Module 2

Understanding Virtual Machines (VM) – Describing VM – CPUs, Memory, Network

and Storage in a VM – Working of VM – VM Clones, Templates, Snapshots – Open
Virtualization Format
Network Virtualization – Benefits – Components – Virtual Switch – Virtual LAN –VM
Migration Services
Desktop and Application Virtualization – Advantages and Limitations of Desktop
Virtualization – Techniques used for Desktop Virtualization (RDS and VDI) –
Components for Desktop Virtualization – Advantages and Limitations of Application
Virtualization – Tools used for Application Virtualization
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The main files that make up a VM are the configuration file and the virtual disk files.
The configuration file describes the resources that the VM can utilize: it enumerates
the virtual hardware that makes up that particular VM.

Describing VM - CPU

A virtual CPU (vCPU) also known as a virtual processor, is a physical central

processing unit (CPU) that is assigned to a virtual machine (VM).

By default, virtual machines are allocated one vCPU each.

Virtual machines are configured to run with one or more processors, depending on
the anticipated demand on the system.

When we install a hypervisor, each physical CPU is abstracted into virtual CPUs. This
divides the available CPU cycles for each core and allows multiple VMs to "time
share" a given physical processor core. The hypervisor typically assigns one workload
per vCPU (per core).

I have a physical server with two processors (CPU 1 and CPU 2) and each of them has
four physical cores. In total, we have 2 * 4 = 8 physical cores.
Based on some calculations our hypervisor provided for each physical core, we can
get 5-10 vCPUs.
In total, we will have [8 physical cores * (5 to 10 vCPUs)] 40-80 vCPUs, which means
that we can assign a maximum of 80 vCPUs to virtual machines.

When you create or edit a virtual machine, you have the option to specify different
values for the number of processors (also known as virtual CPUs) that are allocated
to a virtual machine.

The number of virtual CPUs that the virtual machine actually has available at any one
time is dynamically allocated by the hypervisor as required, by changing the number
of processors for the running virtual machine within Virtual Box. This value can never
exceed the maximum number of processors that you have also specified in Virtual
Box.
Describing VM - Memory
In the following schematic illustration, you can see that the total physical memory is divided between two virtual machines.

When a virtual machine is created, memory is allocated to that virtual machine. The
memory resource settings for a virtual machine determines how much of the host's
memory is allocated to the virtual machine. The virtual hardware memory size
determines how much memory is available to applications that run in the virtual
machine.
when a virtual machine requires more memory, you can merely reconfigure the
amount and the VM will have access to the added capacity.
Storage in a VM

In the following example, we have a data cluster of 12 TB in total and four virtual
machines to which we have allocated storage to each of them. In total, the
maximum storage allocated to them is 12 TB.

Virtual servers need storage to work with.what gets presented to the virtual machine
and what the virtual machine believes it is seeing are very different.
Network Resources in a Virtual Machine

Each virtual machine can be configured with one or more network interface cards, or
NICs, that represent a connection to a network. These virtual NIC cards don’t
connect with the physical NIC cards in the host system.

The hypervisor supports the creation of a virtual network that connects the virtual
NICs to a network that is composed of virtual switches. It is this virtual network that
the physical NIC connected to as shown in figure.
We have Virtual Machine 1, 2, 3 and 4 running on the same host. They would like to
send the network traffic back and forth. This is done by virtual networking cards as
shown in the following illustration (vNIC), which connects virtually with a virtual
switch (vSwitch) that is created by the hypervisor.
This virtual switch communicates with a physical card of the server (pNIC), which is
connected with a physical switch (pSwitch) and then communicates with the rest of
the network equipment
Working of VM

Virtual machines are made possible through virtualization technology. Virtualization

uses software to simulate virtual hardware that allows multiple VMs to run on a
single machine. The physical machine is known as the host while the VMs running on
it are called guests.This process is managed by software known as a hypervisor

Virtual machines exist as two physical entities:

 the files that make up the configuration of the virtual machines

 the instantiation in memory that makes up a running VM once it has been
started.

Working with a running virtual machine is very similar to working with an actual
physical server.Like a physical server, you can interact with it through some type of
network connection to load, manage, and monitor the environment or the various
applications that the server supports. Also like a physical server, you can modify the
hardware configuration, adding or subtracting capability and capacity, though the
methods for doing that and the flexibility for doing that are very different between a
physical server and a virtual server.

VM Clone

A VM clone is a copy of a virtual machine. The existing virtual machine is known as

the parent, while the new VM is called the clone. After the cloning operation, the
clone VM runs as a separate virtual machine.
The new virtual machine is configured with the same virtual hardware, installed
software, and other properties that were configured for the original virtual machine.

VM cloning is most useful for deploying multiple identical virtual machines to a

group of users.

 Changes made to a clone do not affect the parent virtual machine.

 Changes made to the parent virtual machine do not appear in a clone.

There are two types of VM clones:

 full clones : A full clone is a completely separate copy of a VM that shares no
system resources with the parent once it’s running
 linked clones.. A linked clone continues to share virtual disks with the parent
after it’s created.

If you need a new server, you can clone an existing one. The process involves little
more than copying the files that make up the existing server. Once that copy exists,
the guest operating system only needs some customization in the form of unique
system information, such as a system name and IP address, before it can be
instantiated. Without those changes, two VMs with the same identity would be
running the network and application space.

It will take some time to enact the copy of the files and the guest customization.
Depending on a number of factors, it might take minutes or even hours. But, if we
contrast this process with the provisioning of a physical server, which takes weeks or
longer to acquire and set up, a virtual machine can be built, configured, and provided
in mere minutes, at a considerable savings in both man hours and cost.

Templates

Virtual machine templates are another mechanism to rapidly deliver fully configured
virtual servers. A template is a mold, a pre configured ,pre loaded virtual machine
that is used to stamp out copies of a commonly used server.

Clone Template
Clone is running Template is not
Clone is the exact copy of the existing A template is a master copy of a VM that
VM. You can alter the name and can be used to create many clones.
configuration during the cloning process.
Clone VM can be powered off and on. You can not power on/off or edit a
template.
You can convert a Cloned VM to the VM. A template offers a more secure way of
preserving a virtual machine
configuration that you want to deploy
many times.
You cannot convert back the cloned You can convert the template back to
Virtual Machine. Virtual Machine to update the baseline
template with the latest configuration
and again convert back to the template
to be used for future deployment of
VMs.
Clone can be created with the VM that is You can not create a Template from a
powered on. VM that is powered on.
Snapshots

Snapshots are like, a capturing of a VM’s state at a particular point in time. They
provide a stake in the ground that you can easily return to in the event that some
change made to the VM caused a problem you’d like to undo.
Figure below is a basic illustration of how snapshots work.

A virtual machine snapshot (VM snapshot) is the state of a virtual machine (VM) that
is copied and stored at a specified time. It develops a copy of the VM that is used for
VM migration, backup and restore procedures. A virtual machine snapshot allows a
VM to be restored to a former state of snapshot creation.

Once you snapshot a VM, changes that are made no longer go to the virtual
machine. They go instead to a delta disk, sometimes called a child disk. This delta
disk accumulates all changes until one of two things happens, another snapshot or a
consolidation, ending the snapshot process. If another snapshot is taken, a second
delta disk is created and all subsequent changes are written there.
If a consolidation is done, the delta disk changes are merged with the base virtual
machine files and they become the updated VM.
Finally, you can revert back to the state of a VM at the time when a snapshot was
taken, unrolling all of the changes that have been made since that time.
Snapshots are very useful in test and development areas, allowing developers to try
risky or unknown processes with the ability to restore their environment to a known
healthy state.

Snapshots can be used to test a patch or an update where the outcome is unsure,
and they provide an easy way to undo what was applied.

Snapshots are not a substitute for proper backups. Applying multiple

snapshots to a VM is fine for a test environment but can cause large headaches and
performance issues in a production system.
Open Virtualization Format (OVF)

Another way to package and distribute virtual machines is using the Open Virtualization Format
(OVF). OVF is a standard, created by an industry-wide group of people representing key vendors
in the various areas of virtualization.

The purpose of the standard is to create a platform and vendor-neutral format to bundle up
virtual machines into one or more files that can be easily transported from one virtualization
platform to another.

Most virtualization vendors have options to export virtual machines out to OVF format, as well as
have the ability to import OVF formatted VMs into their own formats.

The OVF standard supports two different methods for packaging virtual machines. The OVF
template creates a number of files that represent the virtual machine, much as the virtual
machine itself is composed of a number of files.

The OVF standard also supports a second format, OVA, which will encapsulate all of the
information in a single file.

“An OVF package may be stored as a single file using the TAR format. The extension ofthat file
shall be .ova (open virtual appliance or application).”