Understanding Virtualization

What is Virtualization?
Virtualization allows companies to run multiple operating systems
and applications on one piece of hardware, maximizing computing
resources in terms of cost-effectiveness, efficiency and performance.
It is achieved by virtually separating the physical hardware from the
operating system, thus allowing multiple operating systems to run
side by side on the same machine.

Benefits of Virtualization
1. Save money on hardware - Virtualization consolidates multiple systems
onto one piece of hardware and allows system upgrades to occur on your
existing hardware with no downtime; therefore, when upgrading your
systems, the costs associated with buying new hardware and downtime
during upgrades are eliminated.
2. Keep your customers happy - llows you to deliver more to your
customers while gaining control of your I! costs by eliminating downtime and
maximizing the efficiency and speed of your server and client systems, and
consolidation of your hardware.
. !nhance your or"anization#s $% security - "ou can #eep your data
separate while still existing on the same machine. !his means important
corporate data can be #ept completely separate from end-user data; or even
#eep all of your end-user data separate from one another. $owever, while this
data is organized separately, it is still stored on one piece of hardware.
&. Keep your company runnin" 2&'( - %rovides continued operation during
maintenance periods, and rapid recovery in unplanned outages. &o no more
business downtime and loss of revenue.

Benefits of Virtualization
). *e-use e+istin" hardware - 'ith a virtual networ# you are able to upgrade
your company(s I! systems without having to necessarily upgrade your
hardware. lso, by running multiple systems on one piece of hardware you
are able to utilize the capability of each piece of hardware to its fullest extent,
instead of wasting money on idle hardware.
,. *educe your ener"y consumption - !he ability to run multiple operating
systems and applications on one machine reduces the amount of hardware
you need, thus reducing the amount of heat generated and energy used by
your networ#.
(. -ave your resources availa.le where and when you need them - &tores
your resources in an aggregate pool and enables you to pull them when you
need to, and where you need them as necessary.
/. $mprove your scala.ility - )rowth is an important initiative, but it can be
difficult when it comes with high I! costs to upgrade and meet your growth
demands. Virtualization allows you to re-use your existing hardware, and
easily add-on new applications and hardware to your current environment --
as and when you need to grow. 'ith a virtual networ#, you no longer need to
plan for huge budgets to implement that complete overhaul of your I!
infrastructure*

Bac0"round of Virtualization
Virtualization first came on the scene in the si+ties with the coining of the term
+time sharing.+ round that same time, I,- 'atson .esearch /enter started a
pro0ect called the -112113 %ro0ect. !he wor# involved testing this +time
sharing+ concept where virtual machines 41135 were created to image the
main machine, the I,- 6711 4-115. &oon after came the virtual machine
monitor 4V--5 giving the ability to create multiple virtual machines, each
instance capable of running its own operating system.
&ome estimates say servers typically operate between 89: and ;9: of /%<
capacity. 'ith virtualization, that could be improved dramatically, up to =7:.
It doesn(t ta#e an accountant to understand the cost savings in the process,
whether getting the most from your hardware or reducing expenses in
storage, space, hardware and utilities; not to mention simplified
administration and increased reliability across consolidated servers and
multiple operating systems.
>n -arch 81, ;77?, .ed $at announced a strategy called Integrated
Virtualization, wor#ing together with -@, Intel, Aetwor# ppliance and
3en&ource, as well as actively collaborating with the open source community.
!his goal is to create a virtualization environment and simplify deployment for
customers.

Checking CPU Support

!o run full virtualization guests on systems with

$ardware-assisted Virtual -achine 1-V23, Intel,
or -@ platforms, you must chec# to ensure your
/%<s have the capabilities needed to do so.

!o chec# if you have the /%< flags for Intel

support, enter the followingB
"rep vm+ 'proc'cpuinfo

!o chec# if you have the /%< flags for -@

support, enter the followingB
"rep svm 'proc'cpuinfo

-ardware Support

.ed $at Virtualization supports multiprocessor

systems and allows you to run .ed $at
Virtualization on x=? architectured systems with a
%? class 4or earlier5 processors li#eB
/eleron %entium II %entium III
%entium IV 3eon -@ thlon
-@ @uron

!he .ed $at Virtualization #ernels will not run on

a non-%C 14hysical 5ddress !+tension3
system. !o determine if a system supports %C,
type the following commandsB
"rep pae 'proc'cpuinfo

*ed -at Virtualization System *e6uirements

A working Red Hat RHEL 5 Linux distribution

A working GRUB bootloader

Root access

A P6 class (or earlier !rocessor

"#e Linux bridge$utils

"#e Linux #ot!lug s%ste&s

'lib de(elo!&ent installation

P%t#on )*) runti&e

initscri!ts

Bootin" the System
!he +end control daemon should already be
initiated by initscripts, but to start the xend
manually, enterB
service +end start

%ut it under ch#config.

!his daemon controls the virtualized resources,

and xend must be running to interact with virtual
machines. ,efore you start xend, specify the
operating parameters by editing the xend
configuration file +end-confi".s+p which is
located in the 'etc'+en directory.

Bootin" a "uest domain

"ou can boot guest domains by using the +m

application. "ou can also use virsh and the Virtual
-achine -anager to boot the guests. !his example
uses the +m create subcommandB

+m create -c networ0nuts1

!he networ#nuts8 is the configuration file for the

domain you are booting. !he -c option connects to
the actual console after booting.

Startin"'Stoppin" a 7omain at Boot
%ime

"ou can start or stop running domains at any

time. @omain7 waits for all running domains to
shutdown before restarting. %lace the
configuration files of the domains you wish to
shut down in the 'etc'+en' directory. ll the
domains that you want to start at boot time must
be symlin#ed to 'etc'+en'auto.
ch0confi" +endomains on
ch0confi" +endomains off

2i"ratin" a 7omain
-igration is the transferal of a running virtual
domain from one physical host to another. .ed
$at Virtualization supports two varieties of
migrationD8ffline and 9ive.

8ffline mi"ration moves a virtual machine from

one host to another by pausing it, transferring its
memory, and then resuming it on the host
destination.

9ive mi"ration does the same thing, but does

not directly affect the domain. 'hen performing a
live migration, the domain continues its usual
activities, and from the user perspective is
unnoticeable.

2i"ratin" a 7omain

!o initiate a live migrationB

,oth hosts must be running .ed $at

Virtualization and the xend daemon.

!he destinations host must have sufficient

resources 4such as memory capacity5 to
accommodate the domain bandwidth after the
migration.

,oth the source and destination machines must

have the same architecture and virtualization
extensions 4such as iE=?-V!, x=?-?1-V!, x=?-
?1-&V-, etc.5

-ust be on the same 92 subnet.

Securin" 7omain:
@omain7 is the privileged domain that handles system
management. If domain7 is insecure, all other domains in
the system are vulnerable. !here are several ways to
implement securityB
.un the lowest number of necessary services. "ou do not
want to include too many 0obs and services in domain7. !he
less things running on domain7, the higher the level of
security.
Cnable &eFIA<3 to help secure domain7.

<se a firewall to restrict traffic to domain7.

@o not allow normal users to access domain7. .emember,
domain7 is privileged, and granting unprivilged accounts
may compromise the level of security.

2ana"in" virtual machines with ;virsh<

!his utility is built around the libvirt management

%I and operates as an alternative to the +m tool
or the graphical Virtual -achine -anager.
<nprivileged users can employ this utility for
read-only operations. If you plan on running
xend2Gemu, you should enable xend2Gemu to run
as a service. fter modifying the respective
configuration file, reboot the system, and
xend2Gemu will run as a service. "ou can use
virsh to script vm wor#. Fi#e the +m tool, you run
virsh from the command line.

=onnectin" with -ypervisor

"ou can use virsh to initiate a hypervisor sessionB

virsh connect >name?
'here HnameI is the machine name of the
hypervisor. If you want to initiate a readDonly
connection, append the above command with
--readonly.

For Windows

(i +etc+xen+windows
dis# J K L MMN,
LfileB2pathtoiso2file.iso,hdbBcdrom,rN O

=reatin" and 2ana"in" 7omains with
+m
=onnectin" to a 7omain - +m console domain-id
=reatin" a 7omain - +m create domain::1
Shuttin" 7own a 7omain -+m shutdown @domain-idA @ -a B -w A
Savin" a 7omain - +m save @domain-idA @statefileA
Shuttin" 7own a 7omain - +m shutdown @domain-idA @ -a B
-w A
2onitorin" 7omains in *eal %ime - +m top @domain-idA
7isplayin" Cptime - +m uptime @domain-idA