1

Deploying Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Best Practices

Brian Lauge PedersenVirtualization Technical Solutions Professional

2

Session Objectives And Agenda

Discuss Hyper V deployment strategiesDiscuss System Center Virtual Machine Manager deployment strategiesUnderstand what is needed to deploy PRO functionality Demo: Windows Server 2008 Hyper VDemo: System Center Virtual ManagerUnderstand Hyper V performance

3

Hyper V Best Practices

4

Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V Technology

A role of Windows Server 2008 (Std, EE, DC)Can be installed on both Windows Server 2008 Full and CoreProduction servers can be configured as a minimal footprint Server Core role

Hypervisor based architectureFlexible and dynamic virtualization solutionManaged by the Microsoft System Center family of products

5

Windows Server 2008

VSPWindows

Kernel

Applications

Applications

Applications

Non-Hypervisor Aware OS

Supported Windows OS

Windows Kernel VSC

VMBusEmulatio

n

“Designed for Windows” Server Hardware

Windows hypervisor

Xen-Enabled

Linux KernelLinux VSC

Hypercall Adapter

Parent Partition

Child Partitions

VMMS

WMI Provider

VM Worker

Processes

Microsoft Hyper-VMicrosoft / Citrix

(XenSource)

User ModeRing 3

Kernel ModeRing 0

Ring -1

IHV Driver

s

VMBus

VMBus

Applications

OS

ISV / IHV / OEM

Provided by:

Hyper-V Architecture

Hyper-V System Requirements

64-Bit processors with hardware virtualization extensions enabled

Intel-VTAMD-VHardware enabled Data Execution Prevention (DEP) required

AMD (NX no execute bit)Intel (XD execute disable)

RAMParent Partition 1GBEach Guest + ~21MB overhead

DiskParent PartitionSpace to store VHDsSpace to store VSS snapshotsSpace to store VM snapshots

Network1 NIC for parent partition management1+ NICs for Virtual Networks Guest usage1 NIC for iSCSI (optional)

7

Choosing the building blocksBuild a balanced system Best Practices

Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition EE/DTC

Server Core InstallationQuad processor/Quad Core (16/24 cores)

AMD-V or Intel VTMemory

2 GB per core minimum (32 GB)4 GB per core recommended (64 GB)

Storage4 Gb Fibre Channel1/10 Gb Iscsi

Networking1 Gb/E NIC (onboard) for VM management/cluster heartbeat/migration1 quad-port Gb/E PCI-E for VMs

8

Windows Server Core

Windows Server frequently deployed for a single role

Must deploy and service the entire OS in earlier Windows Server releases

Server Core a new minimal installation option

Provides essential server functionalityCommand Line Interface only, no GUI Shell

BenefitsFundamentally improves availabilityLess code results in fewer patches and reduced servicing burdenLow surface area server for targeted rolesMore secure and reliable with less management

9

Hyper V Storage Best Practices

10

Hyper-V Storage Best PracticesPerformance wise from fastest to slowest…

Fixed Disk VHDs/Pass Through DisksSlight performance difference

Dynamically Expanding VHDsGrow as neededDo not use for production workloads

Pass Through DisksPro: VM writes directly to a disk/LUN without encapsulation in a VHDCons:

You can’t use VM snapshotsDedicating a disk to a vm

11

Hyper-V Storage Best PracticesLeverage MPIO solutions to provide SAN path and bandwidth advantagesUse Pass thru disks for I/O intensive workloads

Database workloads OLTP/DSSFile Servers

Leverage ISCSI on the Host (Best Performance)Leverage TOE and offload cardsUse ISCSI in the guest for guest clusters

12

Hyper V Networking Best Practices

13

Hyper-V Networking

Parent PartitionVirtual networks bound to physical NICs

External – limited by the number of NICsInternal - unlimitedPrivate - unlimited

Ethernet NICs onlyNetwork teamingVLAN Support

Trunking No Wireless NIC support

Virtual machineSynthetic NICLegacy NIC12 NICs per VM

8 synthetic4 legacy

Up to 10Gb/sVLAN support

14

Parent Partition: TCP/IP Properties

Virtual Switch ConfigurationParent Partition LAN Configuration

15

Hyper-V Best Practices Network Configurations

Example:Server has 4 physical network adaptersNIC 1: Assigned to parent partition for managementNIC 2: Assigned to parent partition for iSCSINICs 3/4: Assigned to virtual switches for virtual machine networking

16

Hyper-V Setup, Networking & iSCSI

Now with iSCSI…

Windows Server 2008

VM 2VM 1

“Designed for Windows” Server Hardware

Windows hypervisor

VM 3

Parent Partition

Child Partitions

User Mode

KernelMode

Ring -1Mgmt

NIC 1iSCSI NIC

2

VSPVSP

VSwitch 1

NIC 3

VSwitch 2

NIC 4

Applications

Applications

Applications

VM Service

WMI Provider

VM Worker

Processes

Windows Kernel VSC Window

s KernelVSC Linux

Kernel VSC

VMBus VMBus VMBusVMBu

s

18

Virtualization and High Availability

19

Microsoft Hyper-V Quick Migration

Provides solutions for both planned and unplanned downtimePlanned downtime

Quickly move virtualized workloads to service underlying hardwareMore common than unplanned

Unplanned downtimeAutomatic failover to other nodes (hardware or power failure)Not as common and more difficult

20

Quick MigrationFundamentals – Planned Downtime1.Save state

a) Save entire virtual machine state

2.Move virtual machinea) Move storage connectivity

from origin to destination host

3.Restore state and Runa) Restore virtual machine and

run

VHDs

Network Connectivity

Shared Storage

21

Pass-through Disks in a clusterProvides enhanced I/O performanceRequires VM configuration file to be stored separate from the virtual machine fileCreate file share on the cluster and store VM configuration files for virtual machines that use pass-thru.

VHD BasedOne LUN per VM best practiceAbility to provision more then one VM per LUN but all failover as a unit3rd part solutions offer the ability to provision a LUN with multiple virtual machines with granular failover

Quick Migration Storage Best Practices

22

Quick Migration Storage Best Practices

SAN/iSCSILeverage MPIO solutions for path availability and I/O throughputLeverage VM provisioning via GUID ID instead of drive letter

\\?\<GUID>\Use Mountvol.exe to find GUID of provisioned LUN

23

Hyper V Backup

24

Hyper-V Backup Best Practices

Ensure your backup solution supports VSSSupport for the VSS writer in Hyper V specifically

Virtual Machine Backup Best practicesLeverage the Hyper V VSS writer to take online snapshots of virtual machines

System Center Data Protection ManagerWill provide Hyper V VSS snapshotsAbility to quickly recover virtual machinesReplicate snapshots to backup location for DR

25

Looking at Hyper V Performance

26

Looking at Hyper-V Performance

Performance Things to UnderstandGuest OS processors/cores are not bound (affinitized) to physical processsors/coresPhysical Memory Must match the Combined Memory of All of the Guest Computers

2GB for parent partition + memory of VM +21MBThe parent partition is a Virtual Machine

Only run Ecosystem applications (backup, Antivirus)Measure Hyper V and Virtual machine performance using new Hyper Performance counters

29 new Hypervisor related performance counters

27

Looking at Hyper-V Performance

Measuring Processor UsageMeasuring the physical host computer’s (Root Partition) Processor Capacity

Hyper-V Hypervisor Logical Processor(*)\% Total Run Time: The percentage of time spent by the processor in guest and hypervisor code.

Measuring Guest Computer Processor Utilization\HyperVisor Hyper-V Logical Processors(*)\% Guest Run Time:

28

Looking at Hyper-V Performance

Measure Memory usageMeasuring Available Memory on the Hyper-V Host Computer:

\Memory\Available MBytes: Available MBytes is the amount of physical memory available to processes running on the computer, in Megabytes.

Same for measuring memory usage in the Virtual machine

29

SCVMM Deployment Best Practices

30

Operations Manager Server

Virtual Machine Manager Server

ConnectorWindows® PowerShell

Self Service Web Portal

Administrator’s Console

Virtual Center Server

VM VM VM VM

Management Interfaces

SAN Storage

VM

VM

VMM Library Server

VM Template

ISO ScriptVHD

Operator’s Console

Web Console

Windows PowerShell

VMware VI3

ESX HostVM VM VM VM

VM VM VM VM

VMM 2008 Architecture

VM

VM

31

VMM 2008 Requirements

VMM 2008 Server requires Windows Server 2008 x64 for installation

PowerShell feature should be added before installVMM 2008 Console will install on Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008 x86/x64

Non-Windows Server 2008 installations will require local installation of PowerShell 1.0

VMM 2008 Agent install on Windows Server 2003/2008.

Windows Server 2008 installs require WinRM locally

32

VMM 2008 Installation

VMM 2008 Server requires requires Active Directory for security

Can manage non-AD computers, but needs AD for installation

Each VMM 2008 component can be separate servers or on a single server (demo/test)VMM 2008 can be run inside a VM

Just be aware of the chicken & the egg issue (understand you will need Server Manager to start the VMM VM)

33

VMM 2008 ScalabilitySupport 400 hosts 8000 virtual machines per VMM Server.Best practice VMM server per datacenter

Split host management by locationCreate library servers close to hosts

In branch offices load the library server on the VM hostAssign to separate spindles for I/O

Replication of library servers VMM does not provide a built in replication mechanismLeverage DFS-R3rd party replication tools (Doubletake)

34

VMM 2008 Overview

demo

35

Host and Cluster ConfigurationRemote enable the Hyper-V role or Virtual Server installation

Hyper-V can be remotely enabled rather than using Server ManagerVirtual Server can be installed on Windows Server 2003 hosts, but WinRM needs to be installed first on the host

Easy management of Hyper-V host clustersAdd entire Hyper-V host cluster in a single stepCluster needs to be created outside of VMMAutomatic detection of node additions/removals

Management of Windows Server 2008 Failover clusters for Hyper-V

Specify number of node failures you want to sustain but still have all your HA VMs runningIntelligent Placement ensures that new HA VM creation will not overcommit the clusterNode failures automatically trigger overcommit re-calculation

36

Can the cluster sustain 1 node failure?

Place the VM

Cluster reserve = 1 node

Placement and Cluster Reserve

Clustered Host 1 Clustered Host 2 Clustered Host 3

YES

37

Delegation and Self ServiceAdministrators control access through policies which designate capabilitiesDelegated Administrators

Manage a scoped environment using main UI

Self service userWeb user interface Manage their own VMsQuota to limit VMsScripting through PowerShell

38

Understanding User RolesMembership

Determines which users are part of a particular user roleMembers may be individual users or groupsMembers may be in multiple user roles including user roles based on different profiles

Profile determinesWhich actions are permittedWhich user interface is accessibleHow the scope is defined

Scope determinesWhich objects a user may take actions on

User Role

Membership

Profile

Scope

39

Built-in ProfilesAdministrators

Full access to all actions Full access to all objectsCan use the Admin console or PowerShell interface

Delegated AdministratorsFull access to most actions Scope can be limited by host groups and Library serversCan use the Admin console or PowerShell interface

Self-Service UsersLimited access to a subset of actions Scope can be limited by host groups and Library shareCan use the Self-Service Portal or PowerShell interface

40

Customizing ScopesAdministrators

No scope customization available, Administratorshave access to all objects

Delegated AdministratorsCan be limited to one or more host groups including all child objectsCan be limited to one or more Library serversincluding all child objects

Self-Service UsersCan be limited to a single host group wherenew virtual machines may be createdCan be limited to a single Library share wherenew virtual machines can be storedCan be limited to specific templates to use for new virtual machines

41

Delegating Administration

Seattle New York

Production Dev/Test

Self ServiceUsers

Self ServiceUsers

Self ServiceUsers

Virtualized Environment

Delegated Administration

Delegated Administration

42

Virtualization and Knowledge Convergence

Knowledge Here

Performance And Resource Optimization (PRO)

Workload and application aware resource optimizationExtensible through the Operations Manager 2007 MP framework Create policies that VMM acts upon tips automatically or manuallyCan be applied equally to both VMware and Microsoft hostsLeverage PRO to maximize the utilization of your hosts.

44

Performance And Resource Optimization (PRO)

PRO – Out Of the Box

Hyper-V and VMware Host PerformanceCPU and Memory

VM Right SizingCPU and Memory

Extensible Framework…

46

Q & A

47

© 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED

OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.