Category: virtualization

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With virtualization, software licensing is really complicated

Many a times licensing of software are overlooked in virtualization infrastructure. Virtualization actually complicate the licensing, accordingly CIOs and System Administrators should have some strategy or exercise to make sure that the organization has redeem the correct software licensing.

There are varieties of issues that can make licensing difficult in virtualized environment. One of the most common licensing issues is buying or purchasing several different license types in order to remain compliant. Few of the required license types are:
  • Hypervisor licenses, 
  • Management Server licenses, 
  • Managed server licenses, 
  • Guest OS Server licenses, 
  • Guest OS Client licenses, 
  • Application licenses, 
  • Application client licenses, etc.

A complicated licensing issue occurs when a Guest OS VM created on a host and immediately migrated to another host. In the same ways, new VMs can be created on a whim by anyone who has permissions. So, how CIOs and System Admins can keep up with the licensing requirements?

All the software vendors have their own unique way of licensing requirements. So it is CIO’s duty to make sure that you adhere to requirements of the software rather than following the set of guidelines. There are a few general strategies too that usually work.


Always pay attention socket-specific license requirements. It is common now that maximum of the hypervisor vendors base their licensing requirements as per-physical socket for hypervisor and management server.

If an Operating System vendor requires licensing for every user who accesses the server, that requirement doesn’t usually go away just because the server is running on virtual hardware. Whereas, vendors provide choices to purchase the client access licensing on either a per-user or per-device basis. Previously, companies use to purchase licensing on per-device basis, as that was a little less expensive. But today, with every user using multiple devices having user based licensing is a cost effective option.

If VMs are running free open source OS, otherwise the Guest OS on your VM must be licensed. Guest OS licensing policies vary widely so it is important to check with the vendor to examine the specific requirements.

Windows Server 2012 R2 licensing applies only to the host not on the VM. This host-level license applies to the VMs running on the host. For example: if an organization is running Windows Server 2012 R2 on VMware. Company obviously licenses the VMware Hypervisor, but company also has to purchase Windows Server License. This license will apply to the Windows VMs running on the VMware server. If a VM is migrated to a different VMware server, then the destination Windows Server licensed will apply to the VM. In other words, Windows Server VMs do not take their licensing with them while migrating from one host to another.

Virtualization management servers typically require licenses for each server that is being managed. For example if a company plan to use Microsoft System Center VMM (Virtual Machine Manager), then company will need a licenses for each host server they are planning to manage.

Mostly licensing is complicated in virtualized environments. CIOs should review the licensing periodically and make sure to check the requirements for library servers to ensure if there are any licenses required for software installed within an image that is used to create new VMs.

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How to identify capacity bottlenecks in Virtualization environment

Virtualization capacity management is an activity for IT Admins that helps right-size, optimize & plan future resources in your virtual environment. Shortage of any resource can affect the VM performance & creates bottlenecks too.

Admins always recieve the demand for creating & adding new VMs for variety of applications & different users. So, admins have to fight with capacity or resource limitations of the IT infrastructure. Capacity planning plays a big role to over come this situation because admins always want to know:

  • How many more VMs they can add to the physical host? 
  • How much more VM workload can this current host support? 
  • How much memory is free in virtual environment? 
  • How much time taken by CPU to process a request?
In other words, they want to predict when will they run out resources like CPU, memory, disk i/o etc. which leads to capacity bottlenecks. Reasons for these bottlenecks are:
  • VM Sprawl, 
  • Enabling high-availability without accounting for failover, 
  • Changes in workload, 
  • Utilization growth in current resources, 
  • Removing hosts from cluster, 
  • VM reservation increases

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Considering between virtualization and cloud, which is best?

Cloud or virtualization, which is right for my business? These questions always parts of consideration while adopting a solution form them. Even though many IT Managers or CIO are a little skeptical about the difference between both, because Cloud is more like Virtualization’s extended version. But if you have 100% virtualized infrastructure it doesn’t mean that you are having a Private Cloud infrastructure. Both technologies are almost similar and not interchangeable. But, the significant difference between both can affect your business decision.
Virtualization vs Cloud:
What is Virtualization?
Virtualization is a layer to create different and dedicated resources on the same physical infrastructure. Through virtualization you can run multiple software applications and operating systems at the same time on same hardware. You require a hypervisor above the physical infrastructure to create, run and manage different Virtual Machines. You can configure each VM as per your requirement of application, OS, environment, physical resources etc. There are many big players that provide hypervisor like VMware, Microsoft, Oracle, HP etc.
Virtualization makes servers, storage, workstations and other systems independent from physical infrastructure. Virtualization is the core fundamental that powers the cloud computing.
What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud the buzzword which gives more flexibility of computing in other words you can call Cloud Computing as “a type of Internet-based computing”. But also require hardware, software, hypervisor etc. while building.
So, how’s virtualization different from cloud?
Virtualization is the base of cloud computing and helps to deliver the value for cloud computing. Biggest confusion occurs when virtualization and cloud work together to provide different services, mostly the case in Private Cloud infrastructure.

Through virtualization you can enable the Cloud Computing if you are offering 100% virtualization infrastructure with:

  • On demand services
  • Broad network access
  • Resource pooling
  • Rapid elasticity
  • Pay-per-use model

With all these 5 elements and 100% virtualization your organisation achieve the Private Cloud infrastructure. Some of the expert companies also mentions that cloud computing can also achieve without virtualization with the help of certain hardware, operating system and even application cluster can offer cloud services but those are quite complicated and costly. Even though require a lot of time consuming work just for limited set of features.

How do you know if your business needs Virtualization Model or Cloud Model?
With virtualization companies can maintain and secure their infrastructure because of following benefits:
  • Maximize resources:
    Virtualization saves a lot of hardware resources and you can get more value from a single server. Maximum time with traditional way of computing most of the servers are under-utilised but with virtualization allows to use the 100% power of them.

  • Multiple systems:
    Virtualization enables you to create different VMs to run multiple types of applications and multiple operating systems for those applications on the same physical hardware.

  • IT budget integration:
    With virtualization administration and maintenance of resources is easy for your infrastructure and saves a lot for IT operations.

So companies that need greater control for integration and security & financially work more in capital expenditure model should adopt Virtualization model.

Whereas, those companies should adopt cloud, which work on operational expenditure model and have less IT staff and very few security concerns should. Cloud basically leverage you with:

  • Outsourced IT:
    The daily IT administration tasks, care or maintenance, and support system move away from the company to service provider. This will free up your internal IT resources and advances your business quickly.

  • Quick Setup:
    A startup that adopts cloud from start their work become easy as cloud services is quick and easy. Servers, appliances and application licenses go away when you such kind of service. Even though no need to take care of updates to do the compatibility. Every issue is now on the head of service provider.

  • Pay-per-use:
    All the SaaS (Software as a Service) based application available today with this model of paying of what you actually use. You can customize the services and pay the service provider of what and how much quantity you are using, no extra cost.

  • Scalability:
    By using cloud you have the facility to use it from anywhere and it off loads a whole big amount of IT capacity to the service provider. This increases the scalability of your working environment.
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Never Run out of Resources by Taking Charge of VM Sprawl

When monitoring a virtualized environment, it’s important to understand the various performance issues & bottlenecks that may arise. As most virtual admins know, VM sprawl doesn’t occur over night, rather over a period of time and for a number of reasons.

For example, as a Virtual Admin, create VM’s based off of demand and can do so very easily, especially since new hardware isn’t required. When the number of VM’s increases within your infrastructure, it can lead to a lack of resources, performance issues, bottlenecks, or worse…VM sprawl.
The key to address these issues is to focus on resource utilization because if not properly allocated, ROI can even be affected. Provided below are a few areas virtual admins can focus on to better utilize their resources and avoid VM sprawl:

Zombie & Idle VMsare allocated a certain amount of resources, however with them being idle, these resources aren’t being utilized. In turn, other VM’s are affected due to their lack of resources. Signs of zombie & idle VMs:
– No recent login by users. For example, when employees leave an organization, their VM will become idle
– No recent file modification, as users aren’t using the VM
– Check when last powered on or off
By eliminating these VMs you can reclaim the wasted resources.

Rouge VMs are allocated a share of resources, yet they continue to consume additional resources. In turn, these VMs grow faster than they’re supposed to. Rogue VMs are one of the major causes for latency. You should drill down further to understand why these VMs grow at such a rapid rate. By checking their historical data & you can determine the reason for these changes and remediate accordingly.

Over allocated VMsconsume a lot of resources that aren’t needed by the end-user or client. It’s recommended to right size all your VMs. Look out for VMs which have under utilized CPU, memory, and storage. Analyze their historical consumption to understand the cause for over allocation in a VM and if it will be permanent.

VM Sprawl doesn’t happen overnight and it is not easily noticeable. VM Sprawl becomes a performance issue and bottleneck over a period of time. Some recommended solutions to overcome performance issues from VM sprawl:

– Don’t allocate too much memory and other resources. Go through with software or an application manual, assign resources per the recommendations given by the vendor.
– Allocate single vCPU at first, add more later on if needed.
– Monitor & delete VMs that are no longer needed to reclaim wasted resources.
– Don’t create snapshot of each VM. It is recommended to archive VMs so you can save storage space.
– Keep a historical log of configuration changes to track what changed the performance graph.
– Chargeback or showback to understand the cost of each VM.
– Check with business groups to understand the need for creating a VM.
– Define rules for maximum number of VMs allocated to an individual/user/department.

By utilizing these few tips on resource utilization you will be able to avoid VM sprawl. While these tips are useful, it is recommended to implement a modern virtualization management tool to make it easier to identify & control VM sprawl. You will be able to monitor and account for all resources being used. In turn, you will be eliminate bottlenecks in VMs.
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What’s new in Hyper-V Generation – 2 VMs?

Microsoft launched Generation 2 VMs with Windows Server 2012 R2 but they are still compatible with Generation 1 VMs which likely called as ‘legacy VMs’. Generation 1 VMs are the normal VMs running on Hyper –V which uses BIOS-based boot architecture, whereas Generation 2 VMs use UEFI-boot based architecture and available only on Windows Server 2012 R2.

Generation 2 VMs provide a simple hardware model, supports UEFI firmware & many of the legacy devices have also removed. In Generation 1 VMs same virtual hardware was assigned, whereas Generation 2 will be having new functionalities which are:

  • PXE boot via standard network adapter:
    In generation 1 if there was a requirement to have remote installation for the guest operating system using PXE (Pre-boot execution Environment), the legacy network adapter was supposed to install. In generation 2 legacy network aren’t available so PXE boot can only be performed by the standard network adapter.
  • Boot from SCSI Virtual Hard Disk or DVD:
    In Generation 2, VMs are enabled to boot from virtual SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) controller. Virtual IDE (Integrated Device Electronics) controllers aren’t available in Generation 2 VMs. So, attached OS VHDX can be benefited by having SCSI or VHDX features.
  • Secure Boot is enabled by default:
    Generation 2 VMs have Secure Boot by default in nature which help in preventing unauthorised firmware, operating systems and UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) drivers from running at the boot time. But Secure Boot can be disabled after creating the Virtual Machine.

The minimum requirements for the Generation 2 VMs are: Windows Server 2012 or R2 and 64 bit Windows 8 & 8.1.

On Microsoft Hyper-V an Admin can run both generations of VMs even though now Hyper-V will ask first which generation you want to create. Basically Hyper-V Generation 2 doesn’t support all Hyper-V supported guest Operating Systems. So, the Operating System, which isn’t compatible to Generation 2 those need to be installed on Generation 1 VMs.

When it comes to performance VMs boot will be 20% (approx.) faster & OS installation will be around 50% faster in comparison to Generation 1 VMs. But there will be not much difference in overall performance for VMs. 

Benefits:
There are benefits that Generation 2 VMs provide such as these VMs performs faster OS installation because OS installation enables from PXE network. Another advantage is, these VMs boots faster and a subset of Integration components is available to the VM during power-on.

Limitations:

Limitations are also there with Generation 2 VMs as they only support VHDX virtual hard-drive format. Generation 1 VMs can convert to a VHDX format to use in the Generation 2 but then you cannot further convert it to some other format. All OSs aren’t supported by Generation 2 VMs, you can’t install old version of OSs in them. There are a lot more drawbacks and limitations associated with Generation 2 VMs

  • Only new OSs are supported on Gen 2 VMs. 
  • No boot from an iSCSI LUN if you need to then use Gen 1 VMs only. 
  • The secure boot option is only with Gen 2 VMs. 
  • No support for the legacy network Adapters. 
  • No support for vFloppyDrives. 
  • No support for IDE Controllers
May be in the next release of Hyper-V we might not see these limitations or drawbacks in the Gen 2 VMs
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Microsoft Windows 7 on Apple iPad

Apple I-pad a 9.7” display tablet device which is made for the web-browsing & reading stuffs. But now you can do real work on this sleek & eye catching device. If you or your company has XenApp or VDI XenDesktop (http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/results.asp?productID=163057). Now you can install or virtualizes the Microsoft Windows 7 on your Apple I-Pad with the Citrix VDI XenDesktop at the resolution of 1024×768 as shown in the picture given below:

win7ipad4

Windows applications run unmodified and securely in the data center, and even multiple applications at once. The advancements that were made for the Citrix Receiver for iPhone will carry over to the iPad, however the iPhone restrictions of screen size and small keyboards are overcome with the iPad. It’s a beautiful thing ! The iPad looks to be an ideal end point device that can empower users to be productive were ever they are and IT will be able to safely deliver company hosted virtual desktops and apps without worry.

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Does my processor support Hardware Virtualization/Windows XP mode on Windows 7?

Here is the step by step guide to install Virtual Windows XP on Windows 7, (http://www.windowsvalley.com/blog/install-virtual-windows-xp-on-windows-7-or-enable-xp-mode-aka-xpm/) that requires hardware assisted virtualization.
Since there were few queries, “How do I check my processor support hardware virtualization or can we install virtual Windows XP on Windows 7? So here is simple way to check it out and get rid of such queries.

Download the software tool called Securable from here (http://www.grc.com/securable.htm) . and run this program. This tool does not require any installation so it can be run directly.

It checks basically three features of processors, that covers few aspects:

Is it 64-bit processor?
Does the processor support Data Execution Prevention(DEP)?
Does the processor support Hardware Virtualization? that can be Intel-VT / AMD-V for Intel and AMD processors respectively.

For some more information:

http://www.windowsvalley.com/blog/does-my-processor-support-hardware-virtualizationwindows-xp-mode-check-it-out/

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Windows 7 : “Windows XP Mode” (Secret Feature)

It’s true, Windows 7’s secret new feature is XP Mode. It’s a virtual Windows XP machine—complete with a fully licensed copy of Windows XP SP 3 installed on the virtual machine—that you can download which runs seamlessly in Windows 7, so you can do crazy things like run IE6 side-by-side with IE8. It’s meant for businesses who need compatibility for mission critical XP-only apps.

Windows 7 XP Mode

Really, don’t get too hung up on it—it’s only for the Enterprise, Professional and Ultimate versions of Windows 7, not the Home Premium version you’ll probably be running one day. (The release candidate is Ultimate, so you can toy around with it after downloading it here.) You also need a processor with either Intel Virtualization Technology or AMD-V and 2GB of RAM. And you can’t really do anything intense like gaming inside of it.

for some more: http://www.windows7.cc/