May 9th, 2007 [by Doug Alder]
This is the way the world is going, . In our previous post we hit upon a couple of ways virtualization (Called DDS or Dynamic Dedicated Services at RackForce) can benefit server system administrators. Here are some more:
- – traditionally, moving from one RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)configuration to a different one is difficult and fraught with danger. It is easy to lose all your data when going from say a RAID 1 to a RAID 5 configuration. In a virtual server with hardware RAID this ceases to be a problem as the RAID array is at the hardware level and exists outside of your virtual environment. Switching RAID levels in this instance only requires moving the virtual environment to the new hardware.
- : the same reasoning that applied in the RAID solution above also applies to any other hardware change. Simply move the environment to the new hardware then reset its resource parameters to reflect any changes. This vastly increases flexibility for sysadmins as it reduces labor costs as well as the length of time a change/upgrade takes. It also lowers the chance of something going wrong in the move to practically zero.
- Simplicity of backup/restore. Backing up your data is a simple matter of creating an image of your virtual environment. Your .vhd (Virtual Hard Drive)file can then be easily stored and retrieved from the SAN
- Multiple OS on the same hardware, each sand-boxed in its own environment and running simultaneously
Since we handle hundreds of customer issues, changes and upgrades every week we continually see the value of this approach. If you have a DDS server you likely have already experienced its benefits and your comments would be appreciated. DDS is a RackForce strategy with the goal of delivering “On Demand” services for everything the company does. In our next blog post you will read Part I of the Roadmap so you can gain a more in depth understanding of how your Infrastructure Provider (RackForce) will give you the best opportunity for success.
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