Computer Virtualization with Microsoft and VMware

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Computer Virtualization withMicrosoft and VMware

• Ottawa Windows Server User Group
• November 23, 2006

2
Introductions

• Stephen Campbell, Marchview Consultants
• Garth Jones, Enhansoft
• Thanks to.

3
Agenda

• What is this virtualization stuff anyway?
• VMware and Microsoft products
• Demo environments
• Compare the products
• Control the VM environment
• Summary

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What is Virtualization?

• Welcome to the 1960s
• Fooling a program/system to think its running on
  its own hardware
• Doesnt know about other environments
• Cant interfere with other environments
• Providing new hardware features
• Disks that can remember/undo changes
• NICs that think theyre switches
• Memory tricks

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How does it work?

• Host (aka metal)
• Guest (aka VM, Virtual Machine)
• Application virtualization (SoftGrid, Citrix)

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Hardware Revolution

• Initially implemented in software.
• The host environment switches resources among the
  virtual machines, and runs certain Ring 0
  (Kernel) instructions
• CPU Hardware virtualization 1 (2005)
• Virtual Machine Monitor runs in its own ring
• Ring 0 is virtualized
• AMD-V (Opteron)
• Intel VT, Pentium D 920
• CPU Hardware virtualization 2 (2007)
• Device virtualization

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What would you use this stuff for?

• Engineer/Developer
• No, you cant have 30K for a 64bit OS cluster at
  your desk
• Lets try that again, lets try this other way
• Lets use a clone of that production server to
  prove its not a bug in our code
• Q.A.
• Lets not spend three days restoring the 20
  server/workstation environment to run that test
  again

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What would you use this stuff for?

• Demonstrations
• Lets bring the 4 servers (DC, SQL, App, Web) and
  two workstations (En, Fr) onto the plane in
  carry-on luggage
• Production
• Lets not spend 8K for a 3 CPU server
• Lets not buy 100 servers for our business
  resumption site
• Lets not add a server to 300 branch offices
• Lets run a legacy DOS app on Vista

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Controlling a VM Environment

• Provision VMs
• New, clone, import from physical computers
• Control VMs
• Start, stop, attach to console
• Monitor VMs and Hosts
• Balance loads across hosts
• Establish VM and Host Permissions

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Microsoft Product Line

• Today
• Virtual PC 2004 SP1 (Free) VPC
• Virtual Server 2005 R2 (Free) MSVS
• VM Importer
• Soon
• Virtual PC 2007 (Free)
• Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 (Free)
• Virtual Machine Manager
• Softgrid

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VMware Product Line

• VMware Infrastructure 3
• VMware ESX Server 3.0.1 ESX
• VMware Virtual Center 2.0.1 VC
• VI Client
• VMware Server 1.0.1 VMS
• Other
• VMTN Subscription
• VMware Workstation 5.5.3 VMW
• VMware Player 1.0.2
• VMware ACE 1.0.2
• VMware P2V, Importer and Converter
• Soon VMware Lab Manager

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Demo - Navigating

• Lets see a VM environment
• Console Operations
• Create a fresh new VM

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Virtualized Memory (ESX)

• Shared memory
• Why store a DLL twice when once will do
• Balloon memory
• Lets rob Peter to pay Paul
• Moving running VMs
• Lets let the guest do a page fault during a
  transition to a new host
• Snapshots/Saved State (All products)

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Virtualized Networks

• Host creates network switches
• Local only
• Attached to zero or more metal NICs
• NAT, DHCP
• VLANs (ESX)
• Guests connect NICs to these switches
• Can connect to new switches dynamically
• Guests detect standard NIC hardware
• VLance (AMD), VMXNet, Intel V21140

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Virtualized Networks
MSVS, VPC VMS, VMW ESX
Intel 21140 VLance VMXNet VLance VMXNet
Private DHCP Private DHCP NAT Private VLAN
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Virtualized Disks

• Raw Allows access to H/W disks
• All other disk types are kept as host files
• Fixed or Dynamic Growth
• Split into 2G chunks
• Undoable disks
• Differencing (MS only)
• Undo log
• Multiple snapshots (VMW, ESX only)

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Virtualized Disks
Redo
Master
Commit/ Merge
Base

• Differencing (MS only)
• Read-only master
• Changes are kept in separate files
• Can have difference of difference

• Redo Logs
• Commit/Merge
• Write Log back into base
• Discard
• Delete log of changes
• Keep
• Continue adding to log files

The VM sees one normal disk
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Snapshots (VMW, ESX)
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Virtualized Disks
MSVS, VPC VMS VMW ESX
Raw Fixed /Dynamic Differencing Single Snapshot Raw Fixed /Dynamic Single Snapshot Raw Fixed /Dynamic Multiple Snapshots Raw Fixed Multiple Snapshots
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Guest VM Helper Apps

• VMware ToolsVirtual Machine Additions
• Purpose
• Improve performance/behaviour of KVM
• Allow host to communicate with VM
• Additional VM-specific drivers
• VMXNet, Balloon memory

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Provisioning VMs Quickly

• Classic
• ISO to provision a new fresh computer
• Clone
• Copy the VM/Disk, create a new VM, newsid, go
• Sysprep a master disk
• Create a master and clone that
• Create a differencing disk based on the sysprep
  master and go
• Use VMware templates (VC/ESX)

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Our demo lab
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Demo - Compare Provisioning

• MSVS
• Differencing Disks
• SysPrep
• VMS, VMW
• Clone
• SysPrep, NewSID
• VC/ESX
• Templates

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Keeping your baseline current

• MSVS
• Create new master as difference of existing
• Base new VMs on the new differencing master
• VMW/VMS
• Reopen master VM and apply, and reseal
• ESX
• Convert template to VM, start then apply changes,
  convert back to template

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Access Control

• ESX Unix file permissions to the VM
• VC Very granular administrative and operations
  roles
• VMS File permissions to the VMX (definition
  file)
• MSVS File permissions to the VMC file

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Programmatic Control

• MS was written from the ground up to have
  programmatic control.
• Can do anything since the UI is really just a
  collection of those object manipulations
• VM is getting better

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MSVS Coding

• Connect to a MSVS
• set objVS createObject(VirtualServer.Applicati
  on,strHost)
• Connect to a VM
• set objVM objVS.findVirtualMachine(strVM)
• Stop a running VM
• if objVM.State5 then objVM.Save

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VMware Coding

• Connect to a VMS
• Set objVScreateObject(VmCOM.VmServerCtl)
• Set objCPcreateObject(VmCOM.VmConnectParams)
• objVS.connect objCP
• Connect to a VM
• Set objVMcreateObject(VmCOM.VmCtl)
• objVM.connect objCP,strVMXFileName
• Stop a VM
• If objVM.ExecutionState1 then objVM.stop
  VM_SHUTSOFT

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Demo - Scripting

• Provision a MSVS VM

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Quirks

• ESX
• No USB in ESX VMs two-factor authentication
• MSVS
• No 64bit guests, 64bit host
• MVS
• 64bit guests require hardware virtualization
  (AMD-V, Intel VT)
• General
• Guest must be shut down to add/remove devices,
  deal with redo disks
• 20 VMs 20 Microsoft Windows licences, but

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Other Cool Things

• MOM Management Pack for MSVS provides cool
  management and monitoring
• Windows Licensing in VMs
• Buy one Windows Enterprise, run another 4 VMs
  (any Windows OS) on Microsoft or VMware hosts.
• Buy one Windows Data Center, run as many VMs (any
  Windows OS) as you want on that iron
• Buy Microsoft SA and you can run your lab for
  free
• Buy Technet Plus and you can run your lab for 60
  days

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Performance Notes

• Theres only so much to go around
• Your main bottleneck is almost always disk
• Write cache
• RAID 10 better than RAID 5
• More smaller drives better than fewer bigger ones
• Defragment the host and the guest partitions
• Put the host page file on a separate physical
  disk
• Allocate the entire VDisk size to empty/dedicated
  host disks

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VM Appliances

• Prebuilt VMs to perform specific tasks
• VMware Community
• Firewalls, Browsers, Monitors, etc
• Mostly Linux
• http//www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances
• Microsoft Community
• Trial/Demo VHDs
• http//www.microsoft.com/technet/try/vhd

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Approximate Prices

• VMware
• ESX 3 Std 3K/2CPUs.8K/yr maintenance
• ESX 3 Ent 5K/2CPUs1.2K/yr maintenance
• VC 2 4.5K1K/yr maintenance
• WKS 189
• VMTN 299/year/person
• Windows
• Std .6K
• Ent 2K
• Data Center 3K/CPU

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Bottom Line

• MSVS
• Free
• Host and Guests are Windows
• Clunky Interface
• Lots of RD investment stay tuned
• VMS, VM Player
• Free, Can transfer VMs among technologies
• Good support for non-MS environments (Netware,
  Linux)
• VMW
• Great desktop experience, full snapshot
• ESX
• Ideal for common lab/QA, big iron production
• Mature

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Info

• VMware
• www.vmware.com
• Forums, KBase, Appliances, Blogs
• Microsoft
• www.microsoft.com/virtualserver
• www.microsoft.com/virtualpc
• http//www.microsoft.com/technet/try/vhd
• http//www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/scri
  pts/default.mspx

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MSVS Communities

• Blogs
• Virtual PC Guy's WebLog
• http//blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/
• John Howard Program Manager, Windows
  Virtualization
• http//blogs.technet.com/jhoward/
• Garth Jones
• http//myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/gjones/default.aspx
  
• Utilities
• Virtual Server Documentation Script
• http//www.enhansoft.com/index_files/FreeTools.htm
  
• Virtual Server 2005 Management Pack
• http//www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?fa
  milyidBF21F798-9B10-40DC-BCDD-4A8358CCE94Ddispla
  ylangen
• Pre-built VHS for Quick testing
• http//myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/gjones/archive/2006
  /11/06/Need-to-do-some-quick-testing_2C00_-check-o
  ut-these-VHDs.aspx

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MSVS Communities

• Tips
• Virtual Server 2005 performance tips
• http//support.microsoft.com/kb/903748
• HOWTO Squeeze Every Last Drop of Performance Out
  of Your Virtual PCs
• http//andrewconnell.com/blog/articles/SqeezePerfo
  rmanceOutOfVirtualPCs.aspx
• http//myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/gjones/archive/2006
  /03/31/19568.aspx
• Unlimited VM with Datacenter
• http//www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/datacen
  ter/dcprogram.mspx
• Reference Network
• http//blogs.technet.com/canitpro/archive/2006/03/
  06/421295.aspx
• Hardware Specs
• http//blogs.technet.com/canitpro/archive/2006/03/
  07/421360.aspx

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Questions

• stephen.campbell_at_marchview.com
• garth_at_enhansoft.com