Evaluation of Multi-Hypervisor Management with HotLink SuperVISOR

White Paper White Paper Managing Public Cloud Computing in the Enterprise Evaluation of Multi-Hypervisor Management with HotLink SuperVISOR A Quick Start Guide By David Davis vexpert 1

Table of Contents Introduction... 3 Making the Case for Multi-Hypervisor... 4 Managing Multiple Hypervisors... 5 Building a Multi-Hypervisor Lab... 7 Testing Hotlink SuperVISOR... 14 Final Thoughts... 19 About the Author... 19 2

Introduction FACT Gartner tells us more than 50% of all server workloads have now been virtualized. With VMware being the most mature server virtualization platform, most enterprises have significant investments in VMware vsphere and the related management infrastructure. In recent years, however, other hypervisors, such as Microsoft Hyper-V, have matured to the point where they are viable contenders for datacenter workloads. That said, although many gaps have closed, different hypervisors still carry different feature sets, cost profiles, and native management tools. In many ways, this emerging multi-hypervisor scenario mirrors what has taken place with storage arrays. Organizations used to buy huge, monolithic storage arrays to meet all needs. Today, these same organizations have implemented multiple tiers of storage from different vendors and manage them through the use of integrated management tools. With the rise of multiple very capable hypervisors, organizations can likewise create tiered hypervisor infrastructure and have the potential for significant cost reduction. However, managing multiple hypervisors with the associated collection of native consoles is painful and inefficient. To combat this problem, HotLink has created platform and workload transformation technology that allows multiple hypervisors to be administered, provisioned, and managed with the VMware vcenter infrastructure you already have installed. No additional consoles are needed. At VMworld 2012, I served as a judge for two different Best of VMworld product competitions. As part of that process, I investigated just about every virtualization or cloud computing software solution at the show. In the end, we awarded HotLink with numerous awards, including Best Virtualization Management, Best Cross Platform Management, Best Cloud Application, and Best of Show. During that process, the more I learned about HotLink, the more I wanted to try it in my own multi-hypervisor lab. Through my testing, I ve found that HotLink SuperVISOR for VMware vcenter is a product that is easy to deploy, intuitive to use, and robust in capability. In this product review, you ll learn why multiple hypervisors can be beneficial, what the different approaches are to managing them, and how to evaluate HotLink for multi-hypervisor management in your own lab environment. In the end, I think you ll find the HotLink technology as compelling a solution as I do. 3

Capabilities Making the Case for Multi-Hypervisor FACT Tiered data storage is used in most enterprise datacenters today. The concept is higher priority data needs lower-latency and higher redundancy storage and, as such, is placed on the gold level storage tier (the most costly tier). Data that is used less and which is lower priority is put on the much lower-cost silver or bronze tiered storage. Not all data is equal, so datacenters cannot justify placing less-critical or less-used data on the most expensive disk arrays when much lower cost arrays work just fine. It makes clear financial sense to adopt tiered storage to save money. Similar in concept to tiered data storage, tiered hypervisors (or multi-hypervisors) allow you to save money by capitalizing on less expensive hypervisors for lower priority virtual machines (VMs), while utilizing more advanced and costly hypervisors for the most critical applications. Hypervisors Costs Gold VMware vsphere Silver Microsoft Hyper-V $$$$$ $ Figure 1. Correlation of hypervisor capabilities with cost With around 50% of server infrastructure virtualized, that leaves 50% more to go. Using the most expensive hypervisors for 100% of workloads is a cost few can realistically afford. Transitioning lower priority workloads to non-vmware hypervisors just makes good economic sense. In the past, I was opposed to considering multiple hypervisors. The management complexity of deploying multiple native management toolsets created more headaches than most IT shops could justify. However, with the introduction of the HotLink s technology, VMware vcenter is extended to provide a single point of administration, provisioning and management for a tiered hypervisor environment. With unified multi-hypervisor management, tiering is both viable and compelling. Following is a chart of one HotLink customer that is progressively transitioning Windows workloads to Microsoft Hyper-V and expects to save millions of dollars in the process. 4

Actual Customer Business Case for Transitioning Select Workloads from VMware vsphere to Microsoft Hyper-V Figure 2. Example cost savings of transitioning to a tiered hypervisor model To make the financial business case for tiered hypervisors in your organization, HotLink offers a free analysis service where they will perform the calculations for you with a wide range of hypervisors. For more information on the analysis service, contact Hotlink at info@hotlink.com. Managing Multiple Hypervisors FACT To manage multiple hypervisors in the traditional way, you must use the administrative and management toolset provided by the individual hypervisor vendors, resulting in a different management environment for every hypervisor implemented. These multiple virtual management silos are highly inefficient since they require unique skills to implement and manage, are not operationally integrated, and place severe burdens on even the best IT staff. Another approach is to use overlay automation. This involves using the native management tools and then building a cross-silo automation solution on top. Examples of this manager of managers are VMware s DynamicOps and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager. Unfortunately, overlay automation solutions are expensive to implement and integrate, cumbersome to administer, and troublesome to maintain. 5

The third option for multi-hypervisor management is HotLink SuperVISOR. HotLink s unique transformation technology allows administrators to deploy, administer, and manage multiple hypervisors (the hypervisor tiers) and even external public clouds, all through existing VMware vcenter management infrastructure. The native hypervisor administration console is NOT required. The idea of HotLink s VMware Ready plug-in is that VMware vcenter becomes the single pane of glass for multi-hypervisor cloning, snapshots, templates, migrations and automated workload conversions. No other consoles are needed cross-platform resources are managed alongside vsphere. Full hypervisor functionality is supported for Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (KVM), plus off-premise Amazon EC2 and CloudStack. As you see in the next diagram, the HotLink Transformation Engine abstracts the hypervisors into a uniform data model, so diverse platforms can be managed natively inside VMware vcenter server. In this way, vcenter treats heterogeneous hypervisors just like vsphere. If you would like more details about HotLink transformation technology, you can find that information at hotlink.com. Figure 3. HotLink transformation enables native hypervisor interoperability 6

Building a Multi-Hypervisor Lab In my experience, the best way to learn any new technology or software solution is to simply try it out. That s exactly what I did with HotLink SuperVISOR. If you don t have the time or resources to evaluate HotLink for yourself, you can see how I did it in the following sections, request a live demo of HotLink SuperVISOR, or attend one of HotLink virtual lab sessions. You can sign up on the HotLink website at hotlink.com/contact. I requested a trial of HotLink SuperVISOR and downloaded the three files that comprise the solution. The primary file is the virtual appliance that is imported into your virtual infrastructure. The other two files are an agent installer and the Hyper-V console installer. To evaluate HotLink SuperVISOR, you can use either a virtual or physical lab environment: Virtual lab A vsphere, Hyper-V, and HotLink virtual lab running inside VMware Workstation or Fusion (for example) on your existing desktop or laptop computer (as long as your computer supports VT-x or AMD-V you will be able to run vsphere and Hyper-V). Physical lab Running vsphere, Hyper-V, and HotLink on a minimum of two physical hosts. While a physical lab requires more hardware and time to set up, it s the recommended option as you will obviously have better performance. In my case, I evaluated HotLink in a virtual lab using my MacBook laptop running VMware Fusion. My laptop has 8GB RAM and an SSD drive, giving me the performance to run multiple VMs. I started off with the three VMs that you see in the HotLink folder below, in VMware Fusion: VMware ESXi 5 VM Windows 2008 R2 VM running vcenter and the vsphere Client Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V VM (with a single nested VM already running) Figure 4. Multi-hypervisor virtual lab running in VMware Fusion 7

With vsphere Client connected to vcenter server and ESXi host added, I started the deployment of the HotLink SuperVISOR virtual appliance with the Deploy OVF Template option. Figure 5. Deploying HotLink virtual appliance I accepted the default settings for the virtual appliance network configuration, opting to use DHCP as this is a lab environment deployment. In production, use static IP addressing and create a DNS host server entry. Figure 6. HotLink OVF template deployment summary Once I clicked Finish, the virtual appliance was deployed and powered on in less than a minute. Figure 7. HotLink virtual appliance running 8

From here, I followed these steps: 1. On the VM console, I reviewed the end user license agreement and accepted it. 2. Using the IP address from the VM Summary tab in the vsphere client, I opened my web browser and pointed it to the virtual appliance IP with port 5480, like https://x.x.x.x:5480. 3. Then I logged in using the default admin username and HotLink password. Figure 8. Logging into HotLink virtual appliance 4. Optionally, you can configure the network, reboot the VM, or shutdown the VM. You ll need to know how to access this interface later. 5. Next, I pointed my web browser to the same IP of the VM but without the port number. 6. I pasted in the license file that was provided as part of the trial. Figure 9. Successful license configuration 7. I used the same interface to register the vsphere client plugin, as follows. 9

Figure 10. HotLink plug-in registration 8. Then, I did a reboot of the virtual appliance from the management web interface. Figure 11. Restarting HotLink virtual appliance 9. I configured my settings to uncheck vcenter requires verified host SSL certificates. Figure 12. Entering vcenter Server settings 10

Figure 13. Disabling requirement to verify SSL certificates 10. I added a new vcenter virtual datacenter called Hyper-V Servers. While this is not a required step, it is recommended to keep things neat and tidy and easier to manage. Figure 14. Creating Hyper-V virtual datacenter 11. On my Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V host, I ensured the.net 3.5 (or better) Framework was installed, and then I installed the Hyper-V HotLink SuperVISOR Agent and HotLink Hyper-V Console Tool. 11

12. I went into Windows Services, started the agent, and set it to start automatically when Windows Server starts. Figure 15. Starting the Hotlink Hyper-V agent 13. At this point, the installation and setup is complete! 14. Next, I went back to the vsphere Client, expanded the Hyper-V Servers virtual datacenter, clicked on the HotLink tab, and added the new Hyper-V host to be managed by vcenter. Figure 16. Adding a Hyper-V host to vcenter 12

15. After a few seconds, the Hyper-V host was added to the vcenter inventory tree. Figure 17. New Hyper-V host managed by vcenter Note that vcenter cannot distinguish this Hyper-V host from a vsphere host. Because of this, you can perform the same functions on the Hyper-V host as you do on a vsphere host, limited only by the hypervisor capabilities. For example, you can view the configuration, monitor performance statistics, see tasks and events, and administer VMs. In the next graphic, I am right-clicking on a Hyper-V VM (inside vcenter), and I am able to perform all the same VM functions on it (power on, power off, guest shutdown, snapshot, and more). At the bottom of the list of choices in the VM dropdown, notice the new HotLink menu that allows me to open the Hyper-V VM console and clone the VM. Figure 18. HotLink clone option on cross-platform VM 13

Testing Hotlink SuperVISOR FACT HotLink SuperVISOR allows you to perform all the underlying functions of heterogeneous hypervisors using VMware vcenter as the singular console for administration and management. No additional consoles are required. Today, supported hypervisors include Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (KVM). If you add HotLink Hybrid Express, you can also manage Amazon EC2 and CloudStack through your existing vcenter server. This eliminates the need for the native tool and consoles used to administer those other hypervisors. As part of this evaluation, I wanted to make sure I tested this cross-platform manageability including host/vm management, console access, cloning, provisioning, templates, and more. I started by testing basic host inventory. I could see the resources that were being consumed on the host including CPU, memory, and local storage capacity. I could perform power management on the host, see an inventory of virtual machines running on it, and even use thirdparty performance and reporting tools that talk to vcenter with the newly added hypervisors and virtual machines. For example, at the vcenter level of the hosts and clusters inventory, on the hosts tab, I see all my hosts including one ESXi host and one Hyper-V host. Figure 19. Hyper-V and ESXi hosts in vcenter On the virtual machines tab, I see all my virtual machines. In this case, two VMs running on ESXi and two VMs running on Hyper-V: Figure 20. Cross-platform VMs in vcenter 14

Next, on the Hyper-V virtual machines, I could see the virtual machine configuration and utilization (CPU, memory, virtual disk). I was able to open the virtual machine consoles of those virtual machines running on other hypervisors. Figure 21. Hyper-V virtual machine console accessed from vcenter I could see tasks and events on my Hyper-V servers and VMs, just as I do on my vsphere host and VMs. Here I am looking at my Hyper-V host. Figure 22. Hyper-V host tasks and events in vcenter 15

I could even use the vsphere Client mapping feature to view my multi-hypervisor infrastructure. Here you see my ESXi host and VMs as well as my Hyper-V host and VMs. Figure 23. Hyper-V and ESXi hosts using vcenter mapping 16

Next, I took a snapshot of my Hyper-V virtual machine: Figure 24. Taking Hyper-V VM snapshots Then, over in my Hyper-V manager, I could see the results of my snapshot using the vsphere Client. Figure 25. Hyper-V VM snapshots as seen by Hyper-V Manager 17

I was easily able to clone a vsphere virtual machine and move it to Hyper-V, all in one action, with the workload automatically converted. Figure 26. Cloning Hyper-V virtual machine I then filled out of the form, specifying the source credentials and target hypervisor (Hyper-V). Figure 27. Cloning a virtual machine from another hypervisor After I cloned the vsphere VM and moved it to the Hyper-V host, I could see the clone was successful for a few reasons: (1) HotLink told me so, (2) I saw the new VM in the Hyper-V datacenter in the vsphere Client, and (3) I saw the new VM in Hyper-V Manager. Figure 28. Hyper-V VM snapshots as seen by Hyper-V Manager 18

As a final step, I was able to provision new virtual machines on the new hypervisor! In this product review I have covered just a few of features that HotLink SuperVISOR for VMware vcenter offers. Others include on-premise live migration, cross-platform provisioning from existing VMware templates, and even using vcenter compatible tools with heterogeneous hypervisors. Final Thoughts In my virtualized multi-hypervisor lab, using just VMware vcenter and the HotLink transformation technology, I had the ability to perform what are considered vsphere-centric tasks on my multihypervisor hosts and VMs. Host and VM inventory functions work just as they do for vsphere, cloning, snapshots, workload conversions, templates and the migration of VMs from Hyper-V to vsphere (or vice versa) functioned intuitively and exactly as expected. While my lab set up included only vsphere and Hyper-V, the HotLink technology also supports XenServer, KVM, Amazon EC2 and CloudStack. Installation was simple and required no special training. By offering the ability to manage multiple hypervisors and VMs with a single management console, VMware vcenter, HotLink SuperVISOR enables tremendous efficiencies that make the multi-hypervisor model viable. Like storage, the tiered hypervisor model now makes sense both technically and financially. As there is a large potential cost savings by utilizing multiple hypervisors in the datacenter, I encourage existing VMware vsphere customers to consider whether multi-hypervisor is right for you by testing the HotLink SuperVISOR for VMware vcenter in your own lab, attending one of HotLink s weekly webinars, requesting a demo, or attending a HotLink virtual lab to see it in action. I think you will be very impressed! About the Author HotLink Corporation 3100 De La Cruz, Suite 207 Santa Clara, CA 95054 (408)463-6130 www.hotlink.com info@hotlink.com David Davis is the author of the best-selling VMware vsphere video training library from TrainSignal. He has written hundreds of virtualization articles on the web, is a vexpert, VCP, VCAP-DCA, and CCIE #9369 with more than 18 years of enterprise IT experience. His personal website is VMwareVideos.com. 2012 HotLink Corporation. All rights reserved. HotLink, HotLink SuperVISOR, HotLink Hybrid Express and HotLink Transformation Engine are trademarks or registered trademarks of HotLink Corporation. All other company and product names may be trade names or trademarks of their respective owners. 19