Virtualization Best Practices

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Virtualization Best Practices
Nik Kesic, Principal Support Engineer

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Credits and Acknowledgements
Nik Kesic, Principal Support Engineer
John Nunziato, Product Manager
©2015 Rocket Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Abstract
 In today’s world of scarce IT resources, the popularity of server virtualization has
exploded. Customers who use Rocket MV software often contact us to ask if our
software works with, and is supported in, a virtual environment. Other types of
virtualization include storage virtualization, data virtualization, application
virtualization, network, etc. Customers also want to know about licensing
requirements, usage rules, guidelines, performance consideration, and best
practices. This presentation looks at various aspects of server virtualization.

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Agenda
Session origins
Virtualization architecture
Popular Virtualization products
Rocket Support for Virtualization
UNIX/Windows tuning considerations for Virtualization
Case studies

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Session Origins
Many Rocket MultiValue customers use
virtualization
Rocket uses virtualization
Rocket MV support calls
• Performance concerns
• License concerns
• Are we supported?
• Application behaves differently
• Best practices

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What is Virtualization?
Definition of Virtualization
• Technology that partitions a single physical machine into
many logical partitions with the look and feel of an
independent physical machine
• Each virtual environment represents a complete system,
with processors, memory, networking, and other system
resources
• Made by software to appear as if it physically exists: "virtual
images"

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What is a Virtual Machine?
Definition of a Virtual Machine (VM)
• Emulates a physical computing environment
• Hardware requests managed by a virtualization layer that
translates these requests to the underlying physical hardware
• Software implementation of a computing environment in
which an operating system (OS) or program can be installed
and run

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Benefits of Virtualization
Increased uptime
Easier to manage
A greener planet
• HVAC
• Power
• Footprint
Cost
UPS
Backup/Recovery
Flexibility
Resource sharing
Security
Reliability
Faster provisioning

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Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of infrastructure, platform, and software as a service
(IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) and often uses scalable, virtualized, and/or containerized
technology. And IoT makes it possible with almost limitless identifiers.

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Virtualization Architecture
Virtual Center Management Server
Manage
Virtual Machines Virtual Machines Virtual Machines
VM ServerVM Server VM Server

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Virtualization Architecture Basics
Guest OS
• Operating system installed inside
a virtual machine (or a partition)
Hypervisor
• Virtual Machine Monitor/Manager (VMM)
Host OS
• Virtualization product or the partitioning product

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Guest OS
Virtualization product
• Guest OS can be completely different from the host OS
Partitioning product
• Guest OS must be identical to
the host OS (not in all cases)

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Hypervisor
Native/
Bare-Metal
Hosted
• VM Player

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Bare-Metal – Type 1
Runs the Hypervisor/Guest OS
This type of virtualization is the
leading enterprise solution
Offers best performance

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Hosted – Type 2
Runs applications with a
conventional operating
environment
Typically used in client-side
virtualization
Not the same as terminal services

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Host OS
The host operating system provides a host to one or
more virtual machines (or partitions) and shares
physical resources with them
This is where the virtualization product or the
partitioning product is installed

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Hosted Virtualization
Most familiar form of virtualization
• All of the desktop virtualization
products, such as VMware Work-
station/Player, and Parallels
Desktop for the Mac, and Microsoft
Virtual PC
 Benefits of hosted virtualization
• Users can install a virtualization product onto their desktop just as
any other application, and continue to use their desktop OS
• Hosted virtualization products also take advantage of the host
OS’s device drivers, resulting in the virtualization product
supporting the same hardware as the host

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VMM Arrangements Windows 2016
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/solutions/virtualization.aspx

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Popular Virtualization Products
Bare-Metal
 VMWARE ESX/ESXi®
 Citrix XEN Server®
 Oracle VM Server®
 Amazon EC2®
 IBM System z Hypervisor®
 Solaris Zones®
 AIX LPARS / WPA®
 Microsoft Hyper-V Server
Hosted
 Microsoft Virtual PC®
 Microsoft 2008 with Hyper-V®
 VMware Workstation/Player®

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Abstract, Part Two
To Virtualize or Containerize… that is the question
 Hypervisors have one thing in common: “They’re based on emulating virtual
hardware.”
 Containers, on the other hand, are based on a shared operating system
The key difference is that while the hypervisor abstracts an entire device,
containers just abstract the operating system kernel
“you can’t mix and match containers the way you can VMs”

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Segue
VMs vs. Containers
• Not every workload is suitable for containers
• Not every workload is suitable for VMs
• Containers lack much of the security, network features, and
management capability of full virtualization stacks
• Containers spin up in milliseconds
• VMs spin up in seconds or minutes
• Bare-Metal gives containers a slight bump in performance vs.
VMs

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Virtual Servers
Hypervisor Host OS
Host
VM1 VM2 VM3 Spare
Host OS

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Containers
Host OS
Host
Container 1 Container 2 Container 3 Spare

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Rocket Support for Virtualization
Every instance of Rocket U2 and D3 software in a
virtualized environment must have its own unique
Rocket U2 license

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Rocket Support for Virtualization
 Rocket can make no guarantees with respect to performance or
scalability in a virtualized environment
 Rocket MV software products leverage binary compatibility provided by
the virtualization technologies because the virtual environment products
themselves provide transparency to the operating systems, applications,
and middleware that operate above it
 If you submit a standard usage or defect-related service request, and your
software is running on a virtual environment, Rocket MV Technical Support
will assume that the problem is common to both native and virtual
operating environments

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Support for Virtualization
Setup, configuration, and tuning of virtual environments is
NOT part of standard Rocket U2 Support
Customers looking for support for setting up a virtual
environment SHOULD consult the appropriate vendors
and Rocket U2 Professional Services email:
U2Services@rocketsoftware.com
For additional information about a specific virtual
environment, contact the vendor of the virtualization
technology

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Best Practices for Virtualizing MultiValue
Avoid contention
Allocate ENOUGH resources for your MV system
• Memory
• CPU
• Disk
Now allocate MORE – about 15 percent more
Dedicate appropriate resources to MV

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Best Practices for Virtualizing MultiValue
Tune your disk subsystem
• DON’T have 1,200 users all hitting one disk subsystem
• DON’T have your MV system on the same disk subsystem as
your Exchange Server
Tune your MV database and application
Perform benchmarking on Bare-Metal vs. VM
External review – On demand and annually

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UNIX Tuning Considerations
Allocate system resources
Tune your disk subsystem
Tune your file systems
Tune caching
Apply U2 tuning parameters
Benchmark your system by placing a load on it
Adjust tuning parameters accordingly

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Windows Tuning Considerations
Allocate system resources
Start by tuning the Virtual Server Hypervisor
Tune the Host Operating Environment
Tune the Guest Operating Environment
Tune U2 parameters
Tune disk subsystem
Benchmark the system by placing a load on it
Adjust parameters accordingly

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Case Study
Customer complained of a poor response in the
application
Customer running in a virtualized environment who
was experiencing green screen response problems
Customer stated UOJ connections no longer worked
Customer stated that after an OS update, their
application no longer worked

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Expected Benefits
Easier management
Reduced costs
Lower power & A/C usage
Lower physical footprint
Increased performance
Faster server provisioning
Increased uptime
Improved disaster recovery
Easier to move to cloud

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Disadvantages of Virtualization
Magnified physical failures
Degraded performance
New skills and tools to learn
Complex root analysis
Putting all eggs in one basket
Bare-Metal != virtual partition

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Summary
Allocate enough resources
Tune your virtual machine
Tune your disk drives
Tune your database
Don’t use a VM on the same
machine for HADR

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References
http://www.rocketsoftware.com/product-families/rocket-u2
http://www.rocketsoftware.com/product-families/rocket-d3
mvu@rocketsoftware.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtualization
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LXC

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Additional Resources
 Rocket MV Support for Virtualization
https://rbc.rocketsoftware.com/VM.html
 Rocket MV Professional Services
mvservices@rocketsoftware.com
http://www.rocketsoftware.com/training-and-professional-services/rocket-u2
http://www.rocketsoftware.com/training-and-professional-services/rocket-d3

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Disclaimer
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS PRESENTATION IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.
WHILE EFFORTS WERE MADE TO VERIFY THE COMPLETENESS AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED
IN THIS PRESENTATION, IT IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.
IN ADDITION, THIS INFORMATION IS BASED ON ROCKET SOFTWARE’S CURRENT PRODUCT PLANS AND STRATEGY,
WHICH ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE BY ROCKET SOFTWAREWITHOUT NOTICE.
ROCKET SOFTWARE SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF, OR
OTHERWISE RELATED TO, THIS PRESENTATION OR ANY OTHER DOCUMENTATION.
NOTHING CONTAINED IN THIS PRESENTATION IS INTENDED TO, OR SHALL HAVE THE EFFECT OF:
• CREATING ANY WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION FROM ROCKET SOFTWARE(OR ITS AFFILIATES OR ITS OR
THEIR SUPPLIERS AND/OR LICENSORS); OR
• ALTERING THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE APPLICABLE LICENSE AGREEMENT GOVERNING THE USE OF
ROCKET SOFTWARE.

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Trademarks and Acknowledgements
The trademarks and service marks identified in the following list are the exclusive properties of Rocket Software,
Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively, “Rocket Software”). These marks are registered with the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. Not all trademarks owned by
Rocket Software are listed. The absence of a mark from this page neither constitutes a waiver of any intellectual
property rights that Rocket Software has established in its marks nor means that Rocket Software is not owner of
any such marks.
Aldon, CorVu, Dynamic Connect, D3, FlashConnect, Pick, mvBase, mvEnterprise, NetCure,
Rocket, SystemBuilder, U2, U2 Web Development Environment, UniData, UniVerse, and
wIntegrate
Other company, product, and service names mentioned herein may be trademarks or service marks of
others.

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