Webcast: Sun Virtualization Technologies
Learn more about Sun virtualization technologies in a webcast with accompanying slide presentation by Hugo Rivero, senior staff engineer in the Partner group at Sun, who discusses problem issues in the data center and how virtualization can resolve many of today’s challenges.
The general problem facing what is termed the traditional data center is that they have been stocked with many small servers, which are dedicated to a single function (web server, database server, email server, etc.), and are not being utilized to their full capacity. Rivero says in many data center assessments, utilization may be as low at five percent.
To simply define what virtualization is, a single system is used and an illusion is created that there are multiple systems by providing an image up to the applications. There are many different ways to create virtualization - from hard partitions to very light-weight research management control. The main difference is in how flexible these solutions are in terms of assigning the resources and how isolated they are in terms of the applications.
“It is not a one-size fits all,” Rivero says. “People need to pay close attention to what their own individual needs are and based on that make a good decision. Fortunately, there are a lot of solutions within the industry from Sun and other vendors that can address this problem in different ways.”
In this presentation, Rivero breaks down the variations of virtualization into four solution categories:
1) Hard partitions: Implemented mostly in hardware seen in mid-range to high-end SMP servers.
Sun solutions: Dynamic System Domains and Dynamic Domains
2) Virtual machines: Physically run multiple instances of an operating system and different flavors, if desired.
Sun solutions: Logical Domains, VirtualBox, xVM Server
3) OS virtualization: A single version of the OS is run and the OS has some kind of virtualization capabilities.
Sun solutions: Solaris Containers, Solaris Trusted Extensions, Solaris Containers for Linux Applications, Solaris 8 Migration Assistant, now known as Solaris 8 Containers
4) Resource Management: Very light-weight and not considered full virtualization.
Sun solution: Solaris Resource Manager
To find out specifically what these virtualization technologies and solutions do and how they work in varying situations, tune in to the Sun Engineering Webcast Series: Sun Virtualization Technologies. The presentation is a little over 25 minutes.
Tags: virtualization