Eight key tasks to complete after server virtualization

The wave of virtualization is sweeping the land of China. If you have recently consolidated and virtualized a physical server, you may think that the data center has greatly improved performance. Ideally, this might be the case. However, after virtualization, there are a few things to be aware of, such as backup and prevention of the spread of virtual machines, to ensure that the virtual environment to maintain health and security. In this article, I will describe the eight special tasks that need to be accomplished after the virtualization project is completed in the architecture.

First, you should clear all the stale physical servers that you no longer need. Because one of the reasons you deploy virtualization is to reduce the cost of electricity and cooling, so what's the point of keeping the root causes of these manufacturing problems? Reject the temptation to use these devices for other purposes, as this is incompatible with the purpose of virtualization. Therefore, please unplug its plug, let it expire.

Second, make a reasonable schedule to make it easy to fix the virtual machines frequently. The importance of this measure has been self-evident, and it can be said that it cannot be overemphasized. Virtual machines run many clients, and if a virtual machine is compromised by a patch-free vulnerability, no matter how secure the client's security is, no matter how robust their patches are, they cannot escape the same fate.

Patching the server is more cumbersome than patching up the client because, under normal circumstances, the client needs to be updated (that is, the VM tool) and the host needs to reboot. To make this process easier, the author recommends using automated patch scripts or third-party applications.

Also, be aware of when patches are released. Not all vendors have a fixed patch schedule. It is recommended that you subscribe to the relevant vendor's mail update, so that when a patch is available, you will be able to patch the host at the first time.

Third, watch out for the spread of virtual machines and find some ways to prevent this from happening. There is no simple task, for this kind of work has to happen and develop over a longer period of time. Because virtual machines do not have visible hardware devices like physical machines, it is possible for other administrators in your organization to create them easily. Many administrators think they are free to create a virtual machine as long as they need it.

You know, virtual machines are not really free. Each virtual machine consumes host resources, and the more virtual machines there are, the more resources are spent on the host. Without controlling the spread of virtual machines, the lack of host resources and the bottleneck that can seriously affect all virtual machines is caused. The consequence is that you may end up buying more servers and adding more shared memory, which can cost you a lot of money.

There are ways to prevent the spread of virtual machines. One of these is the implementation of a "concession" system, such as products from foreign products such as Vizioncore vfoglight, which can create resource usage reports for VMware. Microsoft's Hyper-V has the scale of some "concession" systems, but lacks the tools to make it work.

Another option is to limit who can create virtual machines. Designing a formal requestor to create a new virtual machine is a good way to do this, and it's a much more efficient approach than allowing every administrator in the data center to build virtual machines at will. The organization should require the creation of a validation mechanism for the new virtual machine and establish a license so that the user will consider whether it is really necessary to create a new virtual machine.

Finally, it is not only inefficient and time-consuming to back up the virtual environment with traditional methods. Installing the backup agent on each virtual machine and backing up the server through the client operating system not only greatly consumes server resources, but it can also affect all virtual machines running on the host. I recommend the implementation of a Third-party backup product specifically for virtual environments, such as VMware's consolidated backup, which can act as a backup proxy and indirectly back up virtual machines on the host. Of course, there are other ways to back up virtual machines, such as copying or backing up their virtual disk files to other servers or disk storage devices.

V, traditional server management tools and products may not work effectively in a virtual environment because they may not be aware of the hypervisor layer of the underlying virtual host. As a result, the performance metrics of virtual machines may not be accurate because they are not designed for virtual environments.

This problem stems from the basic attributes of virtualization. The client considers itself to be a physical server that can monopolize all the resources of the host. For example, a client with 3GB of memory sees 3GB of memory, but in fact the server manages memory and may use it more efficiently with advanced management technologies such as memory page sharing and memory transfer (memory ballooning) technology. In addition, if the host has insufficient physical memory, it may start using a virtual interchange file to provide the necessary memory for its virtual machine.

In short, as a manager, you know what happens to the virtualization layer, and the traditional performance tools don't. The authors recommend that you use built-in virtual performance and management tools, or you can implement a Third-party application designed specifically for managing virtual environments. This principle also applies to network interconnection, because traditional network management tools often fail to manage virtual networks. Now there are third-party applications that specialize in virtual networks that can monitor and protect virtual switches and the clients that connect to them.

Security is the most important thing in a virtual environment that protects against unauthorized access to a virtual machine. This is a job that cannot be slack, and it requires that appropriate measures be taken to ensure that the environment is protected. This includes the frequent use of security tools to scan the host for configuration and open ports that may weaken host security.

There are plenty of free security scanners available for scanning llinux and Windows hosts. In addition, there are a number of specialized virtualization security applications, such as Configcheck for WMware ESX hosts. Users should monitor the server's log files to see any security-related events that may indicate unauthorized access attempts.

Seven, most virtual host system administrators are Windows or Linux system administrators who assume the responsibility of running a virtual server. Virtual hosts are different from traditional operating systems and require a specific technique to manage them properly. So you should ensure that your virtualization administrator is properly trained and able to handle the work.

You may find it quite easy to install and set up a virtual environment, but when you encounter a difficult problem, it may indicate that your administrator does not have the knowledge and ability to solve the problem quickly. The problems in the virtual environment are magnified because these problems can affect several virtual machines and require administrators to quickly identify and resolve problems. Proper training is an important part of coping with this problem, so be sure to have your organization's administrators trained and continue to educate, because virtualized software changes quickly as new versions and features are released.

Finally, now that you have achieved virtualization, you should continue to look for more ways to drive your investment. Look for opportunities to virtualize other physical servers, because virtual servers have a number of benefits (such as snapshots). To ensure that the virtual machine is fully utilized, but also to retain the necessary performance to enable the host to cope with the failure. You should expect to use at least 70% of the performance of the virtual host. Otherwise, it violates the purpose of virtualization, which is to take full advantage of all the resources on the server and minimize the waste.

If you find yourself using a resource too much and other resources are extremely inefficient, you can consider adding performance to this particular resource. For example, if your CPU utilization is less than 50% and memory utilization is as high as 90%, then you can make full use of other resources if possible by appropriately increasing memory.

Conclusion

As you can see, the work does not end after virtualization has been implemented. By performing the tasks discussed in this article, you can ensure that you have a healthy and secure virtual environment while maximizing the return on your investment in virtualization.