ESX on Demand
The challenge is that all of this has to be pre-defined and to some extent preallocated. Infrastructure Virtualization solutions, like those from Scalent Systems allows you to create an ESX on Demand environment. With Infrastructure Virtualization you could have a box connected to the network either turned off or being used for test purposes. When the time comes to perform maintenance on the ESX Server, you could power on the idle box, make your SAN and IP network connections to the appropriate resources that the Virtual Machines are using, reboot the server and have it boot ESX. From there you are ready to transfer over the Virtual Machines and perform maintenance on the original ESX Server. Once the maintenance is done simply transfer the Virtual Machines back over to it and power down the Temporary ESX Server or redeploy back into its test environment.
Infrastructure Virtualization allows you to do all of this without leaving your chair, requiring no physical cable movement and most of the above process can be automated. Making the case even more compelling, this capability not only works with VMware but should work with almost all the hyper-visor environments available.
For more details on Infrastructure Virtualization, see our articles:
SearchVMware
July 17th, 2008
Storage Switzerland
eWeek
Overcoming Infrastructure Virtualization Myths
May 8th, 2008
SearchServer Virtualization
Virtualization brings data center flexibility, not just savings
March 20, 2008
Byte and Switch
B&S: Server Virtualization's Next Step
January 25, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
VMotion, VMware's ability to move a Virtual Machine from one ESX Host to another ESX Host, has a lot of uses in the Data Center, but most of the time it is used for performing routine maintenance and possibly for redistributing preference loads. The challenge is that this feature creates a lot of networking issues in the Data Center. LUNS must only be matched to their VM's but any ESX server that you want to have as a potential landing zone for the VMotioning of a Virtual Machine must be able to see and have access to that LUN. Even in an environment where you have two ESX Servers, each with 10 Virtual Machines, this can be daunting. Multiply that by 10 ESX Servers, each with 10 Virtual Machines and to have the ability to move from a Virtual Machine to any ESX Host, requires over 100 pre-defined storage connections.
