Virtual Network Management faces multiple challenges

Virtual Network Management faces multiple challenges

The advantages of virtualization have always been obvious. It can improve the efficiency of servers, computing and network capacity, and reduce investment. However, despite the obvious advantages of virtualization, it brings new challenges to the data center personnel responsible for managing the virtual network. In addition, it meets and maintains the performance of end users and protects important data.

Virtualization allows you to run multiple virtual machines (VMS) on one server at the same time, and then each virtual machine can run a complete operating system environment and applications. Therefore, virtualization can improve the server CPU usage. Virtual machines can be migrated from one server to another without interrupting the processing.

In the past, adding applications or adding capacity to an existing environment usually requires buying a new server and installing and configuring a new system on the new server. Through virtualization, the administrator can start more virtual machines on the server to expand the capacity.

An important problem: Eliminating the spread of virtual machines

Although simplifying the creation of virtual machines can facilitate the Administrator's work, it also brings some challenges. It takes some time and money to order and install a new server. However, virtual machines can be created quickly without additional costs. Therefore, it is easy to create virtual machines at will.

In addition, virtualization created for short-term tasks may remain running after the task is completed. The result is the spread of virtual machines. If you do not manage these virtual machines, these virtual machines will consume a lot of resources and thus cannot provide more useful services.

This requires the Administrator to develop a virtual machine creation policy to carefully balance the Rapid Response of end user requests and the appropriate audit and check requirements. We must use an automated method to determine and disable virtual machines that have completed the task.

Management software vendors have launched some products to handle the spread of virtual machines. The Administrator must select an integration method to record the requestor and review of each virtual machine while providing the Virtual Machine creation process. When the automated process detects an idle virtual machine, the administrator can coordinate with the requester to determine whether the virtual machine is still needed.

Maintain the expected performance of end users

Deleting unnecessary VMS is only one of the challenges. Tracking and maintaining the performance of virtual machines to deliver services to end users is another challenge. The Virtualized Data Center supports multiple services, all of which share the processing resources of servers and network links.

Because there is no simple and feasible way to predict future problems, it is difficult for the virtual network administrator to find a tool to predict the impact on the environment after adding a service. There may still be enough capacity, but many applications will increase the load in a specific period of time, and the total load will continue to grow.

The bigger challenge is that it is also very difficult to find the root cause of the problem when a problem occurs. The overlapping effects of other services increase the difficulty because they may share the same server, storage resources, or network links with the affected services.

The Administrator may find that some methods that previously worked to solve the problem have now become invalid-a new solution is needed. The old applications and network monitoring tools will display information about each server, switch, and network link. There are multiple virtual environments that may compete for resources. As a result, technicians cannot find a quick solution.

The Administrator does not need to view each element, but only needs to check the overall running status of the service. The end-to-end delay will prolong the processing time of each virtual machine, and the queuing between each link will increase the delay, and the database access will also increase the delay. Determining the delay time requires checking all components that constitute the service.

Fortunately, some management tools can provide such a top-down view. They generate a time-ordered record for each component that constitutes the service and list its performance. By comparing performance records, the administrator can determine which component is slowing down. Once the root cause of the problem is identified, the virtual machine can be migrated from a server or link with a high load to another location.

Important data protection work becomes increasingly difficult

In addition to sharing one server with multiple virtual machines and migrating virtual machines, the benefits of virtualization are also affected by the increased risk. We must carefully control the access permissions of employees, restrict access to specific applications, and prevent them from accessing other applications running on the same server.

It is not enough to install firewall and intrusion prevention products on the link connecting the data center to the external environment and servers. We also need to protect the virtual switches that connect different virtual machines on a server.

If a malware successfully attacks the hypervisor responsible for managing virtual machines on the server, it may affect all virtual machines. The Administrator must select and install a security platform that can be applied to the hypervisor.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard that supervises credit card information includes detailed provisions on managing credit card data security in a virtual environment. In protected areas, the processing and storage of such data must be limited. Other operations are not allowed in the protected area. Administrators must control these locations to strictly control the migration of virtual machines. They are not allowed to remove any virtual machines from the boundary of the protected area.

The Administrator is responsible for solving the challenges of virtualization, but also needs to pay attention to more problems that may be encountered in the future. SDN naturally changes the way network data transmission paths are selected. After network equipment suppliers and early adopters have implemented their own SDN solutions, network administrators also need to follow up on development, carefully select technical solutions, and then adjust their own data centers, in order to make it enjoy the benefits of this topology.