DataCenterVirtualization – bioinformatics servers

Luís Bastião

Frederico Valente

10 October 2010

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Overview Problem description

Requirements

Solutions – Overview Virtualization overview etc Advantages / Disadvantages

Adopted Solution Problems found Network Architecture Backups

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Hardware description Material

Two Servers Supermicro Tsunami

Intel Xeon 2.6GHz (6 Processors per Socket) 2 Sockets per Server

24GB RAM 2 NICs 2 Hard-drives (2TB per disk)

What can we do with it?

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Problem description How to make the best of hardware?

Should not be idling most of the time Must be available to all group elements

What will the group do with the machines? Developing Machines

Provide services Data crushing algorithms

How to cope with the differentiated software needs of the group? Some projects use Linux others Windows. Some are in Java and

databases others require other environments Storage requirements: there is a need to store and share data. Provide network services outside access Some applications are deployed temporarily Should be scalable

Containment: Failure/blunders on a machine should not affect other components.

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Solution: Virtualization To cope with the requirements gathered we

propose a virtualization solution Different environments make use of different Virtual

Machines Some virtual machines provide specific support (NAT,

NAS, Database) Multiple virtual machines running on the same

server

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Solutions Virtualization Solutions

Linux with Vmware ESX Linux with VirtualBox Vmware Infrastructure Xen KVM HyperV Hypervisor VMWare ESXI Hybrid options

Advantages/Disadvantages

CentOS(with Vmware)

CentOS(with VirtualBox)

HyperV Xen Vmware ESXi

Free VMware

limitations OS Independence Suport RAID1 (software) Management Reliability in Vmware ESX

No Support NAS

Performance

Free OS Independence Suport RAID1 (software)

Performance

Management

Reliability

Paid OS

Dependence Generic

Windows Drivers

Hosted in OS (Windows 2008) Reliability Management Performance

Free OS

Dependence Generic

Linux Drivers No support Reliability

Management

Free Vmware

limitations OS Independence Optimized for certain hardware Reliability Management Performance

No support NAT

No Support NAS

No Support FakeRAID

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AND ADOPTED SOLUTION IS..

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VMware ESXi

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Problems found Using ESXi in two servers

Does not support access to native storage in Virtual Machines

Does not provide Network Address Translation (NAT) for Virtual Machines

Servers have FakeRAID (Just supported by software)

Public IP distribution is currently a problem in IEETA Network

How to solve the problem?

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Testing, Drafting, Testing, Annoying, Doing Noise.....

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Network Infrastructure

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NATer Virtual NATer

pFSense: A FreeBSD based NAT solution Virtual Machine

Easy to configure through a web interface

DHCP Server 192.168.1.0/24 Provide internal network with IP’s based on Virtual MAC

Address

Port forwarding enables VMs to provide services to the outside network. 193.136.171.33 + Port

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FakeRAID and Backup Policies Adaptec Controller does not provide RAID in a

transparent way (requires software drivers) RAID drivers depend on the operative system and

they are not available for all platforms ESXi does not support drivers

Solution: Periodic backup of virtual machines The restore was tested and works perfectly.

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NAS (Network Access Storage) ESXi does not supply a SAN (Storage Area Network) in

Free Edition Raw device mapping

Solution: Create a Virtual Machine with large storage area proving NAS functionality FreeNAS

Access through: CIFS/Samba FTP HTTP NFS APF Etc.

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Management Virtual Machines Administrator use VMware Vsphere CLI

Just for Windows SSH for Hypervisor VMware Power CLI (Console) Virtual Network Management

Access for administration server Console Configure Network Create/Remove Virtual Machines Browse datastore Performance analysis

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Do not forget.. Enable virtualization VT-d (BIOS)

Better IO performance under virtualization

Enable Power On in Boot Features When servers miss power and it returns, servers will

start automatically.

Enable SSH

Accessible IP for Management Network

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Last steps..

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DEMO – VSPHERE IN ACTION