Set up virtualization server

Virtualization simplifies administration as well as reduces costs. This article will guide you how to choose the server and software for virtualization.
By using a physical server to run multiple virtualization servers, you can reduce operating costs as well as investment costs.

Set up virtualization server
 
Virtualization simplifies administration as well as reduces costs. This article will guide you how to choose the server and software for virtualization.
By using a physical server to run multiple virtualization servers, you can reduce operating costs as well as investment costs.

Currently, it is almost impossible to buy servers that are not multi-core, but many small businesses (less than 100 employees) require servers that do not need to be so powerful. However, if you follow the above requirements, it is likely that small businesses will be equipped with physical servers that are expensive, less efficient, and more energy efficient. That's why it's a good idea to buy multi-core servers - with 4, 6 or even 12 cores on one processor - to host virtualized servers, suitable for all sizes of businesses.

Select the host

Decides the success of the server virtualization in a smaller-scale environment starting with the host. Although it will be responsible for hosting dozens of virtual servers, it requires less CPU resources than you think.

Depending on the virtualization software (such as the hypervisor), you will be able to run the virtualization server on a 4 or 6-core CPU. The reason is that most virtual servers are running almost idle for most of the time. As the server virtualization begins to run, its resources tend to divide up into CPU, RAM, hard disk, and network I / O, where only a few virtual servers require significant CPU resources. By taking advantage of this, you can closely coordinate multiple physical servers on the same single host.

However, for database servers, many unsuitable data downloads are installed on the server virtualization. It all depends on the hardware resources on the host, virtualization software features, and also depending on the rules of the virtual server. Establishing and testing these requirements before implementation is not too difficult.

Choose a hardware, a principle to remember is to choose multi-core CPU and a large clock speed for the host; If you choose between 4 quad-core CPUs at 2.93GHz and 6 or 12GHz CPUs at 2.4GHz, you should choose 6 or 12 cores. Because the ability to split virtual server load on multi-core CPUs is faster, performance is more synchronized across all virtual servers.

RAM and hard disk

Virtualization hosts can always use more system memory (RAM), so get as much RAM as possible, and choose the fastest RAM possible. On the other hand, the allocation of RAM is also much tougher than the CPU. The more RAM you have, the more virtual servers you can have.

In a smaller environment, you may not need network storage or storage devices over the network to store server virtualization images, as the host will be responsible for this work. In that case, as many hard disks as possible. As a general rule, SATA drives running RAID 5 or RAID 6 are sufficiently responsive, although SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) drives provide more efficient performance.

Virtualization software

You have many free software options. Free VMware Server running on Windows or Linux. Virtualization software needs the operating system to provide the main requirements for operation and they are easy to install and use. If you want to completely free, install Linux on the server and run the VMware Server on Linux. If not, install Windows Server 2003 or 2008 and run the VMware Server on Windows.

VMware has a free version of VMware ESXi. This version is built on the basis of a stable, vpware VMware, but VMware ESXi has some hardware compatibility issues, check the hardware compatibility at find.pcworld.com/70448.

Microsoft's Hyper-V is probably better for a network running Windows. Technically, Hyper-V is not free, as it requires the purchase of Windows Server 2008 R2, but Hyper-V has a simple interface and is well integrated into the operating system. If the server is running on a Windows Server 2008 host, you may be thinking of buying a license. Get Windows Server 2008 R2 to run 4 virtual Windows Server 2008 servers, with just one license.

You can also choose other options, such as Citrix XenServer. This free version may not be the same as the free version of VMware, such as managing multiple servers. XenServer is not as trendy as other softwares, but it is free to download and install, and does not rely on operating systems or operating system licenses.

Network card

In many cases, the physical server uses only one or two network adapters to support the entire virtualization environment, but if the network switch (switch) allows you to include the connection to increase the bandwidth for the virtual server very good. Bundling two or more gigabit network cards, lets you create a larger virtual network card, with more support