Scalability Features
When a virtualization platform behaves more like a server which is physical, it will become a lot easier for numerous enterprises to utilize and depend on workloads which are virtual.
There are four important areas for which virtualization features can be viewed, but most contemporary virtualization tools are similar to each other in terms of the features and the functions they have.
Factors such as TCO, or total cost ownership, will be used as a type of differentiator. The solutions for management will also see more investments which will bring technology closer to an IT environment which is dynamic.
With a dynamic IT environment, the infrastructure will be highly flexible, so flexible that it will be capable of adapting to the needs of any enterprise, and both policies and models can be used for the purpose of driving not only automation, but management as well.
When it comes to this, scalability is one of the most important features that must be considered. By making use of an architecture which is microkernalized, the Hyper-V has a CPU overhead which is greatly decreased. This means that there is more than enough room to virtualize the workloads.
Because the virtual machines are allowed to take full advantage of the many powerful features of the physical hardware, the best example of this being multicore technology, it means that disk access is greatly improved, and that because of the larger amount of memory, Hyper-V can greatly enhance scalability and bring a superior level of performance to the platform for virtualization. When these factors are combined with the necessity for Hyper-V to utilize a 64 bit host system, this makes sure that the system which is used for hosting is able to access the extensive pool of resources.
Hyper-V Support
Hyper-V is capable of supporting as much as one terabyte of memory on top of the host, and it can have up to 64 gigabytes of memory for each virtual machine. This is an important key for individuals who wish to virtualize the workloads which are memory intensive, and one good example of this is SQL Server.
Hyper-V also offers support for a large number of processors, and can reach a total max of sixteen. This means that Hyper-V is highly scalable, especially for four socket or two socket systems. You have the option of generating a virtual machine which has as many as four processors, and this means that the workload can be supported.
When it comes to the consolidation of the servers, Hyper-V also allows servers to make use of a level of networking which is highly robust. Some examples of this include NAT as well as VLAN. NAP, also known as Network Access Protection, is included as well.
When it comes to the features for Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V can function in the same manner as Windows PowerShell or BitLocker. Another important concept to consider is high availability. This is a situation in which Hyper-V and the features used for host clustering work in conjunction with one another to deal with business continuity and recovery in the event of disasters.
Business continuity can be thought of as the ability of a business to reduce the amount of downtime they have, both unexpected and downtime which is scheduled. Included in this is the ability to deal with functions which are routine, and good examples of this include both backup as well as maintenance, along with handling unexpected outages.
Disaster recovery could be thought of as one of the most critical aspects of business continuity. Disasters can come in many forms, and while some are natural, others are manmade, such as computer attacks, or acts of terrorism.
The Importance of High Availability
Minor problems such as hardware conflicts may cause downtime for businesses, and they must be prepared to deal with these contingencies. It will often be necessary for the administrators to deal with the problem and restore any data which is lost.
A business and disaster recovery strategy which is efficient will need to first be able to offer protection against minor amounts of data loss, and they will also need to make use of management capabilities which are remote. When it comes to high availability, it is important to consider three critical categories, and these are downtime which is unplanned, planned, and the backup system.
The protection that you will need for downtime which is planned will generally be needed to help in moving the virtual machines from the host system that you will be capable of performing maintenance on the hardware, or to put patches on the host system or within the virtualization platform. In many cases, you will be required to perform a reboot in a situation like this.
Many organizations make use of maintenance windows which are planned. Despite the fact that organizations will often plan this way, the main thing you are looking for is to lower the amount of time in which the virtual machines will not be available.
One feature which can help you achieve this quite easily is the Quick Migration function. With this function, you have the option of quickly migrating the virtual machine which is running from one node which is physical to an additional node, and it will only take a few seconds.
