Roger Shupert, Integration Specialist
} Lake Michigan College has been using Microsoft Hyper-V as it s primary server virtualization platform since 2008, in this presentation we will discuss the following; The reasons we chose this platform The difficulties we have had The evolution of Hyper-V at LMC The possibility of VDI using Hyper-V
System Resource Hyper-V (2012) vsphere Hypervisor vsphere 5.1 Enterprise Plus Logical Processors 320 160 160 Host Physical Memory 4TB 32GB 1 2TB Virtual CPUs per Host 2,048 2,048 2,048 Virtual CPUs per VM 64 8 64 2 VM Memory per VM 1TB 32GB 1 1TB Active VMs per Host 1,024 512 512 Guest NUMA Yes Yes Yes Cluster Maximum Nodes 64 N/A 3 32 Maximum VMs 8,000 N/A 3 4,000 1 Host physical memory is capped at 32GB thus maximum VM memory is also restricted to 32GB usage. 2 vsphere 5.1 Enterprise Plus is the only vsphere edition that supports 64 vcpus. Enterprise edition supports 32 vcpu per VM with all other editions supporting 8 vcpus per VM 3 For clustering/high availability, customers must purchase vsphere vsphere Hypervisor / vsphere 5.x Ent+ Information: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere5/r51/vsphere-51-configuration-maximums.pdf, https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/techpaper/whats-new-vmware-vsphere-51-platform-technical-whitepaper.pdf and http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor/faq.html 4
} In 2006, LMC began a Server refresh: Running Novell servers, some of which were sitting on the floor Running Sun Linux servers that ran Banner Applications Had network wires laying on the floor } The Refresh included: o o o Replaced Servers with standardized server platform (purchased 35 physical servers in first 2 years) EMC CX20-3 SAN with 4 drive chassis Installed wire management
} Issues we encountered: The addition of so many physical servers caused us issues with power and air conditioning UPS run time was lowered We did not know what circuits were on emergency generator } Solutions: o o o o Added second AC unit, placed on emergency generator Purchased additional UPS units, placed on emergency generator Identified emergency generator circuits Added second data center to reduce risk
} In 2006: Microsoft s virtualization platform was Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 VMWare ESX 3.0 was released LMC had not yet begun a server virtualization program LMC employees did not have much experience with any virtualization solution } In 2008: Microsoft released Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V Microsoft released SCVVM 2008 VMWare ESX 3.5 and Virtual Center 2.5 released
} In 2008: We started looking at pricing on virtualization platforms VMWare is the industry leader in virtualization Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 is a better solution then Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 was } What we found: The cost of VMWare licensing was affordable, but yearly support costs made it less attractive Microsoft Campus Agreement made Microsoft pricing very affordable A proof of concept implementation of Microsoft Hyper-V showed that while lacking features of VMWare, Hyper-V allowed us to begin virtualizing servers with low costs
} Stand alone servers running Windows 2008 Advanced Server edition, first generation Hyper-V } 16 Gigs RAM per server } Dual Quad Core CPU s } 1 Terabyte of internal RAID } Maximum of 4 VM s per server } No Live Migration
} Clustered servers running Windows 2008 R2 Data Center Server edition, Hyper-V 2.0 } 48 Gigs RAM per server } Dual Quad Core CPU s } 1 Gig iscsi RAID } Clustered Share Volume } Live Migration } SCVMM 2008 R2
} Clustered servers running Windows 2012 Data Center Server edition, Hyper-V 3.0 } 256 Gigs RAM per server } Dual Eight Core CPU s } 10 Gig iscsi RAID } Shared Nothing Live Migration } SCVMM 2012 } Separate 10 Gig switch stacks for network and iscsi in both data centers
OS Count Windows 2008 63 Windows 2003 6 Windows 2012 7 Linux 3 Windows 7 3 Total 82
} Our Servers have 256 Gigs of RAM in each server. } The current average for Memory of our virtual servers is 2.25 Gigs } As a rule of thumb, our 2 socket, 8 core processors with Hyper Threading should be able to handle 256 virtual CPUs } The current average for CPU s of our virtual servers is 1.5 CPUs per VM
} With an average of 2.25 Gigs per VM, in a failed over cluster running on one node, we should be able to run 114 virtual machines } With an average of 1.5 CPUs per VM, in a failed over cluster running on one node, we should be able to run 170 virtual machines } We re currently running 82 virtual machines, so we should be in good shape, even if we had a failed node
} LMC uses CommVault Backup software using their Virtual Agent Allows restoration of complete Virtual Machines Allows restoration of individual files on VHD s } Once we have our second cluster up and running, we will replicate critical servers to the remote cluster Servers not considered critical and not replicated would have to be restored from CommVault
} Build another identical server cluster in second data center } Replicate critical virtual servers to different data centers } Move a SQL server to a VM
} Yes, but with limitations Very little management capabilities Slow VM Pool spin up times No VM monitoring capabilities No Access from ios, Mac, Linux or Android No built in reporting capabilities
} Quest vworkspace adds the following capabilities to VDI using Hyper-V HyperDeploy Reduces disk space requirements by nearly 50 HyperCache - Greatly reduces virtual desktop deployment times Allows management through a single console Free Connectors for ios, Mac, Android, Linux and Java User Experience Monitoring with vfoglight Reporting of farm utilization, administrative actions, desktop state and environmental configuration Built in WAN acceleration
} After a VDI cost comparison of VMware View Premier and Quest vworkspace Premier for 500 Concurrent Licenses, we found: vworkspace Premier license costs was 15% lower then VMware View license costs vworkspace Premier ongoing maintenance/support cost was 55% lower then VMware View per year
} LMC chose Microsoft Hyper-V over VMWare to lower costs } LMC has built three generations of Hyper-V server platforms } With each release of Hyper-V, Microsoft has closed the gap with VMWare s functionality } There have been challenges } LMC has done a proof of concept using Hyper-V for VDI with the Quest vworkspace product, we are currently preparing to do a pilot test for some computer labs