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2 Replies Last post: Oct 8, 2008 3:59 PM by Bob Albers  
Bob Albers
Bob Albers
4 posts since
Sep 18, 2008  
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Sep 18, 2008 8:17 PM

Can we virtualize everything? Do you have "non-virtualize-able" applications?

Can we virtualize all server applications?

 

Perception: "Non-virtualize-able" Applications

 

 

  • Mission Critical

  • Transaction Latency Sensitive

  • CPU Intensive: Single Thread vs. Multi-Thread

  • Memory Intensive: Size/Throughput/Latency

  • I/O Intensive: Disk/Network; Throughput/Latency

 

Perception: Virtualization impacts all of the above. Therefore: These types of applications "can't be virtualized" because the tradeoffs are too severe. Is this Perception or Reality?

 

An example from a recent Proof-of-Concept engineering effort with the Electronic Sports League (ESL):

 

 

  • Mission Critical Game Servers

  • Transaction Latency Sensitive

  • Single Thread CPU Intensive

 

ESL thought that it "can't be virtualized" but were very motivated to try due to server sprawl, costs, power & OpEx concerns.

 

The results?

 

 

  • No impact on mission critical transaction latency!

  • 18:1 consolidation ratio

  • Power savings of $648,000 per year for each group of 1000 servers converted!

 

*"The new Six-Core Intel® Xeon® 7400 series processors ("Dunnington") were completely overwhelming in all terms. The Intel Xeon MP servers with Intel VMDq technology enable us to efficiently run our servers with reduced costs and without any negative impacts." *

 

*-Bjoern Metzdorf+ Director Information Technology, Electronic Sports League *+

 

  • **See the VMworld presentation PO3435 posted in the resources section for more details. Also see the video posted. *

 

 

Do you have "non-virtualize-able" applications? Perhaps we can help with the latest technology solutions.

Tags: xeon_7400-series, vmdq, virtualization, consolidation, datacenter_efficiency, case_study, innovation, eco-technology, datacenter, data_center, xeon_mp, xeon_7400, nic, vmware, netqueue, esx
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keith elshout  
keith elshout
1 posts since
Sep 28, 2008
Currently Being Moderated
1. Sep 28, 2008 5:33 PM in response to: Bob Albers
Re: Can we virtualize everything? Do you have "non-virtualize-able" applications?

if you read the blurb you can virtualise everything. the reality is if you have two applications that want the same resource all of the time you are introducing a contention and you will see a problem. It will work but not in the way you like. So that said if you have an app that hits the disk hard all day every day I would say this is an un virtualisable app as more often than not your other apps would like some time with the disk.

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Bob Albers  
Bob Albers
4 posts since
Sep 18, 2008
Currently Being Moderated
2. Oct 8, 2008 3:59 PM in response to: keith elshout
Re: Can we virtualize everything? Do you have "non-virtualize-able" applications?

 

I agree that resource contention will still occur if you have, for example, 2 very disk intensive VMs on the same physical machine. If we intelligently allocate these VMs to different physical resources then they should work OK.

 

 

The notion I was getting at is whether certain applications can be virtualized at all given the overheads & limitations of virtualization. I'd be interested to hear about any "can't be virtualized" applications, assuming that they are the only VM running on the physical host so that there is no direct resource contention issues like the above case.

 

 

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