Xen server 6.1 technical sales presentation

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XenServer 6.1 Technical Overview
September 2012

© 2012 Citrix | Confidential – Do Not Distribute
What’s so Great About Xen?
• It’s robust
ᵒ Native 64-bit hypervisor
ᵒ Runs on bare metal
ᵒ Directly leverages CPU hardware for virtualization
• It’s widely-deployed
ᵒ Tens of thousands of organizations have deployed Xen
• It’s advanced
ᵒ Optimized for hardware-assisted virtualization and paravirtualization
• It’s trusted
ᵒ Open, resilient Xen security framework
• It’s part of mainline Linux

Understanding Architectural Components
The Xen hypervisor and control domain (dom0) manage physical server
resources among virtual machines

Understanding the Domain 0 Component
Domain 0 is a compact specialized Linux VM that manages the network and
storage I/O of all guest VMs … and isn’t the XenServer hypervisor

Understanding the Linux VM Component
Linux VMs include paravirtualized kernels and drivers, and Xen is part of
Mainline Linux 3.0

Understanding the Windows VM Component
Windows VMs use paravirtualized drivers to access storage and network
resources through Domain 0

XenServer Meets All Virtualization Needs
Enterprise
Data Center
•High performance, resilient virtualization platform
•Simple deployment and management model
•Host based licensing to control CAPEX
Desktop
Virtualization
•Optimized for high performance desktop workloads
•Storage optimizations to control VDI CAPEX
Cloud
Infrastructure
•Platform for IaaS and Cloud Service Providers
•Powers the NetScaler SDX platform
•Fully supports Software Defined Networking

Enterprise
Data Center Virtualization

XenCenter – Simple XenServer Management
• Single pane of management glass
• Manage XenServer hosts
ᵒ Start/Stop VMs
• Manage XenServer resource pools
ᵒ Shared storage
ᵒ Shared networking
• Configure advanced features
ᵒ HA, WLB, Reporting, Alerting
• Configure updates

Management Architecture Comparison
“The Other Guys”
Traditional Management
Architecture
Single backend management server
Citrix XenServer
Distributed
Management Architecture
Clustered management layer

Role-Based Administration
• Provide user roles with varying permissions
• Pool Admin
• Pool Operator
• VM Power Admin
• VM Admin
• VM Operator
• Read-only
• Roles are defined within a Resource Pool
• Assigned to Active Directory users, groups
• Audit logging via Workload Reports

XenMotion Live VM Migration
Shared Storage
More about XenMotion

XenServer Pool
• Migrates VM disks from any
storage type to any other
storage type
ᵒ Local, DAS, iSCSI, FC
• Supports cross pool migration
ᵒ Requires compatible CPUs
• Encrypted Migration model
• Specify management interface
for optimal performance
Live Storage XenMotion
XenServer Hypervisor
VDI(s)
Live
Virtual
Machine
More about Storage XenMotion

Heterogeneous Resource Pools
Safe Live Migrations
Virtual Machine
Older CPU
Feature
1
Feature
2
Feature
3
Feature
4
XenServer 1
Newer CPU
Feature
1
Feature
2
Feature
3
Feature
4
XenServer 2
Mixed Processor Pools

Memory Overcommit
• Feature name: Dynamic Memory
Control
• Ability to over-commit RAM
resources
• VMs operate in a compressed or
balanced mode within set range
• Allow memory settings to be
adjusted while VM is running
• Can increase number of VMs per
host

Virtual Appliances (vApp)
• Support for “vApps” or Virtual
Appliances
ᵒ OVF definition of Virtual Appliance
• vApp contains one or more Virtual
Machines
• Enables grouping of VMs which can
be utilized by
ᵒ XenCenter
ᵒ Integrated Site Recovery
ᵒ Appliance Import and Export
ᵒ HA

Virtual Machine Protection and Recovery
• Policy based snapshotting and
archiving
• Separate scheduling options for
snapshot and archive
ᵒ Snapshot-only or Snapshot and Archive
• Policy Configuration
ᵒ Add multiple VMs to policy
ᵒ Search filter available
ᵒ VM can only belong to 1 policy
ᵒ XenCenter or CLI

High Availability in XenServer
• Automatically monitors hosts and
VMs
• Easily configured within XenCenter
• Relies on Shared Storage
ᵒ iSCSI, NFS, HBA
• Reports failure capacity for DR
planning purposes
More about HA

Advanced Data Center
Automation

Virtualization can hinder the linkage
between servers and storage, turning
expensive storage systems into little
more than “dumb disks”
XenServer
Hosts
StorageStorageLink
Citrix StorageLink™ technology lets your
virtual servers fully leverage all the
power of existing storage systems
XenServer
Hosts
Optimizing Storage – Integrated StorageLink
More about StorageLink

Workload Placement Services
• Feature name: Workload Balancing
• Automated guest start-up and
management based on defined
policy
• Guests automatically migrate from
one host to another based on
resource usage
• Power-on/off hosts as needed
• Report on utilization of pool
resources – by VM, by host, etc.
More about WLB

Integrated Site Recovery
• Supports LVM SRs
• Replication/mirroring setup outside
scope of solution
ᵒ Follow vendor instructions
ᵒ Breaking of replication/mirror also manual
• Works with every iSCSI and FC
array on HCL
• Supports active-active DR
More about Site Recovery

Delegated Web Based Administration
• Enables:
• IT delegation for administrators
• VM level administration for end users
• Support for multiple pools
• Active Directory enabled
• XenVNC and RDP console access

Live Memory Snapshot and Rollback
• Live VM snapshot and revert
ᵒ Both memory and disk state are
captured
ᵒ Optional quiesce option via VSS
provider (Windows guests)
ᵒ One-click revert
• Snapshot branches
ᵒ Support for parallel subsequent
checkpoints based on a previous
common snapshot

Supporting High Performance Graphics
• Feature name: GPU pass-through
• Enables high-end graphics in VDI
deployments with HDX 3D Pro
• Optimal CAD application support
with XenDesktop
• More powerful than RemoteFX,
virtual GPUs, or other general
purpose graphics solutions

Benefits of GPU Pass-through
With GPU pass-through, hardware
costs are cut up to 75%
GPU cards
XenServer Host
Without GPU pass-through, each user
requires their own Blade PC
More about GPU Pass Through

Controlling Shared Storage Costs – IntelliCache
• Caching of XenDesktop 5 images
• Leverages local storage
• Reduce IOPS on shared storage
• Supported since XenServer 5.6 SP2

IntelliCache Fundamentals
1. Master Image created through
XenDesktop MCS
2. VM is configured to use Master Image
3. VM using Master Image is started
4. XenServer creates read cache object
on local storage
5. Reads in VM being done from local
cache
6. Additional Reads done from SAN
when required
7. Writes will happen in VHD child per
VM
8. Local “write” cache is deleted when
VM is shutdown/restarted
9. Additional VMs will use same read
cache
XenDesktop
NFS Based Storage
Master ImageCache
0011
0101
0011
0101
011
001
0011
0101

Cost Effective VM Densities
• Supporting VMs with up to:
ᵒ 16 vCPU per VM
ᵒ 128GB Memory per VM
• Supporting XenServer hosts with up to:
ᵒ 1TB Physical RAM
ᵒ 160 logical processors
• Yielding up to 150 Desktop images per host
• Included at no cost with all XenDesktop purchases
• Cisco Validated Design for XenDesktop on UCS

Distributed Virtual Network Switching
• Virtual Switch
ᵒ Open source: www.openvswitch.org
ᵒ Provides a rich layer 2 feature set
ᵒ Cross host internal networks
ᵒ Rich traffic monitoring options
ᵒ ovs 1.4 compliant
• DVS Controller
ᵒ Virtual appliance
ᵒ Web-based GUI
ᵒ Can manage multiple pools
ᵒ Can exist within pool it manages
VM
VM
VM
VM
VM

Switch Policies and Live Migration
VM
VM
VM
VM
Linux VM1
•Allow all traffic
Linux VM2
•Allow SSH on eth0
•Allow HTTP on eth1
Windows VM
•Allow RDP and deny HTTP
Linux VM1
Linux VM2
Windows VM
•Allow RDP and deny HTTP
SAP VM
•Allow only SAP traffic
•RSPAN to VLAN 26
Windows VM
Linux VM
Windows VM
SAP VM
•Allow only SAP traffic
•RSPAN to VLAN 26
Linux VM
VM
More about DVSC

Single Root IO Virtualization (SR-IOV)
• PCI Specification for direct IO access
ᵒ Hardware supports multiple PCI ids
ᵒ Presents multiple virtual NICs from single NIC
• Virtual NICs presented directly into guests
ᵒ Minimize hypervisor overhead in high
performance networks
• Not without downsides
ᵒ Requires specialized hardware
ᵒ Can not participate in DVS
ᵒ Does not support live migration
ᵒ Limited number of virtual NICs
Guest
VM
NIC
dom0
Physical
driver
App
VF driver
vSwitch
Guest
VMApp
VF driver
Virtual NIC Virtual NIC
More about SRIOV

NetScaler SDX – Powered by XenServer
• Complete tenant isolation
• Complete independence
• Partitions within instances
• Optimized network: 50+ Gbps
• Runs default XenServer 6

Support for SCVMM
• SCVMM communicates with CIMOM
in XenServer which communicates
with XAPI
• Requires SCVMM 2012
• Very easy to setup
ᵒ Delivered as Integration Suite
Supplemental Pack
ᵒ Add Resource Pool or host
• Secure communication using
certificates

Support for SCOM
• Monitor XenServer hosts through System
Center Operations Manager
• Support for SCOM 2007 R2 and higher
• Part of Integration Suite Supplemental Pack
• Monitor various host information (considered
Linux host)
ᵒ Memory usage
ᵒ Process information
ᵒ Health status

Summary of Key Features and Packages
•High Availability
•Dynamic Memory Control
•Shared nothing live storage migration
•Dynamic Workload Balancing and Power Management
•Web Management Console with Delegated Admin
•Monitoring pack for Systems Center Ops Manager
•Resource pooling with shared storage
•Centralized management console
•No performance restrictions
•Integrated disaster recovery management
•Provisioning services for physical and virtual workloads

vSphere 5.1 and XenServer 6.1 Quick Comparison
Feature XenServer Edition vSphere Edition
Hypervisor high availability Advanced Standard
NetFlow Advanced Enterprise Plus
Centralized network management Free Enterprise Plus
Distributed virtual network switching Advanced Enterprise Plus with Cisco Nexus 1000v
Storage live migration Advanced Standard
Serial port aggregation Not Available Standard
Network based resource scheduling Enterprise Not Available
Disk IO based resource scheduling Enterprise Not Available
Optimized for desktop workloads Yes Desktop Edition is repackaged
Enterprise Plus
Licensing Host based Processor based

Feature Free Advanced Enterprise Platinum
64-bit Xen Hypervisor a a a a
Active Directory Integration a a a a
VM Conversion Utilities a a a a
Live VM Migration with XenMotion™ a a a a
Multi-Server Management with XenCenter a a a a
Management Integration with Systems Center VMM a a a a
Automated VM Protection and Recovery a a a
Live Storage Migration with Storage XenMotion™ a a a
Distributed Virtual Switching a a a
Dynamic Memory Control a a a
High Availability a a a
Performance Reporting and Alerting a a a
Mixed Resource Pools with CPU Masking a a a
Dynamic Workload Balancing and Power Management a a
GPU Pass-Through for Desktop Graphics Processing a a
IntelliCache™ for XenDesktop Storage Optimization a a
Live Memory Snapshot and Revert a a
Provisioning Services for Virtual Servers a a
Role-Based Administration and Audit Trail a a
StorageLink™ Advanced Storage Management a a
Monitoring Pack for Systems Center Ops Manager a a
Web Management Console with Delegated Admin a a
Provisioning Services for Physical Servers a
Site Recovery a
Price Free $1000/server $2500/server $5000/server
XenServer 6.1 – Product Edition Feature Matrix

Subscription Advantage
Citrix Subscription Advantage entitles customers the ability to upgrade to the latest software version for their product
at no additional charge. Support not included.
Renewal Categories
Current:
Renewal SRP
Active memberships
Reinstatement: Renewal SRP + pro-rated renewal for time expired
+ 20% feeMemberships that are expired 1 through 365 days
Recovery:
Recovery SRP
Memberships that are expired more than 365 days
Edition Renewal SRP Recovery SRP
XenServer Platinum $675.00 per SVR $2,800.00 per SVR
XenServer Enterprise $325.00 per SVR $1,400.00 per SVR
XenServer Advanced $130.00 per SVR $560.00 per SVR

Support Options
XenServer Support Options Premier Support
Cost 7% of license cost (SRP)
Product Coverage XenServer Advanced, Enterprise and Platinum
Coverage Hours 24x7x365
Incidents Unlimited
Named Contacts Unlimited
Type of Access Phone/Web/Email
Add-on Service Options
Software or Hardware TRM 200 hours/Unlimited incidents/1region $40,000
Additional TRM hours 100 hours $20,000
Fully Dedicated TRM 1600 hours/Unlimited incidents/1 region $325,000
On-site Days On-site technical support service $2,000 per day
Assigned Escalation 200 hours/1 region (must have TRM) $16,000
Fully Dedicated Assigned Escalation 1600 hours $480,000

It’s Your Budget … Spend it Wisely
• Vendor lock-in great for vendor
• Beware product lifecycles and tool set changes
Single Vendor
• ROI Calculators always show vendor author as best
• Use your own numbers
ROI Can be Manipulated
• Over buying is costly; get what you need
• Support call priority with tiered models
Understand Support Model
• Some projects have requirements best suited to specific tool
• Understand deployment and licensing impact
Use Correct Tool
• Blanket purchases benefit only vendor
• Chargeback to project for feature requirements
Leverage Costly Features as
Required

How GPU Pass-through Works
• Identical GPUs in a host auto-create a GPU
group
• The GPU Group can be assigned to set of
VMs – each VM will attach to a GPU at VM
boottime
• When all GPUs in a group are in use,
additional VMs requiring GPUs will not start
• GPU and non-GPU VMs can (and should)
be mixed on a host
• GPU groups are recognized within a pool
ᵒ If Server 1, 2, 3 each have GPU type 1, then
VMs requiring GPU type 1 can be started on
any of those servers

GPU Pass-through HCL is Server Specific
• Server
ᵒ HP ProLiant WS460c G6 Workstation series*
ᵒ IBM System x3650 M3
ᵒ Dell Precision R5500
• GPU (1-4 per host)
ᵒ NVIDIA Quadro 2000, 4000, 5000, 6000
ᵒ NVIDIA Tesla M2070-Q
• Support for Windows guests only
• Important: Combinations of servers +
GPUs must be tested as a pair

Limitations of GPU Pass-through
• GPU Pass-through binds the VM to host for duration of session
ᵒ Restricts XenMotion and WLB
• Multiple GPU types can exist in a single server
ᵒ E.g. high performance and mid performance GPUs
• VNC will be disabled, so RDP is required
• Fully supported for XenDesktop, best effort for other windows workloads
ᵒ Not supported for Linux guests
• HCL is very important

Enabling IntelliCache on XenServer Hosts
• IntelliCache requires local EXT3 storage, to be selected during XenServer
installation
• If this is selected during installation the host is automatically enabled for
IntelliCache
• Manual steps in Admin guide

Enabling IntelliCache in XenDesktop
• http://support.citrix.com/
article/CTX129052
• Use IntelliCache checkbox when
adding a host in Desktop Studio
• Supported from XenDesktop 5 FP1

IOPS – 1000 Users – No IntelliCache
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NFSOps
NFS Ops (Non-IC)
NFS Read Ops NFS Write Ops

IOPS – 1000 Users – Cold Cache Boot
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NFSOps
NFS Ops (Cold Cache)

IOPS – 1000 Users – Hot Cache Boot
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NFSOps
NFS Ops (Hot Cache)

Limitations of IntelliCache
• Best results achieved with local SSD drives
ᵒ SAS and SATA supported, but spindled disks are slower
• XenMotion and WLB restrictions (pooled images)
• Best practice Local space sizing
ᵒ Expecting 50% cache usage per user + daily log off
ᵒ [real size master image] + #[users per server] * [size master image] * 0,5
ᵒ Cache disk may vary according to VM lifecycle definition (reboot cycle)

IntelliCache Conclusions
• Dramatic reduction of I/O for pooled desktops
• Significant reduction of I/O for assigned desktops
ᵒ Still need IOPS for write traffic
ᵒ Local write cache benefits
• Storage investment much lower – and more appropriate
• Overall TCO 15 – 30 % improvement
• Continued evolution of features to yield better performance and TCO

Components
• Workload Balancing Components
ᵒ Data Collection Manager service
ᵒ Analysis Engine service
ᵒ Web Service Host
ᵒ Data Store
ᵒ XenServer
ᵒ XenCenter
Data Store
XenServer
ResourcePool
XenServer
ResourcePool
Data Collection
Manager service
Web Service Host
XenCenter
Recommendations
Analysis Engine service

Placement Strategies
• Maximize Performance
ᵒ Default setting
ᵒ Spread workload evenly across all
physical hosts in a resource pool
ᵒ The goal is to minimize CPU, memory,
and network pressure for all hosts
• Maximize Density
ᵒ Fit as many virtual machines as
possible onto a physical host
ᵒ The goal is to minimize the number of
physical hosts that must be online

Critical Thresholds
• Components included in WLB
evaluation:
ᵒ CPU
ᵒ Memory
ᵒ Network Read
ᵒ Network Write
ᵒ Disc Read
ᵒ Disk Write
• Optimization recommendation is
being triggered if a threshold is
reached

Reports
• Pool Health
ᵒ Shows aggregated resource usage for a pool. Helps you evaluate the effectiveness of
your optimization thresholds
• Pool Health History
ᵒ Displays resource usage for a pool over time. Helps you evaluate the effectiveness of
your optimization thresholds
• Host Health History
ᵒ Similar to Pool Health History but filtered by a specific host
• Optimization Performance History
ᵒ Shows resource usage before and after executing optimization recommendations

Reports
• Virtual Machine Motion History
ᵒ Provides information about how many times virtual machines moved on a resource pool,
including the name of the virtual machine that moved, number of times it moved, and
physical hosts affected
• Optimization Performance History
ᵒ Shows resource usage before and after executing accepting optimization
recommendations
• Virtual Machine Performance History
ᵒ Displays key performance metrics for all virtual machines that operated on a host during
the specified timeframe

Workload Chargeback Reports
• Billing codes and costs
• Resources to be charged
• Exportable data

Workload Balancing Virtual Appliance
• Ready-to-use WLB Virtual Appliance
• Up and running with WLB in minutes
rather than hours
• Small footprint, Linux Virtual
Appliance
ᵒ ~150Mb

Installation
• Download Virtual Appliance
• Import Virtual Appliance
• Start Virtual Appliance
• Initial setup steps
ᵒ Define steps
• Enable WLB in XenCenter

Details

• Replaces StorageLink Gateway Site
Recovery
• Decoupled from StorageLink adapters
• Supports LVM SRs only in this release
• Replication/mirroring setup outside
scope of solution
ᵒ Follow vendor instructions
ᵒ Breaking of replication/mirror also manual
• Works with every iSCSI and FC array on
HCL
• Supports active-active DR

Feature Set
• Integrated in XenServer and XenCenter
• Support failover and failback
• Supports grouping and startup order through vApp functionality
• Failover pre-checks
ᵒ Powerstate of source VM
ᵒ Duplicate VMs on target pool
ᵒ SR connectivity
• Ability to start VMs paused (e.g. for dry-run)

How it Works
• Depends on “Portable SR” technology
ᵒ Different from Metadata backup/restore functionality
• Creates a logical volume on SR during setup
• Logical Volume contains
ᵒ SR metadata information
ᵒ VDI metadata information for all VDIs stored on SR
• Metadata information is read during failover sr-probe

Integrated Site Recovery - Screenshots

Distributed Virtual Switch
Details

Terminology
• OpenFlow
ᵒ An open standard that separates the control and data paths for switching devices
• OpenFlow switch
ᵒ Could be physical or virtual
ᵒ Includes packet processing and remote configuration/control support via OpenFlow
• Open vSwitch
ᵒ An OSS Linux-based implementation of an OpenFlow virtual switch
ᵒ Maintained at www.openvswitch.org
• vSwitch Controller
ᵒ A commercial implementation of a OpenFlow controller
ᵒ Provides integration with XenServer pools

Core Distributed Switch Objectives
• Extend network management to virtual networks
• Provide network monitoring using standard protocols
• Define network policies on virtual objects
• Support multi-tenant virtual data centers
• Provide cross host private networking without VLANs
• Answer to VMware VDS and Cisco Nexus 1000v

Understanding Policies
• Access control
ᵒ Basic Layer 3 firewall rules
ᵒ Definable by pool/network/VM
ᵒ Inheritance controls VM
VM
VM
VM
VM

• Access control
• QoS
ᵒ Rate limits to control bandwidth VM
VM
VM
VM
VM

• Access control
• QoS
• RSPAN
ᵒ Transparent monitoring of VM level
traffic
VM
VM
VM
VM
VM

What is NetFlow?
• Layer 3 monitoring protocol
• UDP/SCTP based
• Broadly adopted solution
• Implemented in three parts
ᵒ Exporter (DVS)
ᵒ Collector
ᵒ Analyzer
• DVSC is NetFlow v5 based
ᵒ Enabled at pool level

Performance Monitoring
• Enabled via NetFlow
• Dashboard
ᵒ Throughput
ᵒ Packet flow
ᵒ Connection flow
• Flow Statistics
ᵒ Slice and dice reports
ᵒ See top VM traffic
ᵒ Data goes back 1 week

Bonus Features *****
• Jumbo Frames
• Cross Server Private Networks
• LACP
• 4 NIC bonds

Protecting Workloads
• Not just for mission critical
applications anymore
• Helps manage VM density issues
• "Virtual" definition of HA a little
different than physical
• Low cost / complexity option to
restart machines in case of failure

High Availability Operation
• Pool-wide settings
• Failure capacity – number of hosts to
carry out HA Plan
• Uses network and storage heartbeat
to verify servers

VM Protection Options
• Restart Priority
ᵒ Do not restart
ᵒ Restart if possible
ᵒ Restart
• Start Order
ᵒ Defines a sequence and delay to ensure applications run correctly

HA Design – Hot Spares
Simple Design
ᵒ Similar to hot spare in disk array
ᵒ Guaranteed available
ᵒ Inefficient  Idle resources
Failure Planning
ᵒ If surviving hosts are fully loaded – VMs will be forced to start on spare
ᵒ Could lead to restart delays due to resource plugs
ᵒ Could lead to performance issues if spare is pool master
ᵒ If using WLB, need to exclude spare from rebalancing

HA Design – Distributed Capacity
Efficient Design
ᵒ All hosts utilized
ᵒ WLB can ensure optimal performance
Failure Planning
ᵒ Impacted VMs automatically placed for best fit
ᵒ Running VMs undisturbed
ᵒ Provides efficient guaranteed availability

HA Design – Impact of Dynamic Memory
Enhances Failure Planning
ᵒ Define reduced memory which meets SLA
ᵒ On restart, some VMs may “squeeze” their memory
ᵒ Increases host efficiency

HA Design - Preventing Single Point of Failure
• HA recovery may create single points of failure
• WLB host exclusion minimizes impact

HA Enhancements in XenServer 6
• HA over NFS
• HA with Application Packages
ᵒ Define multi-VM services
ᵒ Define VM startup order and delays
ᵒ Application packages can be defined from
running VMs
• Auto-Start VMs are removed
ᵒ Usage conflicted with HA failure planning
ᵒ Created situations when perceived host
recovery wasn’t met

High Availability – No Excuses
• Shared storage the hardest part of setup
ᵒ Simple wizard can have HA defined in minutes
ᵒ Minimally invasive technology
• Protects your important workloads
ᵒ Reduce on-call support incidents
ᵒ Addresses VM density risks
ᵒ No performance, workload, configuration penalties
• Compatible with resilient application designs
• Fault tolerant options exist through ecosystem

Array OS
Snapshotting
Provisioning
Cloning
Leverage Array Technologies
• No file system overlay
• Use Best-of-Breed technologies
ᵒ Thin Provisioning
ᵒ Deduplexing
ᵒ Cloning
ᵒ Snapshotting
ᵒ Mirroring
• Maximize array performance
Hypervisor Filesystem
Snapshotting
Provisioning
Cloning
VM VM VM VM VM
VM VM VM VM VM
Array OS
Snapshotting
Provisioning
Cloning
VM VM VM VM VM
VM VM VM VM VM
Traditional Approach Citrix StorageLink

LUN 600GB
LUN 600GBLUN 600GB
No StorageLink – Inefficient LUN Usage
1 TB storage capacity
Today
Customer request
for 600GB
LUN 600GB
4 weeks
Customer adds 5 VMs
with 50 GB each
8 weeks
Customer adds 5 VMs
with 50 GB each
12 weeks
Customer adds 5 VMs
with 50 GB each

Customer
requests
new
storage
capacity
400 GB free
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
400 GB free
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
400 GB free
LUN 600GB

With StorageLink – Maximize Array Utilization
1 TB storage capacity
Today
Customer request
for 600 GB
4 weeks
Customer adds 5 VMs
with 50 GB each
8 weeks
Customer adds 5 VMs
with 50 GB each
500 GB free
12 weeks
Customer adds 5 VMs
with 50 GB each
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
750 GB free
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
1 TB free 250 GB free

StorageLink – Efficient Snapshot Management
LUN 600GB
400 GB free
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
50GB disk
NO StorageLink
VM Snapshot capacity limited to LUN
size
Snapshot capacity
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
50GB LUN
With StorageLink
VM Snapshot capacity limited storage
pool size
750 GB
350 GB
750 GB free

Integrated StorageLink Architecture
XenServer Host
XAPI Daemon
SMAPI
LVM NFS NetApp
CSLG
Bridge
…
EQL NTAP SMI-S …

Network Performance for GbE with PV drivers
• XenServer PV drivers can sustain peak throughput on GbE
ᵒ However limited to 2.9Gb/s in total
• But XenServer uses significantly more CPU cycles than Linux
ᵒ Less available cycles for application
ᵒ 10GbE networks: CPU saturation in dom0 prevents achieving line rate
• Need to reduce I/O virtualization overhead in XenServer networking

I/O Virtualization Overview – Hardware Solution
• VMDq (Virtual Machine Device Queue)
ᵒ Separate Rx & Tx queue pairs of NIC for
each VM, Software “switch”.
• Direct I/O (VT-d)
ᵒ Improved I/O performance through direct
assignment of a I/O device to a HVM or PV
workload
• SR-IOV (Single Root I/O Virtualization)
ᵒ Changes to I/O device silicon to support
multiple PCI device ID’s, thus one I/O device
can support multiple direct assigned guests.
Requires VT-d.
Network Only
VM exclusively
owns device
One Device, multiple
Virtual Functions

Where Does SR-IOV Fit In?
Technique
Characteristic
Efficiency Hardware Abstraction Applicability Scalability
Emulation Low Very high All device classes High
Para-virtualization Medium High – requires installing paravirtual
drivers on the guest
Block, network High
Acceleration (VMDq) High Medium:
-Transparent to apps
-May require device-specific
accelerators
Network only,
hypervisor dependent
Medium (for
accelerated interfaces)
PCI Pass-through High Low:
-Explicit device plug/unplug
-Device specific drivers
All devices Low
SR-IOV Addresses This

XenServer Solarflare SR-IOV Implementation
Guest
VM
NIC
dom0
Physical
driver
App
VF driver
vSwitch
Guest
VMApp
VF driver
Virtual NIC Virtual NIC
Improved performance, but loss of services
and management (e.g. live migration)
Guest
VM
NIC
dom0
Physical driver
App
Plug-in
driverNetfront
driver
Netback
driver
vSwitch
Virtual NIC
VF
Improved performance AND full
use of services and management
XS & Solarflare SR-IOV ModelTypical SR-IOV Implementation

XenMotion – Live VM Migration
• Requires systems that have compatible CPUs
ᵒ Must be the same manufacturer
ᵒ Can be different speed
ᵒ Must support maskable features; or be of simlar type (e.g. 3450 and 3430)
• Minimal Downtime
ᵒ Generally sub 200 mS; mostly due to network switches
• Requires shared storage
ᵒ VM state moves between hosts; underlying disks remain in existing location

• Systems verify correct storage and network setup on destination server
• VM Resources Reserved on Destination Server
Pre-Copy Migration: Round 1
Source Virtual Machine Destination

• While source VM is still running XenServer copies over memory image to destination server
• XenServer keeps track of any memory changes during this process

• After first pass most of the memory image is now copied to the destination server
• Any memory changes during initial memory copy are tracked

• XenServer now does another pass at copying over changed memory

• Xen still tracks any changes during the second memory copy
• Second copy moves much less data
• Also less time for memory changes to occur

• Xen will keep doing successive memory copies until minimal differences
between source and destination
Pre-Copy Migration

• Source VM is paused and last bit of memory and machine state copied over
• Master unlocks storage from source system and locks to destination system
• Destination VM is unpaused and attached to storage and network resources
• Source VM resources cleared
XenMotion: Final

XenServer Pool
Upgrading VMs from Local to Shared Storage
Local
Storage
FC, iSCSI, NFS SAN
VDI(s)VDI(s)
Live
Virtual
Machine

XenServer Pool
Moving VMs within a Pool with local-only storage
Local
Storage
Local
Storage
Live
Virtual
Machine
VDI(s)VDI(s)

XenServer Pool 2XenServer Pool 1
Moving or rebalancing VMs between Pools (Local  SAN)
Local
Storage
VDI(s)
FC, iSCSI, NFS SAN
VDI(s)
Live
Virtual
Machine

XenServer Pool 2XenServer Pool 1
Moving or rebalancing VMs between Pools (Local  Local)
Local
Storage
Local
Storage
Live
Virtual
Machine
VDI(s)VDI(s)

VHD Benefits
• Many SRs implement VDIs as VHD trees
• VHDs are a copy-on-write format for storing virtual disks
• VDIs are the leaves of VHD trees
• Interesting VDI operation: snapshot (implemented as VHD “cloning”)
• A: Original VDI
• B: Snapshot VDI
A
RW
B
RO
A
RW
RO

VDI Mirroring Flow
SOURCE DESTINATION
mirror
root
VM VM
no color = empty
gradient = live

Benefits of VDI Mirroring
• Optimization: start with most similar VDI
ᵒ Another VDI with the least number of different blocks
ᵒ Only transfer blocks that are different
• New VDI field: Content ID for each VDI
ᵒ Easy way to confirm that different VDIs have identical content
ᵒ Preserved across VDI copy, refreshed after VDI attached RW
• Worst case is a full copy (common in server virtualization)
• Best case occurs when you use VM “gold images” (i.e. XenDesktop)

Xen server 6.1 technical sales presentation

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