Network Virtualization

Network Virtualization (NV) is a process of logically segmenting or grouping

physical networks and making them operate as a single or multiple independent
networks called virtual networks.

Benefits of Network Virtualization:

1. Reduction of hardware expense: can save a great deal of funds by minimizing

hardware expense using virtualization.

2. Energy expenses: Many businesses have discovered that virtualization has

minimized the overall electricity utilization for server computers by around 80 per
cent. This is the effect of using minimum computer hardware to perform more work.

3. Recoverability: the capability to swiftly recover from hardware malfunctions.

4. Disaster recuperation: We can effortlessly reinstate the backup of virtual machines

from the tape and after resuming the virtual machines, it will work.

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Components – Virtual Switch – Virtual LAN

Virtual Switch

Virtual switch is like a logical switching built into VMware so that a virtual machine
network can be managed as per the requirement. Virtual switches act as an interface
between virtual ethernet and the physical ethernet.

Virtual switches develop VM network and support the ethernet protocol as shown in
Fig. 7.2.

They offer association to virtual NICs and send VM traffic. They also manage storage,
administration, and VM migration traffic to and from the hypervisor kernel. Physical
adaptors like converged network adapter (CNA), NIC, and HBA facilitate physical
servers to associate with physical networks. They send hyper- visor and VM traffic to
and from a physical network.

Virtual LAN

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A VLAN is a rational network constructed on a LAN or across multiple LANS
consisting of virtual physical switches. Every network is connected to a switch with
the help of routers shown in Fig.7.3. The VLAN skill may split a bulky LAN into
lesser virtual LANs or merge divided LANs into one of the virtual LANs. A VLAN
permits conversion among a cluster of nodes based on performing needs of
corporation, independent of the position of nodes in the network. All nodes in a
VLAN can be linked one LAN or distributed across multiple LANs.

The advantages of a VLAN are given here:

1. Broadcast traffic inside the VLAN is confined and reproduced to another VLAN.
VLAN frequently used to express a region of broadcast. Confining broadcast using
VLAN frees bandwidth for user traffic which enhances functioning for the usual
VLAN traffic.

2. VLAN creates cheap, simple, and flexible means to operate networks and is made
using software Thus, it may be configured simply and swiftly after evaluation to
construct distinct physical LAN for many communication groups.

3. VLANs also offer better security by separating perceptive information of one

VLAN from other VLANs.

3. As a physical LAN switch may be shared by multiple VLANs, the use of the switch
is augmented. It minimizes capital expenditure in acquiring network devices for
separate node group.

Virtual Machine Migration Services

VM migration is one of the vital strategies in the field of physical machine

virtualization that permits applications to be clearly moved with their implementation
settings across physical machines. Virtual machine migration is required for server

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consolidation (power saving), resource scheduling, and load balancing. For successful
migration, interruption and migration time should be minimized.

Live virtual machine migration is a method which moves the whole operating system
and its related application from one physical machine to another.
Fault tolerance permits virtual machines to continue work if any component of the
system crashes.

Load Balancing Migration

The load balancing migration method intends to deliver load across the physical
servers to enhance the scalability of physical servers in cloud setting. Load balancing
helps in reducing the resource utilization, augmenting scalability, accomplishment of
fail-over, over provisioning of resources, avoiding blockages, etc.

Energy Efficient Migration

The power utilization of a data center is mostly based on the consumption of servers
and their cooling mechanism. The servers characteristically require up to 70 per cent
of power utilization even at low consumption level. So, there is a want for migration
methods which preserve the energy of servers by best resource consumption. Some of
these are listed here:

Advantages and Limitations of Desktop Virtualization

Advantages:

1. Simpler provisioning of new desktops

2. Installation of new applications at cheap rates
3. Desktop image-management capabilities
4. Increased data security
5. Longer time given for customer desktop infrastructure
6. Protected reserved access to a business' desktop settings

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7. Facilitation of thin clients: Desktop virtualization facilitates utilization of thin
clients as endpoint machines.
8. Improved security:
9. Better business continuity and disaster recovery:
10. Abridged PC repairs
11. Suppleness of access:
12. Improved Deployment and management:

Limitations of Desktop Virtualization

1. Possible performance scarcity- use of hardware virtualization lowers functioning

to some level
2. Reliance on network connection: A VDI solution depends on the network
connection to operate. If the endpoint tool of the consumer cannot attach to the
hosting server, the consumer will not be capable of accessing applications,
desktop, and data.
3. Challenges in introducing and retaining drivers for peripherals
4. Difficult to operate complicated applications
5. Augmented interruption in case of failure of network that may be prevented by
using clustered file technique
6. Data of user not permanently deleted from the network
7. Expensive and complicated installation and supervision of VDI
8. Highest percentage of physical memory is required by virtual desktops
9. VDI execution servers never need customer-hosted virtualization due to the
execution of virtual machines on end-point machines.
10. As per network requirements, various virtual images are safely kept in the
internal storage as well as in the network storage for future reference, and that is
not an easy task.
11. Accumulative network investments are not usually needed for customer-hosted
VDI as the network load is similar to the network consumption for normal PC
running operations.
12. It may be tricky to comprehend the performance effect which a VDI installation
will have on storage systems. The main focus of utilization guidelines concerning
storage is how to estimate storage capacity necessities.

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13. Unsuitable for high-end graphic applications
14. Additional infrastructure required: A VDI resolution needs extra storage, servers,
and networking infrastructure. The sum of extra infrastructure needed depends on
the functioning, scale, and service stage necessities of a corporation.

Techniques used for Desktop Virtualization (RDS and VDI)

The objective of desktop virtualization technology is to centralize the desktop's

operating system (OS) at the data center to make security and management of
desktops easy. Desktops hosted at the data center run as virtual machines, whereas
end users remotely access these desktops from a variety of endpoint devices.

The two desktop virtualization techniques basically used for providing services to
users are as follows:

• Remote desktop services (RDS)

• Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)

Remote Desktop Services

Remote desktop services (RDS) are an important feature of Microsoft Windows

Server which permits users to remotely access Windows applications and graphical
desktops. The various technologies which are a part of remote desktop services are as
follows:

1. Remote application, launched with Windows Server 2008, permits the user to
access personal applications on a shared server. This is occasionally termed as
"application publishing' or 'seamless windows'

2. Remote desktop virtualization host, launched with Windows Server2008 R2,

permits users to dynamically link up to a virtual desktop allocated from a pool or an
individual virtual desktop.

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3. In remote desktop services, desktops or applications may be accessed from a range
of customer's tools, operating systems along with Java clients, and HTML 5 browsers.

Advantages of RDS

1. Data recovery in disaster: There is no worry of misplacing any data due to

disaster or theft, as all the files and credentials are stored in secure data centers. All
correspondence with the remote desktop is encrypted to make certain that all
correspondences are secured and safe from being hacked.
2. Working anywhere: This system allows users to travel with the computer system
or laptop and work faultlessly from anywhere and anytime.
3. Cost effective: This remote desktop system will save the expense of software
because it normally comes with the remote IT system package.

Disadvantages of RDS

1. Requirement of powerful RDS: Since various computers are managed by a

centralized RDS, the capability of RDS must be powerful and sufficient in order
to bear the functional load of multiple computer systems.
2. Requirement of RDS monitoring: The remote desktop service is the foremost
source of risk of downtime. The whole system will collapse in case the remote
desktop service crashes, unless an RDS monitoring system is in place.
3. Requirement of reliable network: The complete functioning of the system is
affected by the integrity of the network. The complete system will crash in case
the network of remote desktop service is disrupted.
4. Requirement of right adjustment in network: The network must be familiar and
make certain that there should not be any blockage during the establishment of
the remote desktop services.
5. Knowledgeable administrator: The administrator must be an expert, have
essential knowledge, and be in touch during working hours.

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Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)

 Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) refers to the hosting of a desktop OS running

in a VM on a server in the virtual data center (VDC).
 A user has full access to the resources of the virtualized desktop.
 The server-hosted desktop virtualization solution approach is sometimes called
virtual desktop environment (VDE).
 VDI allows a user to access a remote desktop environment from an endpoint
device via a remote desktop delivery protocol.
 The hosted remote OS and associated applications are shown on the user's
endpoint device display and controlled via the endpoint device's keyboard and
mouse.
 For the user, the experience is very similar to using the remote desktop services
(RDS) solution, except that the desktop OS is running in a VM hosted on a server,
instead of on a remote user session on a single server OS.

The main components are endpoint devices, a connection broker, and VM hosting
servers.

Advantages of VDI

1. Low price in buying desktop computers

2. Centralized client operating system management
3. Swift client implementation
4. Reduction in the costs of desktop
5. Reduction in the cost of electricity
6. Enhanced security of data
7. Protected remote access
8. Lesser applications compatibility troubles

Disadvantages of VDI

1. Printing normally involves third-party appends

2. Scanning is natively unsupported

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3. Bi-directional audio is natively unsupported
4. Exhibit protocols are unsuitable for graphic design
5. Needs low-latency association between the virtual infrastructure and customer
6. Needs enterprise class server hardware and storage areas network for VMs
permanently delivered to particular users
7. Needs trained IT staff

COMPONENTS FOR DESKTOP VIRTUALIZATION

The VDI architecture consists of several components that work together to provide an
end-to-end solution.

The main components are:

• Endpoint devices
• A connection broker
• VM hosting

The number of VMs that a single server can support depends on several factors
including hardware, software, configurations, and user workloads of the desktop VMs.
The desktop VMs may be running any desktop OS supported by the hypervisor. In
VDI, each VM may be dedicated to a specific user (per-sistent desktop) or allocated
in a pool (non-persistent desktop). A VM pool shares VMs for concurrent use by
many users.
VM pools have the potential to save VM disk storage requirements.

To set up and organize the connection between the desktop VM and the endpoint
machine which is working on the VM-hosting server, a connection broker is liable.

The connection broker provides manageability, security, reliability, and scalability

benefits. A connection broker is generally needed as part of the VDI solution for a
larger or more complex environment.

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The user would be configured to directly connect to the same VM by a computer
name or IP address.
It is important to determine whether the connection broker is compatible and supports
the hypervisor that is used by the VM hosting server. VM hosting servers are
responsible for hosting desktop VMs that are remotely delivered to the endpoint
devices. Type 1 hypervisors are most suitable for this type of solution due to their
performance and scalability benefits. Additionally, they support a greater number or
density of VMs than Type 2 hypervisors.

A VDI solution may potentially introduce a significant number of new servers and
added storage into the datacenter. To execute desktop virtualization, a major necessity
is consumer state virtualization.

Advantages and Limitations of Application Virtualization

Advantages of Application Virtualization

1. Improved workload management

2. Reduced hardware cost
3. Increased flexibility for working remotely
4. Simplified application deployment: Applications are never installed on to an
operating System; hence the deployment of the applications is greatly simplified.
5. Simplified operating system image management: Since applications are
completely different from the OS, managing OS images is simpler, especially
during OS patches and upgrades.
6. Elimination of resource conflicts: Since each application has its own virtual OS
resources, resource and application conflict issues are eliminated.

Limitations of Application Virtualization

1. All software cannot be virtualized. For example, applications that require a

device driver or 16-bit applications that require shared memory space cannot be
virtualized.

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2. Some types of software cannot be virtualized, such as anti-virus packages and
applications that require heavy OS integration.

Tools used for Application Virtualization

 Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V)

It is just a part of the vendor's complete virtualization solution. Microsoft

virtualization includes server virtualization through Hyper-V, desktop virtualization
through Virtual PC and Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V),
presentation virtualization through terminal services, and profile virtualization
through technologies ebbeded in its operational systems.

 VMWare ThinApp

VMWare's ThinApp application virtualization is unique as it does not require a client.

As the ThinApp virtualized applications are also MSI packages, they can be deployed
using the reporting and inventory capabilities of existing corporate software
deployment tools.

Tools of ThinApp packages created by one version work with the same user device
and applications packaged by a new version. Application virtualization allows
administrators to work with different users of different apps, which can be carried
from one desktop to another through different media like USB drives. VMware
centralizes ThinApp administration and also automates various virtualization tools for
Windows applications.

The advantages of ThinApp include the following:

1. Fewer arguments between applications.

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2. Supports identical application with different versions: It has the ability to run
efficiently, different versions of the same application under a similar Windows
environment.
3. Keeps applications on virtual desktops: It keeps applications on virtual desktop
to support an environment for executing the programs, relatively storing the
whole applications in the local area, for example, C: Program Files.
4. Supports another memory: Application virtualization not only supports virtual
desktops but also executes if we keep that application in some memory device
and execute that from anywhere.
5. Support encapsulation: Installation of thin clients is not required to install every
client at the destination where it is running.

 Flexera Software Supporting Application Virtualization

Application virtualization has been supported by Flexera Software in two main

fields— consulting and product tendering. Flexera Software Consulting Services
supports the Flexera Software model.

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