Network & Storage Virtualization

1. Network & Storage Virtualization Ramnish Singh IT Advisor Microsoft Corporation

2. Storage Virtualization

3. Storage Virtualization • Storage virtualization: Process of abstracting logical storage from physical storage. • Key Concepts • Address space remapping • Meta-data • I/O redirection

4. Storage Virtualization • Capabilities • Replication • Remote data replication • Synchronous Mirroring • Asynchronous Mirroring • Point-In-Time snapshots • Pooling • Disk Management • Thin Provisioning • Disk expansion and shrinking

5. Storage Virtualization • Benefits • Non-disruptive data migration • Improved utilization • Fewer points of management • Risks • Backing out a failed implementation • Interoperability and vendor support • Complexity • Meta-data management • Performance and scalability

6. Implementation Approaches • Host-based • Storage device-based • Network-based

7. Host Based • Use specific device drivers • Every OS has its own logical volume manager • Pros • No additional hardware or infrastructure requirements • Simple to design and code • Supports any storage type • Improves storage utilization without thin provisioning restrictions • Cons • Storage utilization optimized only on a per host basis • Replication and data migration only possible locally to that host • Software is unique to each operating system • No easy way of keeping host instances in sync with other instances

8. Storage device-based • Storage controller provides the virtualization services • Provide pooling and meta-data management services • Pros • No additional hardware or infrastructure requirements • Provides most of the benefits of storage virtualization • Cons • Storage utilization optimized only across the connected controllers • Replication and data migration only possible across the connected controllers and same vendors device for long distance support • Downstream controller attachment limited to vendors support matrix • I/O Latency, non cache hits require the primary storage controller to issue a secondary downstream I/O request

9. Network-based • Storage controller provides the virtualization services • Provide pooling and meta-data management services • Pros • True heterogeneous storage virtualization • Caching of data (performance benefit) is possible when in-band • Single management interface for all virtualized storage • Replication services across heterogeneous devices • Cons • Complex interoperability matrices - limited by vendors support • Difficult to implement fast meta-data updates in switched devices • Out-of-band requires specific host based software • In-band may add latency to I/O • In-band the most complication to design and code

10. Appliance-based vs. Switch-based • Appliance based • Dedicated hardware devices that provide SAN connectivity of one form or another • Sit between the hosts and storage • I/O requests are targeted at the appliance itself • Most implementations provide some form of clustering of individual appliances • Switch based • Reside in the physical switch hardware used to connect the SAN devices • Sit between the hosts and storage • Difficult to ensure atomic updates of meta-data in a switched environment and services requiring fast updates of data

11. In-band vs. Out-of-band • In-band • In-band, also known as symmetric, virtualization devices actually sit in the data path between the host and storage • I/O requests and their data pass through the device • Hosts perform I/O to the device directly and never interact with the storage itself • Out-of-band • Out-of-band, also known as asymmetric, virtualization devices are sometimes called meta-data servers • These devices only perform the meta-data mapping functions • No caching possible as the data never passes through the device.

12. Network Virtualization

13. NetworkVirtualization • Network virtualization: Process of combining hardware and software network resources and network functionality into a single, software-based administrative entity. • Categories • External Network Virtualization • Internal Network Virtualization • Combined Internal and External Network Virtualization

14. Virtual NetworkComponents Network Hardware Networks Network Storage Devices Network Media

15. External Network Virtualization • One or more local networks are combined or subdivided into virtual networks, with the goal of improving the efficiency of a large corporate network or data center • Key Components • VLAN • Network Switch

16. Internal Network Virtualization • Single system combined with hypervisor control programs or pseudo-interfaces such as the VNIC, to create a “network in a box.” • Networks • Solution improves overall efficiency of a single system by isolating applications to separate containers and/or pseudo interfaces.

17. Combined Internal & External Network Virtualization • Single system offers both internal and external network virtualization • Base concept is to use Hypervisor to manage connectivity for both Host and well as Guest systems through implementation of a virtual switch.

18. Hyper-V Networking

19. Hyper-V Architecture Provided by: • ISV / IHV / OEM • OS • Microsoft Hyper-V Parent Partition • Applications User Mode • Windows Server 2008 • IHV Drivers • Windows Kernel Kernel Mode • Windows hypervisor Ring -1 • “Designed for Windows” Server Hardware

20. Hyper-V Architecture Provided by: • ISV / IHV / OEM • OS • Microsoft Hyper-V Parent Partition Child Partitions • Microsoft / XenSource • Applications • Applications • Applications • Applications • VM Worker Process • WMI Provider User Mode • VM Service • Xen-Enabled Linux Kernel • Windows Server 2008 • Windows Server 2003, 2008 • Non-Hypervisor Aware OS • VSP • IHV Drivers • Windows Kernel • Windows Kernel • VSC • Linux VSC • VMBus • VMBus • Hypercall Adapter Kernel Mode • VMBus • Emulation • Windows hypervisor Ring -1 • “Designed for Windows” Server Hardware

21. Hyper-V Networking • Two physical network adapters at minimum • One for management • One (or more) for VM networking • Dedicated NIC(s) for iSCSI • Connect parent to back-end management network • Only expose guests to internet traffic Parent Partition Child Partitions • Applications • VM Worker Process • Applications • WMI Provider • VM Service • Windows Server 2008 • Windows Server 2003, 2008 • Windows Kernel • VSP • Windows Kernel • VSC • IHV Drivers • VMBus • VMBus • Windows hypervisor • “Designed For Windows” Server Hardware

22. Hyper-V Network Configurations • Example 1: • Physical Server has 4 network adapters • NIC 1: Assigned to parent partition for management • NICs 2/3/4: Assigned to virtual switches for virtual machine networking • Storage is non-iSCSI such as: • Direct attach • SAS or Fibre Channel

23. Hyper-V Setup & Networking 1

24. Hyper-V Setup & Networking 2

25. Hyper-V Setup & Networking 3

26. Each VM On Its Own Switch… Parent Partition Child Partitions • Applications • Applications • Applications • VM Worker Process • WMI Provider • VM3 • Windows Server 2008 • VM1 • VM2 User Mode • VM Service • VSP • Windows Kernel • VSC • Windows Kernel • VSC • Linux Kernel • VSC • VMBus • VMBus • VMBus • VMBus • Windows hypervisor Kernel Mode Ring -1 • “Designed for Windows” Server Hardware • VSwitch 1 NIC 2 • VSwitch 2 NIC 3 • Mgmt NIC 1 • VSwitch 3 NIC 4

27. Hyper-V Network Configurations • Example 2: • Server has 4 physical network adapters • NIC 1: Assigned to parent partition for management • NIC 2: Assigned to parent partition for iSCSI • NICs 3/4: Assigned to virtual switches for virtual machine networking

28. Hyper-V Setup, Networking & iSCSI

29. Now With iSCSI… Parent Partition Child Partitions • Applications • Applications • Applications • VM Worker Process • WMI Provider • VM3 • Windows Server 2008 • VM1 • VM2 User Mode • VM Service • Windows Kernel • VSC • Windows Kernel • VSC • Linux Kernel • VSC • VSP • VMBus • VMBus • VMBus • VMBus • Windows hypervisor Ring -1 Kernel Mode • “Designed for Windows” Server Hardware • VSwitch 1 NIC 2 • VSwitch 2 NIC 3 • Mgmt NIC 1 • VSwitch 3 NIC 4

30. Networking: Parent Partition

31. Networking: Virtual Switches

32. Online Resources • Microsoft Virtualization Home: • http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization • Windows Server Virtualization Blog Site: • http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/default.aspx • Windows Server Virtualization TechNet Site: • http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/servermanager/virtualization.mspx • System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Beta: • http://connect.microsoft.com

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