4 CIS Module 3_VDC_Compute

MODULE – 3
VIRTUALIZED DATA
CENTER – COMPUTE
Copyright © 2011 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Module 3: Virtualized Data Center –
Compute
Upon completion of this module, you should be able to:

• Describe compute virtualization
• Discuss the compute virtualization techniques
• Explain the virtual machine (VM) components
• Describe resource management and resource optimization
techniques
• Describe the process to convert physical machine to VM
Copyright © 2011 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Virtualized Data Center – Compute 2
Virtualized Data Center
Transforming a Classic Data Center Virtualized Data Center (VDC)
(CDC) into a Virtualized Data Center
(VDC) requires virtualizing the core
elements of the data center. Virtualize Network
Virtualize Storage
Virtualize Compute
Classic Data Center (CDC)
Using a phased approach to a

virtualized infrastructure enables
smoother transition to virtualize core
elements.
Compute
Lesson 1: Compute Virtualization Overview
Topics covered in this lesson:
• Drivers for compute virtualization
• Types of hypervisor
• Benefits of compute virtualization
Compute Virtualization
Compute Virtualization
It is a technique of masking or abstracting the physical compute

hardware and enabling multiple operating systems (OSs) to run
concurrently on a single or clustered physical machine(s).
• Enables creation of multiple virtual

machines (VMs), each running an OS
and application
 VM is a logical entity that looks and
behaves like physical machine
Virtualization Layer
• Virtualization layer resides between
hardware and VMs x86 Architecture
 Also known as hypervisor

• VMs are provided with standardized
CPU NIC Card Memory Hard Disk
hardware resources
Need for Compute Virtualization
Hypervisor
x86 Architecture
x86 Architecture

Before Virtualization After Virtualization

• Runs single operating system (OS) per • Runs multiple operating systems (OSs)
machine at a time per machine concurrently
• Couples s/w and h/w tightly • Makes OS and applications h/w
• May create conflicts when multiple independent
applications run on the same machine • Isolates VM from each other, hence no
• Underutilizes resources conflict
• Is inflexible and expensive • Improves resource utilization
• Offers flexible infrastructure at low cost
Hypervisor
Hypervisor
It is a software that allows multiple operating systems (OSs) to run

concurrently on a physical machine and to interact directly with the
physical hardware.
• Has two components

 Kernel
 Virtual Machine Monitor
(VMM)
VMM VMM VMM
Hypervisor (Kernel and VMM)

x86 Architecture
Types of Hypervisor
APP
Hypervisor
Hypervisor
x86 Architecture Operating System

x86 Architecture

Type 1: Bare-Metal Hypervisor Type 2: Hosted Hypervisor
Type 1: Bare-Metal Hypervisor Type 2: Hosted Hypervisor

• It is an operating system (OS) • It installs and runs as an application
• It installs and runs on x86 bare- • It relies on operating system (OS)
metal hardware running on physical machine for
• It requires certified hardware device support and physical
resource management
• Hypervisors are categorized into two types: hosted hypervisor
and bare-metal hypervisor.
Type 1 (Bare-metal hypervisor): In this type, the hypervisor is
directly installed on the x86 based hardware. Bare-metal
hypervisor has direct access to the hardware resources. Hence, it
is more efficient than a hosted hypervisor.
Type 2 (Hosted hypervisor): In this type, the hypervisor is installed
and run as an application on top of an operating system. Since it
is running on an operating system, it supports the broadest
range of hardware configurations.
• A hypervisor is the primary component of virtualization that
enables compute system partitioning (i.e. partitioning of CPU
and memory). In this course, we will focus on type 1 hypervisors
because it is most predominantly used within Virtualized Data
Center (VDC).
Benefits of Compute Virtualization
• Server consolidation
• Isolation
• Encapsulation
• Hardware independence
• Reduced cost
Compute
Lesson 2: Compute Virtualization Techniques
• Requirements of x86 hardware virtualization
• Compute virtualization techniques
Requirements: x86 Hardware Virtualization
• An operating system (OS) is designed to run on a
bare-metal hardware and to fully own the
hardware Ring 3 User Apps
 x86 architecture offer four levels of privilege
Ring 2
 Ring 0, 1, 2, and 3
 User applications run in Ring 3 Ring 1
 OS run in Ring 0 (most privileged) OS
Ring 0
• Challenges of virtualizing x86 hardware
 Requires placing the virtualization layer below the X86 Hardware
OS layer
 Is difficult to capture and translate privileged OS
instructions at runtime
• Techniques to virtualize compute
 Full, Para, and hardware assisted virtualization
Full Virtualization
• Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) runs in
the privileged Ring 0
• VMM decouples guest operating system Ring 3 User Apps
(OS) from the underlying physical hardware Ring 2

• Each VM is assigned a VMM Guest OS
 Provides virtual components to each VM Ring 1
 Performs Binary Translation (BT) of non- Ring 0 Hypervisor

virtualizable OS instructions
• Guest OS is not aware of being virtualized Physical Machine
X86 Hardware
Paravirtualization
• Guest operating system (OS) knows that it is
virtualized
Ring 3 User Apps
• Guest OS runs in Ring 0
• Modified guest OS kernel is used, such as Ring 2
Linux and OpenBSD Ring 1
• Unmodified guest OS is not supported, such Paravirtualized
Ring 0
as Microsoft Windows Guest OS
Hypervisor
Physical Machine
X86 Hardware
Hardware Assisted Virtualization
• Achieved by using hypervisor-aware CPU to
handle privileged instructions Ring 3 User Apps
 Reduces virtualization overhead caused due to
full and paravirtualization Ring 2
 CPU and Memory virtualization support is
Ring 1
provided in hardware
• Enabled by AMD-V and Intel VT technologies Ring 0 Guest OS
in the x86 processor architecture

VMM
Physical Machine
X86 Hardware
Compute
Lesson 3: Virtual Machine
• Virtual machine (VM) files
• File systems that manage Virtual machine files
• Virtual machine hardware
• Virtual machine console
Virtual Machine
• From a user’s perspective, a
logical compute system
 Runs an operating system (OS) and
application like a physical machine
 Contains virtual components such
as CPU, RAM, disk, and NIC
• From a hypervisor’s perspective Hypervisor
 Virtual machine (VM) is a discrete x86 Architecture
set of files such as configuration

file, virtual disk files, virtual BIOS
file, VM swap file, and log file CPU NIC Card Memory Hard Disk
Virtual Machine Files
File name Description

Virtual BIOS • Stores the state of the virtual machine’s (VM’s) BIOS
File
• Is a VM’s paging file which backs up the VM RAM
Virtual Swap contents
File
• The file exists only when VM is running
• Stores the contents of the VM’s disk drive
Virtual Disk
• Appears like a physical disk drive to VM
File
• VM can have multiple disk drives
• Keeps a log of VM activity
Log File
• Is useful for troubleshooting
• Stores the configuration information chosen during VM
Virtual creation
Configuration • Includes information such as number of CPUs,
File memory, number and type of network adaptors, and
disk types
File System to Manage VM Files
• The file systems supported by hypervisor are Virtual Machine
File System (VMFS) and Network File System (NFS)
• VMFS
 Is a cluster file system that allows multiple physical machines to
perform read/write on the same storage device concurrently
 Is deployed on FC and iSCSI storage apart from local storage
• NFS
 Enables storing VM files on a remote file server (NAS device)
accessed over an IP network.
 NFS client is built into hypervisor
Virtual Machine Hardware
Parallel Serial/Com USB controller

port ports and USB devices
IDE controllers Floppy controller

and floppy drives
Graphic card Virtual Machine Mouse
RAM Keyboard
VM chipset with one Network adapters

or more CPUs SCSI controllers (NIC and HBA)
VM Hardware Components
Virtual Hardware Description

• Virtual machine (VM) can be configured with one or
vCPU more virtual CPUs
• Number of CPUs allocated to a VM can be changed
• Amount of memory presented to the guest operating
vRAM system (OS)
• Memory size can be changed based on requirement
• Stores VM's OS and application data
Virtual Disk
• A VM should have at least one virtual disk
• Enables a VM to connect to other physical and virtual
vNIC
machines
Virtual DVD/CD-ROM • It maps a VM’s DVD/CD-ROM drive to either a physical
Drive drive or an .iso file
• It maps a VM’s floppy drive to either a physical drive or
Virtual Floppy Drive
an .flp file
Virtual SCSI Controller • VM uses virtual SCSI controller to access virtual disk
• Maps VM’s USB controller to the physical USB
Virtual USB Controller
controller
Virtual Machine Console
• Provides mouse, keyboard, and screen functionality
• Sends power changes (on/off) to the virtual machine (VM)
• Allows access to BIOS of the VM
• Typically used for virtual hardware configuration and
troubleshooting issues
Compute
Lesson 4: Resource Management
• Resource management and resource pool
• Share, limit, and reservation
• CPU and memory resource optimization techniques
Resource Management
Resource management
A process of allocating resources from physical machine or clustered

physical machines to virtual machines (VMs) to optimize the utilization of
resources.
• Goals of resource management

 Controls utilization of resources
 Prevents VMs from monopolizing resources
 Allocates resources based on relative priority of VMs
• Resources must be pooled to manage them centrally
Resource Pool
Resource pool
It is a logical abstraction of aggregated physical resources that are managed

centrally.
• Created from a physical machine or cluster

• Administrators may create child resource pool or virtual machine
(VM) from the parent resource pool
• Reservation, limit, and share are used to control the resources
consumed by resource pools or VMs
Resource Pool Example
Standalone Physical Machine – Machine 1

Parent Pool
CPU = 3000 MHz
Memory = 6GB
Engineering Pool (Child Pool) Finance Pool (Child Pool)

Marketing-Production VM
CPU = 1000 MHz CPU = 1000 MHz CPU = 500 MHz

Memory = 2GB Memory = 2GB Memory = 1GB
Engineering-Test VM Engineering-Production Finance-Test VM Finance-Production VM

VM
CPU = 500 MHz CPU = 500 MHz CPU = 500 MHz CPU = 500 MHz
Memory = 1GB Memory = 1GB Memory = 1GB Memory = 1GB
Share, Limit, and Reservation
• Parameters that control the resources consumed by a child
resource pool or a virtual machine (VM) are as follows:
 Share
 Amount of CPU or memory resources a VM or a child resource pool can have
with respect to its parent’s total resources
 Limit
 Maximum amount of CPU and memory a VM or a child resource pool can
consume
 Reservation
 Amount of CPU and memory reserved for a VM or a child resource pool
Optimizing CPU Resources
• Modern CPUs are equipped with multiple cores and hyper-
threading
 Multi-core processors have multiple processing units (cores) in a
single CPU
 Hyper-threading makes a physical CPU appear as two or more
logical CPUs
• Allocating a CPU resource efficiently and fairly is critical
• Hypervisor schedules virtual CPUs on the physical CPUs
• Hypervisors support multi-core, hyper-threading, and CPU load-
balancing features to optimize CPU resources
Multi-core Processors
VM with VM with VM with
one CPU two CPUs four CPUs
Virtual CPU
Virtual
Physical
Thre Thre Thre Thre Thre Thre Thre Thre

Thread ad ad ad ad ad ad ad ad
Core
Socket
Single – core Dual – core Quad – core

Dual – socket system Single – socket system Single – socket system
Hyper-threading
one CPU two CPUs one CPU
• Makes a physical CPU appear as
two Logical CPUs (LCPUs)
 Enables operating system (OS) to
schedule two or more threads
simultaneously
• Two LCPUs share the same
physical resources
 While the current thread is stalled,
CPU can execute another thread
LCP LCP
• Hypervisor running on a hyper- U U
threading-enabled CPU provides LCP LCP

improved performance and U U
utilization Thread 1 and 2 Dual – core Thread 1 and 2

Single – socket system
with hyperthreading
CPU Load Balancing
one CPU one CPU one CPU
LCP LCP
U U
LCP LCP
U U
Hyperthreaded dual – core

Dual – socket system
Optimizing Memory Resource
• Hypervisor manages a machine’s physical memory
 Part of this memory is used by the hypervisor
 Rest is available for virtual machines (VMs)
• VMs can be configured with more memory than physically
available, called ‘memory over commitment’
 Memory optimization is done to allow over commitment
• Memory management techniques are Transparent page sharing,
memory ballooning, and memory swapping
Transparent Page Sharing
• Hypervisor detects identical memory pages of virtual machines (VMs) and
maps them to same physical page
 Read-only when shared
• For writes, hypervisor treats the shared pages as copy-on-write
• Attempts to write on shared page
 Generates minor page fault
 Creates private copy after write and remaps the memory
VM0 Memory VM1 Memory VM2 Memory
Private copy
Physical Memory
Memory Page
Memory Ballooning
No memory shortage, balloon remains

uninflated
Virtual Machine (VM)

1. Memory shortage, balloon inflates
2. Driver demands memory from guest
operating system (OS)
3. Guest OS forces page out
4. Hypervisor reclaims memory
1. Memory shortage resolved,

deflates balloon
2. Driver relinquishes memory
3. Guest OS can use pages Virtualized Data Center – Compute
4. Hypervisor grants memory
Copyright © 2011 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. 34

Memory Swapping
• Each powered-on virtual machine (VM) needs its own swap file
 Created when the VM is powered-on
 Deleted when the VM is powered-off
• Swap file size is equal to the difference between the memory
limit and the VM memory reservation
• Hypervisor swaps out the VM’s memory content if memory is
scarce
• Swapping is the last option because it causes notable
performance impact
Compute
Lesson 5: Physical to Virtual Conversion
• Converter components
• Conversion options
• Conversion process
• Conversion considerations
Physical to Virtual Machine (P2V) Conversion
P2V Conversion
It is a process through which physical machines are converted into virtual

machines (VMs).
• Clones data from physical

machine’s disk to VM disk
• Performs system reconfiguration
of the destination VM such as:
 Change IP address and computer
name Conversion
 Install required device drivers to
enable the VM to boot
Physical Machine Virtual Machine (VM)
Benefits of P2V Converter
• Reduces time needed to setup new virtual machine (VM)
• Enables migration of legacy machine to a new hardware without
reinstalling operating system (OS) or application
• Performs migration across heterogeneous hardware
Components of P2V Converter
• There are three key components:
 Converter server
 Is responsible for controlling conversion process
 Is used for hot conversion only (when source is running its OS)
 Pushes and installs agent on the source machine
 Converter agent
 Is responsible for performing the conversion
 Is used in hot mode only
 Is installed on physical machine to convert it to virtual machine (VM)
 Converter Boot CD
 Bootable CD contains its operating system (OS) and converter
application
 Converter application is used to perform cold conversion
Conversion Options
• Hot conversion
 Occurs while physical machine is running
 Performs synchronization
 Copies blocks that were changed during the initial cloning period
 Performs power off at source and power on at target virtual
machine (VM)
 Changes IP address and machine name of the selected machine, if
both machines must co-exist on the same network
• Cold conversion
 Occurs while physical machine is not running OS and application
 Boots the physical machine using converter boot CD
 Creates consistent copy of the physical machine
Hot Conversion Process
Converter server
running converter
software
Step 1: Converter server

installs agent on source Step 3: Creates VM on
physical machine destination machine
Agent
Step 4: Clones source

disk to VM disk
Powered-on
Source Physical Source
Snapshot
Machine Volume
Snapshot Destination Physical

Machine running
Step 2: Agent takes hypervisor
snapshot of source volume
Hot Conversion Process (contd.)
Converter server
running converter
software
Step 6: VM is ready to run

Step 5: Synchronizes and
reconfigures the VM
Reconfiguration
Agent
Powered-on
Snapshot
Machine Volume
Snapshot Destination Physical

Machine running
hypervisor
Cold Conversion Process
Step 1: Boot physical Step 2: Creates VM on

machine with converter destination machine
boot CD
Converter boot CD
Powered-on
Volume
Machine
Destination Physical
Machine (Running
Hypervisor)
Cold Conversion Process (contd.)
Step 4: Installs required drivers to Step 5: VM is ready to run

allow OS to boot on VM
Converter boot CD
Reconfiguration
Powered-on
Source Physical Source Step 3: Clones source
Machine Volume disk to VM disk
Destination Physical
Machine (Running
Hypervisor)
P2V Conversion: Considerations
• Some hardware-dependent drivers and mapped drive letters
might not be preserved
• Source machine configuration remains unchanged such as:
 Operating system (OS) configuration, such as computer name,
security ID, user accounts, profiles, and preferences
 Applications and data files
 Volume serial number for each disk partition
• Source and target machines will have the same identities
 Running them on the same network might result in conflicts
• Applications that depend on characteristics of the hardware may
not work
MODULE 3 QUIZ
Check Your Knowledge
1. Explain two types of hypervisor.
2. What are the challenges of x86 hardware virtualization?
3. Explain the function of each virtual machine (VM) file.
4. Explain the three memory optimization techniques.
5. What are the two options to convert physical to VM?

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MODULE – 3

Copyright © 2011 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Upon completion of this module, you should be able to:

Classic Data Center (CDC)

Using a phased approach to a

It is a technique of masking or abstracting the physical compute

• Enables creation of multiple virtual

 Also known as hypervisor

CPU NIC Card Memory Hard Disk

Before Virtualization After Virtualization

It is a software that allows multiple operating systems (OSs) to run

• Has two components

Hypervisor (Kernel and VMM)

CPU NIC Card Memory Hard Disk

x86 Architecture Operating System

CPU NIC Card Memory Hard Disk

Type 1: Bare-Metal Hypervisor Type 2: Hosted Hypervisor

Type 1: Bare-Metal Hypervisor Type 2: Hosted Hypervisor

(OS) from the underlying physical hardware Ring 2

 Performs Binary Translation (BT) of non- Ring 0 Hypervisor

in the x86 processor architecture

 Virtual machine (VM) is a discrete x86 Architecture

set of files such as configuration

File name Description

Parallel Serial/Com USB controller

IDE controllers Floppy controller

Graphic card Virtual Machine Mouse

VM chipset with one Network adapters

Virtual Hardware Description

A process of allocating resources from physical machine or clustered

• Goals of resource management

It is a logical abstraction of aggregated physical resources that are managed

• Created from a physical machine or cluster

Standalone Physical Machine – Machine 1

Engineering Pool (Child Pool) Finance Pool (Child Pool)

CPU = 1000 MHz CPU = 1000 MHz CPU = 500 MHz

Engineering-Test VM Engineering-Production Finance-Test VM Finance-Production VM

Thre Thre Thre Thre Thre Thre Thre Thre

Single – core Dual – core Quad – core

threading-enabled CPU provides LCP LCP

utilization Thread 1 and 2 Dual – core Thread 1 and 2

Hyperthreaded dual – core

VM0 Memory VM1 Memory VM2 Memory

No memory shortage, balloon remains

Virtual Machine (VM)

Virtual Machine (VM)

1. Memory shortage resolved,

Copyright © 2011 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. 34

It is a process through which physical machines are converted into virtual

• Clones data from physical

Step 1: Converter server

Step 4: Clones source

Snapshot Destination Physical

Step 6: VM is ready to run

Snapshot Destination Physical

Step 1: Boot physical Step 2: Creates VM on

Step 4: Installs required drivers to Step 5: VM is ready to run

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