Eran Frank

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Server Virtualization Disaster Recovery

• Eran Frank
• Manager, Technical Support Group
• efrank_at_ryerson.ca

Ryerson University, Computer Communication
Services (CCS), Technical Support Group
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Case Studies Speaking Events
DELL Canada
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Agenda

• The Challenges
• The Solution
• Key Benefits
• Special Considerations
• Q A

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• The Challenges

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The Challenges

• Underutilized x86 servers
• Limited space in the Data-Center
• Increased cooling and energy costs
• Slow provisioning of new servers
• Limited HA DR solutions

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• The Solution

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Server Consolidation, Virtualization DR

• Two Active/Active Remote Data-Centers
• VMWare Virtual Infrastructure 3.x
• Blade Servers (Dell PE1955 8CPUs, 16GB)
• SAN (EMC CX3)
• Real-Time Storage Mirroring (EMC MirrorView)
• Current Status 140 VMs (88 Win, 10 Linux, 2
  Netware)
• Hosted Apps Oracle, SQL, MySql, Citrix PS, AD,
  DHCP, DNS, IIS, SharePoint, Apache, File
  Print, etc.

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Virtualization Readiness Assessment

• VRA Key Findings
• Avg. CPU Utilization (9am 5pm) 1.85
• Avg. Peak CPU (9am 5pm) 6.33
• Avg. Memory Utilization (9am 5pm) 5.7
• Avg. Disk Utilization 22

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VMware VI3
Before Virtualization

• Software tied to hardware
• Single OS image per machine
• One application workload per OS

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VMware VI3

• Encapsulation
• - Entire state of Virtual Machine is
  encapsulated Memory, disk images, I/O device
  state
• - Re-use or transfer whole VMs with a file copy

vMotion - Zero-downtime Maintenance - Optimal
Utilization
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VMware VI3 - Dynamic Resource Optimization
Resource Pool

• Automatic Farm-level resource balancing
• Intelligent Placement

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VMWare VI3 HA
SAN
ESX1
ESX2
ESX3
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VMware Update Manager

• Automates patch management for ESX Server,
  Windows and RHEL virtual machines
• Scans and patch online offline VMs and online
  ESX servers
• Snapshots virtual machines prior to patching and
  allows rollback to snapshot

Update Manager
ESX Host Server
Note RHEL guests can only be scanned, not
remediated
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ESX Server Patching with Update Manager DRS
Update Manager

• Streaming ESX servers patching with zero down
  time to VMs
• ESX server enters DRS maintenance mode, one at a
  time
• VMs are migrated off, host is patched rebooted
  if required
• VMs are migrated back on
• Next host is selected

VMotion
VMotion
Resource Pool
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VMware VI3 Virtual Center
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VMware VI3 - Secure Web Console Access
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Direct SAN Backup
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• VCB vRanger
• Take VM Snapshot
• Mount SAN Snapshot
• Backup VM images to local disk (short term)
• Backup local disk to backup library (long term)
• No load on servers
• 24hrs backup window

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3
Backup Agent
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Direct SAN Backup vRanger GUI
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DR Physical Infrastructure
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The DR Concept (one way)
Data-Center B (50ProdDev)
Data-Center A (50ProdDev)
ESX Farm
ESX Farm
Dark Fiber
Target VMFS
Source VMFS
SAN
SAN
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The DR Concept in Practice
Data Center A
Data Center B
SAN
ESX Servers
ESX Servers
SAN
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• Key Benefits

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Key Benefits

• Very fast server provisioning (15 minutes)
• Consolidation Ratio 111 (60 host utilization)
• 90 reduction in of physical servers
• 80 cost savings in power cooling
• 65 cost savings per server
• Simplified server management
• End to end real-time monitoring
• Cost-effective Disaster Recovery
• Expected savings of 572K/3years

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• Special Considerations

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Special Considerations

• Get senior management onboard (do VRA)
• Get your staff trained prior to
  project(VMwareSAN)
• Get an experienced consultant on-site
• Have a major vendor managing the project
• Control growth of VMs
• Monitor fabric infrastructure (Brocade Fabric
  Watch)
• Monitor SAN performance (EMC Navi Analyzer)
• Post project - Annual Health-Check DR POC
• Believe in it its working and we are enjoying
  every moment of it

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How it looks like..
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Case Studies

• http//www.dell.com/downloads/global/casestudies/7
  49_2007_RyersonUniversity_79992948_v1.pdf
• http//www.vmware.com/files/pdf/customers/08Q1_ss_
  vmw_ryerson_english.pdf
• http//www.ryerson.ca/ccs/news/items/Ryerson_CaseS
  tudyHQ.pdf

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• Questions?
• efrank_at_ryerson.ca