The following sections provide a quick overview of the virtualization ecosystem and various solutions.
Server Virtualization
A distinction must be made between bare-metal virtualization products and those on a host server, called host based. Host-based virtualization applications on a server can be used for testing but never for production. If host-based versions are put into production, the side effects can be catastrophic, yet these solutions are interesting for test environments.
The best-known products of this type are as follows: • Microsoft Virtual Server 2005, Virtual PC • VMware Server
• VMware Workstation, VMware Player, VMware ACE, VMware Fusion (for Mac) Bare-metal applications are those in which the virtualization layer is installed directly over the hardware. Installation is done in the same manner as a traditional operating system—by booting from a CD-ROM. These are the only solutions optimized and usable in a production environment. They are installed over the hardware, just like an operating system.
The following are the main bare-metal virtualization solutions: • VMware vSphere
• Microsoft Hyper-V • Citrix XenServer • Oracle VM • Red Hat KVM
Although Citrix XenServer, Oracle VM, and Red Hat KVM perform well, the market is geared for a battle between Microsoft and VMware. VMware leads the virtualization market and is
technologically ahead of Microsoft.
VMware is now well established in large companies where its domination is quasi-complete. It has attained great maturity in production environments and is well integrated with the various datacenter elements at the software and hardware levels, which are great advantages.
Microsoft offers Hyper-V, a solution that is well adapted to today’s SMBs but does not yet offer all of VMware’s advanced functionalities for large corporations.
Desktop Virtualization
Workstation virtualization allows each user to remotely log on to a virtual machine located in the datacenter. Remote access can be attained through many hardware solutions—traditional PC, laptop, low-speed terminal, or even a smartphone—without the need to configure anything on the
client workstation.
The following are the best-known current solutions: • VMware View
• VMware WSX (N ew VMware project: Windows desktops via HTML5 technologies) • Citrix XenDesktop
• N EC Virtual PC Center • Quest vWorkspace • Systancia AppliDis Fusion • N eocoretech N DV
For laptops and desktops, client-hypervisor type solutions can be installed directly on top of the existing hardware. These enable several isolated VMs to run on a single PC. With such a solution, the user could use several distinct and completely isolated environments (for example, one image for professional use and one for private use) that are managed through a centralized management console.
Existing solutions are as follows: • Citrix XenClient
• Virtual Computer N xTop (now part of Citrix)
Performance and Capacity Planning
When critical applications are used in a virtual environment, it is important to have tools both for monitoring performance and for capacity planning.
The main software tools that focus on virtual environments include the following: • VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite
• Quest vFoglight (acquired by Dell) • Orsyp Sysload
• vKernel (acquired by Quest Software so now part of Dell) • Veeam One
• Xangati
P2V Conversion Tools
Migration projects require the use of tools to convert physical machines to virtual ones. This migration is called physical to virtual (P2V).
The following are the best-known tools for P2V: • VMware vCenter Converter
• Vizioncore vConverter • HP Server Migration Pack • Plate Spin Migrate (N ovell)
Backup
Traditional backup solutions are available for virtual environments. A number of manufacturers offer solutions that have been very well adapted to such environments. Here are the most popular:
• EMC Avamar
• Symantec N etBackup • Veeam Backup
• IBM Tivoli Storage Manager TSM • VMware Data Recovery
• Quest vRanger Pro • CommVault • Acronis vmProtect
These backup solutions do not generally require agents; they interface with the APIs supplied by VMware to provide seamless integration. Certain solutions allow file-level restoration in the virtual machine and provide de-duplication.
Packaged Cloud Offerings
A few years ago, blade server management was innovated by the regrouping of several servers in the same rack to simplify their integration within the datacenter (fewer cables, reduction of floor space use, reduction of power usage, and so on). Packaged cloud offerings adopt a similar philosophy, but for the entire datacenter, in a solution packaged at the hardware and software levels. The whole is ready to use and integrates provisioning and orchestrating tools. The goal is to reduce the lead time before a virtualized environment is available on an industrialized platform. All major IT players now offer products based on this model.
In the private cloud
• Vblock (EMC/VMware/Cisco alliance) • FlexPod (N etApp/VMware/Cisco alliance) • IBM CloudBurst
• Oracle Exadata/Exalogic • Dell vStart
• HP CloudSystem In the public cloud
• Google • Amazon • Microsoft •Salesforce.com
Cloud Data Storage
With this new type of service, any content can be automatically stored within the cloud, so its data can be accessible from anywhere, from any type of terminal (for example, PC, smartphone, tablet). These solutions are widely popular. As soon as a change is made, data is automatically synchronized between the different terminals (which also secures the data). This makes it easier to work
collaboratively when several users need to modify the same documents. Note
We wrote this book using Dropbox services, which was a simple way for us to share our files.
The following are the best-known solutions of this type: • Dropbox
• Oxygen
• VMware Project Octopus • Apple iCloud
• Ovh hubiC • EMC Syncplicity