IT@Intel Data Center Blog

Intel IT Deploys Virtualization - How we did it!

BillSunderland — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:58:16 GMT

As this is my first blog on this forum, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Bill Sunderland and I have been working at Intel for 12 years primarily working on Server Hardware Engineering and the last three years of which I have focused my efforts on Program Managing the Virtualization Engineering release for Intel IT. I have recently published a WP demonstrating the methodology used as described below.

Intel IT planned, engineered, and has begun deploying a virtualized business-computing production environment at several data centers, a rollout that will continue through 2008. Our initiative has already confirmed anticipated virtualization benefits such as faster, more automated deployment. We are initially consolidating older servers running applications that are not mission-critical; we see opportunities to achieve 16:1 consolidation ratios.

Click here to read the WP: Implementing Virtualization in a Global Business-Computing Environment

I would be interested in hearing your experiences and/or questions regarding virtualizing IT environments!

Comparing Two- and Four-socket Platforms for Server Virtualization

Sudip Chahal — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:39:46 GMT

The relative positioning of 2 and 4-socket servers for server virtualization has been an open question for a long time - a question that has stumped the most astute of IT professionals time and again. In fact it might not be an exaggeration to say that this open question is almost in the same class as the famous Riemann's hypothesis that has remained unsolved for over a century! (If you accept that premise, then there's some real estate on the moon that I'd like to bring to your attention as well). Although advocates for either class of servers have been emphatic in their respective positions, compelling data-points supporting their positions have been few and far between.

To remedy this sorry state of affairs, an Intel IT team conducted in-depth tests and analysis using current quad-core processor based 2 and 4-socket servers in a virtualized environment. This effort culminated in a comprehensive framework for comparing server platforms for virtualization. This comparative framework encompasses the majority of common deployment scenarios and usage models and answers - once and for all - the long unanswered question "which server is more appropriate for my virtualization project?"

The whitepaper detailing the findings can be found here Comparing Two- and Four-Socket Platforms for Server Virtualization. If time is short, click on the icon below for a short video overview.

Virtualization and the “Datacenter Operating System” of the Future

Sudip Chahal — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:15:00 GMT

Is hypervisor based server virtualization basically a “useful” tactical consolidation “play” or does it form the basis for much more? For several years, server virtualization has been used with good success by many organizations to consolidate legacy workloads as well as to cost-effectively provision test and development virtual machines (VMs). During the same timeframe, there has been significant discussion pertaining to “the datacenter of the future” – a centrally managed “dynamic” datacenter where resources will be dynamically assigned “on demand” to workloads in an agile manner thereby allowing the datacenter operations teams to quickly adapt to fluctuating demands for compute resources. So, “where is the connection?” you ask.

The recently concluded VMworld 2007 may offer some hints. At that conference, VMware Chief Scientist, Dr. Mendel Rosenblum, demonstrated some key capabilities that show where compute virtualization is headed in its evolution to becoming the “datacenter operating system” of the future. Dr. Rosenblum demonstrated “storage live migration” and “lockstep VMs”. Transparent migration of storage “owned” by a VMs from one disk (LUN) to another (potentially on a different storage frame) without impacting application availability was demonstrated in the first demo. He also demonstrated the ability to transparently failover an executing VM to a “secondary” VM – on another host - that has been executing in lockstep with the primary VM! If you did not have a chance to see Dr. Rosenblum’s keynote, a webcast is still accessible here.

Per the VMworld demonstrations mentioned above, the hypervisor based virtualization capability and upcoming hardware assists for virtualization in combination with a “compute virtualization manager” that collectively enable policy-based management of the datacenter including virtualization hosts, VMs, storage is well on its way to evolving to the dynamic “Datacenter OS” of the future. This powerful Datacenter OS of the future – evolved from today’s “tactical” virtualization capabilities - will dynamically manage compute, memory, power, storage and network resources of the Datacenter in an automated, highly efficient manner. Pre-packaged applications in portable VMs will be landed on these dynamic datacenters in a flexible and agile manner.

While the hypervisor based virtualization based evolutionary path may not be applicable to highly specialized datacenters (e.g., HPC), its applicability to Business computing environments is clear. Am I oversimplifying and underestimating the technical challenges (security and scaling to name a few) along this evolutionary path? Probably. Am I glossing over the organizational and business process related challenges? Almost certainly. On the other hand, are all the major building blocks like efficient hypervisors, virtualization hardware assists, VM live migration, storage live migration, power management, record and replay, lockstep VMs…) successfully prototyped or better (in production)? The answer is an emphatic “Yes”. Do you agree or do you forsee insurmountable barriers that will thwart attempts to evolve the virtualization capabilities of today into the dynamic data-center of the future along the lines suggested by the ground-breaking capabilities demonstrated at VMworld? Either way, I’d really like to hear your perspective.

Intel IT 45nm test results

Laurie Buczek — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:48:00 GMT

We wanted to determine whether the adoption of the new Intel 45nm process technology could deliver additional benefits to our data center strategy: Improving virtualization performance while reducing power consumption. Intel IT is using server virtualization to substantially reduce costs associated with underutilized servers such as higher capital, support, maintenance,power and cooling. Watch this video for the recent testing parameters and results found by Rob Carpenter.

For the full details behind the tests and results, read the white paper 45nm Quad-Core Processors for Energy Efficiency
Let us know how you think the 45nm processors would benefit your data center strategy.

Additional white papers on testing we did on the 45nm processors:
Chip Design using 45nm Quad-Core Xeon Processors

Accelerating EDA Application Performance with 45nm Quad-Core Processors

To read the predecessor to the 45nm testing done on the 65nm quad-core, see Rob's blog with video white paper
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The full paperComparing Multi-Core Processors for Server Virtualization

Lastly, a tribute to Rob Carpenter. Without his work, none of this would be possible: Fond Stories Over Coffee: The Passing of a Friend

Intel IT Data Center Efficiency Initiative - Going Green

Brently Davis — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:57:00 GMT

Like most other companies these days, Intel is facing a growing demand for computing resources. As a result, our computing costs are going up along with that demand. All of these issues prompted us to take a hard look at our data center strategy, to see where we could make it more efficient.

Therefore, we’ve launched into a significant undertaking. We’ve started the process to End of Life (EOL) or consolidate our data centers down to just eight strategic locations. This effort is planned to take us eight years, but we’re working to pull this in sooner. This initiative enables us to reduce costs, improve server and storage utilization, create higher density & more energy efficient data centers, and allows us to keep pace with our company’s rapid rate of innovation. The effort could deliver up to $750M in Net Present Value. View my video blog for more information.

I would be interested to hear your comments, questions and have you share with us what your company is doing to drive efficiency within your data centers.