NEWSLETTER - VIRTUALISATION UPDATE
Virtualisation is now a hot topic in IT circles, so in this article we are looking at two recent announcements from VMware and Microsoft.
VMware 3.5
The latest version of VMware contains some important new features that are designed to help manage IT infrastructure in the most efficient way. One of the most interesting features is the experimental distributed power management. This reduces power consumption in the datacenter through intelligent workload balancing. It automatically powers off servers not currently needed in order to meet service levels and automatically powers on servers as demand for computer resources increases
It also includes the next generation thin hypervisor. This is integrated into the hardware and sets the standard for rapid, easy deployment and ongoing management. It makes configuration as easy as setting up a home router appliance and allows users to be up and running with virtual machines in a matter of minutes. It also enables IT professionals to scale out virtual infrastructure on the fly through point-and-click addition of VMware ESX hardware hosts to existing resource pools
Other new features include:
- Enhanced VirtualCenter - Leverages capacity planning capabilities to discover physical servers, analyse their performance and trigger the conversion of these physical systems into virtual machines and intelligently places them on the most appropriate VMware ESX or VMware Server hosts
- Update manager - Automates patch and update management for VMware ESX hosts and select Microsoft and Linux virtual machines
- VMware Storage Vmotion - Enables live migration of virtual machine disks from one datastore to another with no disruption or downtime
- VMware Site Recovery Manager - Provides industry-leading capabilities for fully automating the entire disaster recovery process
- Expanded Storage and Networking Choices - including Support for local SATA storage and for 10 GigE
Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V
With Windows Server 2008, everything needed to support server virtualisation is available as an integral feature of the operating system as Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. Key features include:
- New and Improved Architecture - New 64-bit micro-kernelised hypervisor architecture enables Hyper-V to provide a broad array of device support methods and improved performance and security
- Broad OS Support - for simultaneously running different types of operating systems, including 32-bit and 64-bit systems across different server platforms, such as Windows, Linux, and others
- Symmetric Multiprocessors (SMP) Support - Ability to support up to four multiple processors in a virtual machine environment enables you to take full advantage of multi-threaded applications in a virtual machine
- Network Load Balancing - Hyper-V includes new virtual switch capabilities. This means virtual machines can be easily configured to run with Windows Network Load Balancing (NLB) Service to balance load across virtual machines on different servers.
- New Hardware Sharing Architecture - With the new virtual service provider/virtual service client (VSP/VSC) architecture, Hyper-V provides improved access and utilisation of core resources, such as disk, networking, and video
- Quick Migration - Hyper-V enables the rapid migration of a running virtual machine from one physical host system to another with minimal downtime
- Virtual Machine Snapshot - provides the ability to take snapshots of a running virtual machine enabling easy reversion to a previous state and improving the overall backup and recovery solution
- Scalability - enables vertical scaling of virtualisation environment to support a large number of virtual machines within a given host
- Extensible - Standards-based Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) interfaces and APIs in Hyper-V enable independent software vendors and developers to quickly build custom tools, utilities and enhancements for the virtualisation platform
In addition to these features, there is also System Center Virtual Machine Manager, a comprehensive heterogeneous management solution for the virtualised data center. Virtual Machine Manager enables increased physical server utilisation, centralised management of virtual machine infrastructure and rapid provisioning of new virtual machines by the administrator and authorised end users.
Virtual Machine Manager provides the best solution for leveraging existing IT administrative skills and processes for managing the virtual and physical environment.
COPING WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF BRANCH OFFICES AND MOBILE USERS A recent survey by Forrester research looked at the problems caused by the increasing fragmentation of organisations ....
NEW FEATURES OF WINDOWS SERVER 2008 Windows Server 2008 is the most advanced Windows Server operating system yet ....
VIRTUALISATION UPDATE Virtualisation is now a hot topic in IT circles, so in this article we are looking at two recent announcements ....
SIMPLIFY YOUR IT INFRASTRUCTURE In these days of increased operational complexity, IT departments are always looking at ways to improve ....
DEDUPLICATION STORAGE FOR SAFEGUARDING DATA AND ENSURING RAPID RECOVERY Traditional data protection applications are struggling to keep pace with the demands for ultra-high data availability ....