Review: VMware ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers

Author: Edward L. Haletky
ISBN: 0132302071
Published: January 8, 2008

For everyone looking for a solid book on server virtualization using VMware Virtual Infrastructure you can rest easy. Equal parts design guide, best practices, and cookbook this book is full of great background, pertinent info, and ways to make your infrastructure more reliable and secure.

If this book were not so thorough I might say it errs on the side of TMI (too much information). However, since it is so complete I believe there is something here for everyone. There's great coverage here of obscure topics like the boot sequence that only serves to add to the level of even an expert's understanding. Do you know how to configure Boot From San? You will if you buy this book. I especially like the hardware agnosticism of having the step by step presented for both Emulex and Qlogic HBAs.

The author's understanding of security factors in design and implementation definitely adds a lot of value and raises the bar for those willing to go the extra distance in their infrastructure. There are auditing and configuration scripts that help you secure your environment.

Networking design and configuration are also covered in depth, with detailed command line examples. I found a lot to like in this book and plan to keep my copy close at hand. If you're
interested in your own copy you can get it here: VMware ESX Server in the Enterprise or VMware ESX Server in the Enterprise (Kindle).

NetApp Announces VMware Products

from the "It's about time" department.

Network Appliance announced February 12th that they were planning to release two products for VMware ESX Server.

The first is SnapManager for Virtual Infrastructure. This product will manage backups, recovery, and replication of NetApp storage connected to VMware Virtual Infrastructure systems. More info here: http://www.netapp.com/products/enterprise-software/manageability-software/server-suite/smgr-virtual-infrastructure.html. The product data sheet is here: http://www.netapp.com/ftp/ds_2741_snapmanager.pdf

The second product is Provision Manager which is designed to simplify and accelerate storage provisioning. More info here: http://www.netapp.com/products/enterprise-software/manageability-software/data-suite/provisioning.html. The product data sheet is here: http://www.netapp.com/ftp/ds_2742_provisioningmgr.pdf

In related news, with the release of NetApp OnTap 7.3 deduplication is available in primary storage for Network Appliance systems without the purchase of a Nearstore license. This should improve efficiencies in storage, especially where deployed systems are based on common images.

ESX 3i Embedded Availability Imminent

With VMworld Europe in full swing we can expect some product announcements and press releases happing every day.

VMware ESX 3i Embedded will be available from at least 4 major vendors "real soon now". At least that's the word on the street. I've definitely heard similar things from my vendor contacts.

I'm very excited about this since it will be great to use in some of our regional sites. It's tough to get disparate hardware in and have to juggle configs around to get on that new hardware remotely. This should really smooth things out.

Here are some announcements in that arena:

Fujitsu Siemens announces immediate availability: http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/fsc_vmworld.html

HP announces March 31 availability:
http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/hp_vmworld.html. This comes with the announcment that HP Systems Insight Manager 5.2 will support ESX 3i. HP SIM 5.2 is already available here: http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/hpsim/index.html

Dell announces early April availability:
http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/dell_vmworld.html

IBM is only included here as part of the "available within 60 days":
http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/3i_rollup_vmworld.html, however a search of their site shows they are well along in preparing to support 3i.

VirtualCenter Database Schema

Here's a handy reference for the VirtualCenter database. I documented the basic schema here.

ESX 3.5 Released

I predicted that the bits would drop today and so they have:
http://www.vmware.com/download/download.do?downloadGroup=ESX350
http://www.vmware.com/download/download.do?downloadGroup=VC250

Since there has been no announcement, this is definitely pre GA and there's no guarantee that these are the final builds.

If anyone finds a link to the docs let me know.

ESX 3i - The End of the World As We Know It

Welcome to a giant paradigm shift in computing. The future is warming up on the runway and should launch in the next couple weeks.

VMware ESX 3i is ESX 3.5 with the Console OS (Service Console, COS, what have you) removed. Gone. Kaput. No more logging in to fix things. No more backup or management agents running on the ESX host. Check out VMware's product page and datasheet for 3i.

Does that sound like big deal to you? If not, it sounds like you're ready to move on down the road. Just bump your VirtualCenter load to 2.5 and get after it. However, if this move leaves you confused about how to handle backups, managment agents, or other services let's cover the pain points and how VMware expects you to deal with the change.

• Custom Scripts: Do you use bash or perl scripts to gather performance data, perform some process related procedures, or other custom sequential operations? Expect to port these to either the new remote CLI (Command Line Interface) or get used to using one of the other APIs on a remote system.
• Management Agents: If you use servers from major manufacturers you may use their management agents to report hardware and software events to a centralized management server. Those agents are now useless for monitoring a 3i system. The good news: An industry standard CIM interface is used to expose all of those things you'd expect to see. The bad news: We'll be waiting on the manufacturers to update their management platforms and they're notoriously bad about hitting launch dates with supporting agents. In a big shop this will either force the use of the full version of 3.5 as a transitional stop-gap or slow adoption of 3.5 until these are available. HP, IBM, Dell, etc. please get your SIM, Director, OpenManage, etc. updated ASAP as everyone will want to move to 3i once the dust settles.
• Backup: Hmmm. Here's the only place that should cause some big growing pains. I'd expect the usual suspects will eventually support using their backup software remotely. But again, not out of gates. In fact, while the server manufacturers will take 3-6 months to get their management agents aligned with the 3i CIM model, my guess is that it will take more like 6-12 months for the major backup players to figure out the new backup paradigm. Your best bet is to try VCB or look at a major ESX backup player like Vizioncore vRangerPro or Phd Esxpress to support 3.5/3i if you want to move on this quickly. Since VCB should work in a VM without additional plumbing and support all storage types (see p. 29 here) it's worth a look in 3.5 if you haven't already checked it out, especially if you're already on Enterprise ESX licenses.

So why move? What's so compelling here?

• 32 MB footprint (yes, it takes only 32 MB of code to make the entire ESX server run)
• New hardware will ship with a dual bank flash drive for firmware like redundancy. Blow an upgrade and just switch back to the code you were running 5 minutes ago.
• Security. No agents. No services. No access without secure authentication.
• No more customizing installations for new releases.
• No more drive failures or complicated SAN booting setups.

So what's the plan? I think many sites will adopt a two phase approach:

1. Move to 3.5 using the standard install with COS for production. Poke & prod at 3i in the lab and migrate the problem areas forward.
2. Once the issues are sorted, move to 3i. That's assuming the hardware vendors understand that we want this for our existing servers and not just for some SKU that includes 32 GB of memory and 8 sporty cores with lots of zeros after the $ sign. We want to stuff a USB drive in an existing blade or discrete server and go with 3i.

System Virtualization & the Market

What's the story on VMware these days? Some opine that their run is done. My opinion is they have at least 18-24 months before any competition will start to drag down their growth. I’d expect their rampant profit/growth to start fading during this time due to price cuts to thwart the competition. However their enterprise products will continue to command a premium as long as the value is there (it is) and the competitors are not executing on their current promises (they’re not). Coupled with the strong new product offering in the enterprise space with Site Recovery Manager I think VMware is in the catbird seat for the short term. Survey says this is the case now

This could swing a bit if Linux starts to gain more momentum, but so far it’s still not as pervasive as MSFT (to put it mildly). I expect the linux distros to work better with the Xen based hypervisors than Windows, but it doesn’t seem that linux is displacing windows but instead supplementing it.

I do expect the VMW mothership (EMC) to struggle a bit with some of the upstarts in storage, esp. now that Equallogic has found a sugar daddy of its own in DELL. Enterprise storage is another area that will be undergoing extensive churn for the near term and out a couple of years. It will be exciting to see what happens in the Sun (JAVAD) vs. NetApp (NTAP) legal cagematch they’ve gotten into over storage patents. The line between storage and software continues to blur with Left Hand Networks and their virtual iSCSI appliance for VMware ESX. I bet they’ll IPO or get snapped up soon.

Looks like VMware is firing back regarding Oracle's claims of performance here. I was surprised that it took so long, considering claims of 3x the efficiency of "other leading server virtualization vendors".