A new addition to this blog

Just a quick note to let all our readers know that as of this week this blog will not be limited to the experiences we have migrating to VMWare Virtual Infrastructure but that we have started a project to implement VMWare Virtual Desktop Infrastructure for our outsourced development team in India.

As it has been very hard to find solid business case information for a proper scale VDI implementation (which was the reason for starting this blog in the first place) we will be pioneering some. I have had some nice and informative replies on a topic on the VMWare forums but also found that others are looking into VDI but have the same problem as we do.

Hopefully the addition of the VDI project will be a worthy addition to this blog.

Oracle 10g Grid Control and AS servers virtualized

Also yesterday we converted our Oracle 10g Grid Control server. This is the server that we use for managing our Oracle databases and to which all these servers write their backup and archiving data (in practice: all servers have their \archive and \backup folders mounted to the management server).

As this server was still using direct attached storage the bulk of the conversion time went into copying all the backup data to the designated storage tier. Then the machine was PowerConverted and the backup and archive mounts on the database servers refreshed.

This morning we noticed that the machine was using just 11% of the allocated 3GB so we slashed that be 50%.

A much easier conversion was that of an Oracle AS (Application Server) server. This was just PowerConverted without problems. This morning we decided to shrink the memory allocated to that machine from 3GB to 1GB as it was just using 6% of it’s memory.

Both GSX Servers migrated

As of yesterday we have no more GSX Server running as all virtual machines from the second GSX Server were migrated with VMWare Importer to the VI. Nothing real special during the migration as we tend to make it easy for ourselves.

Because we used Linux as operating system for our GSX server we just install a Samba server so the engineer doing the migrations can make a local share on his laptop (running Vista in this case). Then it’s just a question of copying an converting the machines.

Virtualizing a domain controller

The topic seems hot on the VMWare forums. One of the better posts I found in the Strategy & Planning section (forum post, this post started because of this post). That got me thinking about a DC that we put online just before Christmas and we found out that it wasn’t functioning properly.

We were able to fix the problem (the NTP Client on the ESX Server wasn’t running and because of that the DC wasn’t getting the right timing from our NTP server) and everything is running fine now. So in the end: if you put the DC in “Server mode” in stead of “Client mode” (which is the same as flipped the registry key mentioned in the first forum thread) and make sure your NTP Client is running on the ESX server than there is nothing to prevent you from not virtualizing your DC’s.

We are taking it slowly though. Our dedicated Exchange Global Catalog will remain a physical box for the time being and we will probably let the Primary Domain Controller be a physical box. (edit 04/01/07 - 17:17 — in this case I don’t mean the PDC as in the NT4 terminology, just to keep one main DC in physical form)

In my search for additional information I found some links that might be interesting:

• Microsoft KB article on virtual DC: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888794
  • This article also refers to VMWare, not only MS Virtual Server
• The VMWare Whitepaper on timekeeping
  • It’s something you will find pretty soon as it’s the first hit in Google if you search on “vmware virtual domain controller”

The migration continues

Now that the cluster is complete and everybody is back from the holidays we can continue with our migrations.

First on the list is to clear out one of our VMWare GSX Servers with 15 VM’s on it and start with the Oracle database servers on Linux. We have already done several Oracle machines that were on Windows and one on Red Hat Linux so we are not expecting any problems there.

This all starts next week so expect the regular updates to pick up then.

New hosts online, project cluster complete

And with this I wish you all a very happy New Year and good luck on all your virtualization projects. May it work out as well for you as it for us.

To continue the festive spirit we received some gifts from HP just before Christmas: the new DL585G2’s we ordered. And yesterday and today they were fully configured and have found a place in one of our racks next to their older brothers.

Truly impressive machines these G2’s and HP have made some great strides in the layout of the machines. Also for maintenance they are much more engineer-friendly as they don’t have to come all the way out of the rack to replace a CPU or to add memory. You can see something of it on the pictures below (click for larger view) or have a look at the Quickspecs @ HP.com. In effect the whole CPU / memory assembly slides out forward out of the machine after removing to large coolers. This way you can pull the server out half way in stead of with the G1 which needs to be out all the way to open the top lid so that also means less risk of stress on the rail kit.

                           

I know it was mentioned on the VMWare forums: you can not VMotion between a G1 and a G2 without CPU masking. We will work around this for a short time while we get another two 585G2’s and move the G1 servers to a VDI cluster that we are planning.