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Server Virtualization and Consolidation

Summary of Server Virtualization and Consolidation - A case study Ravi G Singh Consulting IT Specialist – System p

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Haisum Bhatti
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128 views4 pages

Server Virtualization and Consolidation

Summary of Server Virtualization and Consolidation - A case study Ravi G Singh Consulting IT Specialist – System p

Uploaded by

Haisum Bhatti
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Server

Virtualization
&
Consolidation

System Programming
Assignment

Muhammad Ahmed |
0812157
Muhammad Ahmed | 0812157 | BS-SE 6 1
Server Virtualization & Consolidation

Document provides a case study about server virtualization and use of Advanced Power
Virtualization (APV) techniques to reduce power consumption and increase efficiency.
The techniques discussed in document may be considered as the best practices of server
virtualization.

Initially there were three business intelligence application environments using IBM UNIX
servers. These servers went through several technological changes in the past. This
paper is related to implementation of latest technology refresh of these servers using
virtualization. During technology refresh of these servers several server solution
alternatives were considered before selecting virtual architecture. The following
sections discuss the solutions architected and presented, architecture of the
virtualization solution, tools used, and post-implementation benefits.

This technology refresh project was architected using a three phase methodology.

1. Capacity Planning: In this phase replacement servers (LPARS) were sized using
APV best practices.
2. Resource Planning: In this phase standard and guidelines were built for resource
allocation based on existing practices.
3. Resource Management: Based on resource planning, adapter, disks and HBAs
were assigned to LPARs.

Statistics were collected for server resource and bandwidth consumption via SP nodes
and SP cluster linked with SP Switch2 network.

Two alternates proposed to replace SP Switch2 network were 10 Gb/sec Ethernet and
the Virtual Ethernet network to provide the required bandwidth for high speed data
transfer between the LPARs to run parallel queries.

P5-595 server was preferred by customer. Six LPARs for test and development
environment of these applications were consolidated with other workload onto a
second p5-595 server.

APV features used in features used in this server solution architecture are listed below:

 Micro-Partitioning
 Max Processor utilization
 Shared Processor Pool
Muhammad Ahmed | 0812157 | BS-SE 6 2
Server Virtualization & Consolidation

 Memory
 Dual Virtual I/O Servers
 Shared Boot Disks
 Shared Ethernet Adapters
 Shared SAN adapters
 Virtual Ethernet
 Multiple OS Levels
 Security

P5-595 servers were designed and configured for the following type of LPARs:

 VIO Servers
 Database LPARs
 Web and App LPARs
 NIM LPAR

Two pairs of VIO servers were configured and built to host groups of LPARs serving the
three BI applications. The shared processor pool was configured to enable LPARs to
dynamically add more processing units in two situations: fluctuating and peak workload
demands. The maximum processing units that could be used by the uncapped LPARs
was controlled by the Virtual Processors. The SCSI disks from dual VIO Servers were
presented as Virtual SCSI boot disks to AIX 5.3 client LPARs. Two 73GB disks were
allocated to each VIO Server and NIM LPAR for boot and mirror and three 73GB disks
were assigned to AIX 5.2 LPARs for boot, mirror and alt disks. Since all the LPARs were
configured and built on one p5-595, Virtual Ethernet was the best alternative to SP
Switch2 since it eliminated the need for building a 10 GB Ethernet or HPS or IB network.
Dual VIO Servers serving a group of LPARs were assigned either a two single port or one
dual port Ethernet adapter. Dual VIO Servers serving a group of LPARs were assigned
either a two single port or one dual port Ethernet adapter.

Server virtualization proved to be beneficial from many perspectives few of which are
given below:

Management Perspective:

 Reduced Cost
 Simplification of server operations and management
Muhammad Ahmed | 0812157 | BS-SE 6 3
Server Virtualization & Consolidation

 Improved business flexibility

IT’s Perspective:

 Flexible to allocate resources


 Consolidation
 Sharing of resources
 Better utilization of resources due to sharing

Business Unit Perspective:

 Application and database queries run faster in virtual environment.


 Database backup from all LPARs takes less than half the time compared to the old
environment.
 Performance increase, as shown by benchmark tests was 40% to 70%.
 LPARs can scale-up to accommodate the workload growth.

Virtualizing and consolidating twenty seven standalone servers to one single enterprise
server provided a standardized server architecture, reliable, flexible and cost effective
server solution to the customer. The APV architecture and the methodology used to
design and implement this project can be considered as Best Practices for projects
involving similar server virtualization configuration and implementation.

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