2015.09.23 - chivmug usercon small business & virtualization
TRANSCRIPT
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Introduction
Paul Woodward Jr.
• Systems Engineer, Swick Technologies
• @ExploreVM
Brian Kirsch, M.Ed
• VMUG Board of Directors
• @BCKirsch
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Virtualization isn’t just for the Enterprise
Using the right tools and techniques the SMB
can thrive with virtualization
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SAN and NAS everywhere…except
Central Storage has been a barrier for SMB
Newer frames offer lower costs
Plus…
Why not make use of local storage?
VMware ESX
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Production / Test - Dev
Splitting Production and Test / Dev
Production on your shared storage
Test / Dev on local storage
Best of both
VMware ESX
VMware ESX
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Storage Performance Options…
Make use of both spinning disks /
RAID and SSD
This can be done for both external
storage and internal storageVMware ESX
VMware ESX
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Mixing Production, Dev and Infrastructure
Don’t dedicate hosts to specific roles
Mixing VM’s on a single host allows for:
•Reduction in Test / Dev in the event of contention
•Less impact in the event of failure
•Better ability to overcommit
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Licenses…
The vSphere ESXi Hypervisor is *Free* - no
really it’s free!
No host memory restrictions
No CPU host restrictions
Virtual Machines are “limited” to 8 virtual CPU’s
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Do I need vCenter…
?
vCenter gives you central management for
production VM’s
Two versions
•vCenter Server Foundation
•vCenter Server Standard
Foundation is limited to
three ESXi Hosts
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Do I need vCenter…
?
If you have a large test /dev environment you
could place it on a non-vCenter managed host
However no vMotion…
It’s not for everyone
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While most versions of Linux are opensource
there are concerns…
•Do you have staff knowledgeable about Linux
•Does you application have runtime on Linux
•What support options exist
What about guest OS’s…
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Windows Standard per VM is a ideal platform
up to a point
•Depending on your price, about 8-10 licenses per
host
•Standard is licensed per install
After that, Windows Datacenter is the key
•Licensed per CPU socket
What about the Microsoft license
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Windows Datacenter allows for unlimited guest
OS’s to be installed
•After 8-10 virtual machines on a dual socket server it
becomes cost effective and savings grow with every
additional install
•Windows Datacenter does not cover desktop
licenses, only servers
What about the Microsoft license
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Real World Examples - Manufacturing
Clients Needs
• Implement a new ERP program (5-10 users) and decommission Windows
Server 2003
Constraints
• Existing Hyper-V host is only 3 years old
• Budget - cost of the ERP program was high; hardware budget is low
Solution
• V2V existing VM to a Temp ESXi Host
• Install additional RAM & 15k SAS drives on the original host
• License using Essentials Kit
• Environment grew from 1 Server 03 VM to 4 Server 2012 R2 VMs & a
vCSA
• DC, File Server, Application Server, Terminal Server
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Real World Examples – Nonprofit Organization
Clients Needs
• Cloud based legacy applications lags / freezes even after network & ISP
improvements
Constraints
• As an NPO, funds were allocated via grants, low cash on hand for IT
projects
Solution
• Migrate application from the cloud to a small local host
• Licensed using ESXi Free
• Application and DC VMs on prem with room to grow in the future
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Free Tools
vCheck by Alan Renouf - @alanrenouf
http://www.virtu-al.net/vcheck-pluginsheaders/vcheck/
PowerShell script that runs as a scheduled task
Requires vCenter Server
Provides over 150 plugins to check the health & status of your VI
Generates an HTML Email Report or saves to a file
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Free Tools
RV Tools
http://www.robware.net/
Program reports on over 20 metrics to monitor VM & Host health
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Free Tools
Veeam Backup Free Edition
Backup Single VMs at a time
Veeam One Free
VM health and history data collection
http://www.veeam.com/