Originally published on May 3, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.
If you're still living in the world of VMWare ESX 3.x, it's time to pack up and move to version 4.1. The move to 4.0 was important as a stepping stone to a new architecture. Upgrading to vSphere 4.1 and ESX 4.1, however, brings some real, practical improvements to your large firm's IT environment, and is entirely worth the effort. In this issue of BigLaw I'll focus on the storage-related reasons for upgrading — but there are many other reasons to upgrade (improved manageability, enhanced availability functions, additional networking capabilities, etc.).
Don't work in your firm's IT department and never heard of VMWare's ESX? Chances are your firm uses software from VMWare — most likely its ESX server OS. It's virtualization software, which enables you to run multiple "virtual" servers on a single "real" (hardware) server.
This technology helps ensure the availability of servers (and their hosted applications), helps prolong the life of aging application servers (which can be easily "virtualized" with the VMWare Converter), and can make all servers more easily upgradeable (since they aren't tied to a particular set of proprietary hardware). ESX ultimately reduces the number of physical servers you need to buy, the electricity you consume, and the number of physical servers you have to keep in fighting condition.
Servers are much more expensive than desktop PCs and laptops but they depreciate just as quickly so ESX can save law firms lots of money. And it can even host virtual desktops for users throughout your firm — to save you even more money and make your computing environment centrally manageable.
What You Should Know Before Upgrading to ESX 4.X (vSphere)
1. Check the HCL First
If you have old host hardware in place, and plan to install the new kernel onto it, please check the HCL first. (I can confirm that my aging DL385s did not take kindly to 4.0 — even though they had served me for many years, through many versions of ESX — going back to the storied ESX 1.5.2 days.) Typically, the HCL for VMWare is ever-expanding and not contracting, but they did drop some older technologies with the advent of vSphere — so do check into this before you upgrade.
2. No more ESX Without the "i"
ESX is the thicker-kerneled, non-"Hypervisor" version of vSphere. VMWare has announced that after 4.1:
"Future major releases of VMware vSphere will include only the VMware ESXi architecture."
That's right. Hypervisor only from here on out. If you don't want to upgrade a second time again in short order, take the time to go to ESXi now. But don't be afraid. It's not a bad thing. And it's not as if they're making you boot the ESXi kernel from SAN or anything. You can keep your internal hard drives if you want. That said ...
3. Mind Your Scripts
If you created any fancy scripts that operates inside the ESX kernels of your individual hosts, please build out an ESXi host soon and determine if said scripts are still needed. If so, they will need to be accommodated differently. Also, if you have a nice book of recipes/favorite esxcfg-etc commands for performing basic operations inside the old ESX kernel, you'll need to acclimate to the new world.
Fortunately, in their efforts to make the kernel as small and unobtrusive as possible, VMWare has also provided some useful tools to assist in the management of your host environment. One such tool is the vSphere CLI 4.1 (updated version of the Command Line Interface that first came out back in 2009 — installable in Windows, Linux, and also included as part of the new vMA). Another is an updated vSphere Management Assistant (downloadable, pre-installed and pre-loaded virtual machine that integrates painlessly into your environment).
vSphere ESX 4.1 Storage Improvements
Okay, I'm done with the advisories so now it's on to the good stuff! And please note that I've included highlights only here, as there are too many improvements to list in this short column. For more details, you can read VMWare's (very accessible) overview of these enhancements.
1. Lower CPU Loads Using the New Software ISCSI Initiator
More of the hardware CPU that you're paying for will be used by the running of the virtual machines themselves, and less will be consumed to handle the underlying I/O. In addition, there are now new offerings for hardware offload of I/O including support of HCL-approved ISCSI-aware Broadcom 10 GB NICs!
Of course, you must have some seriously high I/O loads if you need dedicated 10 GB NICs to handle them! Please email me if you support an environment that just can't get it done with 1 GB ISCSI ports — I'm very curious to hear your story! I know what you're thinking: "But the 10 GB NICS are better!" True. And a Formula 1 race car has a higher top speed than your Audi, but when will you ever have a chance to drive over 200 MPH?
2. Pluggable Storage Architecture
vSphere introduced the PSA (Pluggable Storage Architecture). In short, what was once handled by VMWare via their own proprietary software (e.g., VMWare's Native Multipathing Plugin) can now be provided by your storage vendor. One game-elevating way that Dell has taken advantage of this new extensibility is through its HIT/VE — a downloadable virtual appliance that enables a robust integration between your Equallogic SAN arrays and your vSphere environment.
Hitkit integration into the VI Client enables "right-click" functionality for the following (and more): Resizing datastore volumes, creating smart copies, creating smart copy replicas, creating clones, creating and modifying replica schedules. Gone are the days of a separate UI for the VMWare-aware Auto Snapshot Manager functions of your Dell Equallogic hitkit.
3. MPIO Plugin
This is one of the chief ways that your storage vendor can take advantage of the new PSA. Download a plugin from your storage vendor (Dell, EMC, NetApp) to provide improved multipath functionality and performance for your virtual environment. Equallogic's MEM (Multipathing Extension Module), for example, can be installed manually, using the vSphere Management Assistant, or by importing the package into Update Manager's Patch Repository. Once installed, it uses what it knows about your Equallogic array(s) to provide finer control over such functions as Path Selection and even i/o throttling when resource levels have been set.
4. Storage I/O Control (SIOC)
You've been able to pull the levers on resources so that your business critical virtual machines get their share of I/O resources — on whatever host happens to be hosting that virtual machine at that time. But this capability is now extended to an awareness of all I/O connections throughout the vCenter environment, and will throttle and allocate i/o resources across all hosts.
5. Virtual Disk Thin Provisioning
Enough said.
Convinced Yet?
I hope so. And really, if you have the time, read the documentation available via the links from this article and you'll see that I wasn't kidding when I said I was only going to scratch the surface. Take your ESX environment to vSphere 4.1 as soon as you can. You'll be glad you did.
Written by Matthew Berg, Director of IT at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C..
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