Virtual Server 2005 COM API
• http//msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/msvs/msvs/
  portal.asp
• Related Sessions
• Windows virtualization architecture
• More detailed discussion of hypervisor and
  Virtualization Service Providers
• Virtualization Technology for AMD Architecture
• Virtualization Technology for Intel Architecture