Join this webcast, August 17 at 10AM Pacific, to learn about a new technology for virtual machine connectivity.
What’s the next big step towards a fully virtualized data center? Join this webcast for a look forward. The webcast overview is below. (Register here.)
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Join this webcast to learn about new technologies that connect virtual machines to networks and storage more flexibly and with higher bandwidth than ever before.
Webcast: VM Connectivity Without the Pain of Network Management
Date: August 17, 10AM Pacific
Duration: 30 min plus 15 min live Q&A
Attend this webcast to learn how to:
Manage VM connectivity without the pain of traditional network management
Dramatically increase data throughput
Establish isolated connections across the data center in seconds
Eliminate the pain of legacy network management and get 4X more performance. Attend this webcast for the inside scoop and learn about exciting new solutions from Xsigo. (Register here.)
Experience virtual I/O management right now. Log into this simulator (click here to log in) and manage virtual I/O in a small data center environment. You’ll see how intuitive — and fast — it is to manage virtual I/O vs. the traditional route.
Try the Xsigo XMS management interface. Manage I/O in a simulated data center environment. Click above to log in.
Virtual I/O should be managed differently from conventional I/O. When all network and storage connections are defined in software, you have new possibilities to dynamically create, monitor, and visualize resources.
Try it yourself and you’ll see.
This simulator is the actual Xsigo management interface operating within a simulated data center. You’re free to explore the UI. Deploy storage and network connections, define templates, monitor performance, etc. It’s all there.
Want to experience virtual I/O on your iPad? There’s an app for that!
Xsigo has released a simulator that lets you try virtual I/O in a 30 server data center using your iPad. (access the simulator here)
This is a simulator version of Xsigo’s actual iPad-based management tool, so everything you do is identical to the way you’d manage Xsigo virtual I/O in an actual data center.
Try it for yourself and see how easy it is to create new connectivity, establish connections to networks and storage, and then monitor performance.
Just as server virtualization re-defined server management, virtual I/O enables entirely new thinking about the infrastructure. Once you separate the physical management tasks (configuring the cards, cables, switches) from the logical tasks (provisioning of resources), it’s incredible what becomes possible:
Complex, repetitive tasks become single, high-level commands
Fixed infrastructures become dynamic
Problem resolution becomes a software exercise that can be done from any where
In Xsigo’s new management interface, called XMS 3.0, two new concepts capitalize on the power of virtual I/O. These new concepts are resource clouds and I/O templates.
This video provides a quick demo of the cloud concept, but just to set the stage here are two definitions:
Resource clouds: A “cloud” defines a storage or network destination, such as a production network or a SAN storage device.
Connectivity templates: A “template” lets you fully characterize the connectivity required by a specific server type (such as a “web server”). You define both the destinations (the network and storage clouds), and all functional aspects of the connections, such as the needed bandwidth and availability. When that template is applied to a server or group of servers, those devices immediately gain access to the needed resources, with the connectivity parameters you’ve specified.
How does a private cloud architecture change your server I/O? This is an important question if you’re looking at moving to a fully virtualized data center. Because the decisions you make today about how to connect your servers will directly impact your application performance and your ability to fully leverage your assets down the road.
Take a quick look at this video. Then read below for two new features from Xsigo that deliver scalable management and 4X the performance of 10G Ethernet.
Cloud deployments up the ante for server I/O in at least two ways.
Cloud Requirement: More I/O Bandwidth
Server bandwidth demands have changed… a lot. When Xsigo introduced 10Gb server connections three years ago, our customers though that was plenty. And it was… for the servers and software they had then. A year later, Xsigo’s launch of 20Gb connections again provided ample headroom. But now customers tell us they want more. And there are at least three good reasons for this.
1)IT managers now want to virtualize more applications, including Exchange, and database. These I/O-intensive applications, previously considered taboo for virtualization, are more and more becoming fair game.
2) There are now more VMs per server. It used to be “five VMs per server,” then ten. Now 20 VMs per server is pretty common. This increased loading directly increases I/O requirements.
3) The hardware and software are more capable. Nehalem and vSphere tripled your I/O capacity vs. the previous generation products. That’s huge. If you’re still operating with the same old pipes out of the server, that may be your bottleneck.
The bottom line is that bandwidth needs are much higher today.
NEW 40Gb Server Links
Xsigo is responding with new 40Gb server links. That’s a lot of bandwidth,the equivalent of 15,000 simultaneous Netflix HD video streams.But it’s needed if you’re planning on running I/O intensive apps.
Cloud Requirement: Fluid I/O management
The second fundamental change is that I/O must be managed in a way that is fluid.
Face it, managing every port and NIC and HBA on a one-by-one basis (and dealing with the cables in between) does not foster agility.
If you want to change something on 100 servers, how do you accomplish that quickly? If you want to deploy a new network (to support a new VMware feature such as fault tolerance, for example), how do you do that? With traditional I/O, you’d probably rather deploy a new server than take a production server down to install new cards and cables.
The cloud has to be different. I/O must be re-configurable when needs change.
NEW XMS 3.0 Management Interface
Xsigo’s new management interface introduces several important new capabilities that address the needs of the cloud:
User-defined I/O templates: rollout or modify connectivity on thousands of servers in seconds
Unified connectivity management: deploy, view and manage connectivity on thousands of servers from a single pane of glass
Performance monitoring: monitor and manage I/O performance across all servers to quickly identify and remedy I/O bottlenecks
Simplified disaster recovery: wide-area I/O management lets users manage and migrate I/O across sites to simplify disaster recovery, move entire I/O identities from one site to another, and recreate an entire configuration at a remote site so applications can be back up and running in minutes
iPad accessable: the new management interface can be accessed through an iPad. With the touch of a finger, users can create and manage data center server I/O using drag-and-drop features.
The combination changes I/O management in ways that would not have been possible before virtual I/O.
But that’s the point. You don’t virtualize to do things the old way. You virtualize to achieve fundamental change that makes the data center and the people that run it all more efficient and productive. That’s the whole idea of the private cloud, right? Now that fundamental change — and the private cloud — has come to I/O.
How will we dynamically manage the diverse resources needed for the cloud? One indication can be found at this week’s Microsoft Management Summit where Xsigo announced integration with the Microsoft Management tool set (see the announcement here).
This Xsigo integration includes tie-ins with two Microsoft tools: System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). SCOM is a far-ranging tool that enables monitoring and management across the data center, while SCVMM is focused specifically on virtualization.
What the Xsigo integration does is simple but potentially quite powerful. It detects I/O issues, identifies and recommends corrective action to an administrator. That person then has the option to automatically implement that recommendation.
The initial implementation works like this: SCOM (2) monitors the I/O environment via the Xsigo I/O Director (1). In the first release, the solution is looking for I/O failures such as a link down.
With the issue identified, SCOM then recommends a corrective action (such as moving VMs to an unaffected device) and issues a PROtip (3) to the administrator with that recommendation. The admin then has the option to accept that PROtip. This initiates the corrective action. In this example, SCVMM (4) is instructed to migrate the VMs. (more…)
Todd Erickson of SearchStorage produced a very credible overview of virtual I/O in this recent set of articles. This is very welcome since the media has largely shied away from covering virtual I/O (despite the groundswell of interest in the user community and the significant coverage in blogs).
Virtual I/O is probably a tough story to write. There are disparate technologies, some of which are buried inside architectures that carry higher level names (“unified computing”). It’s also tough because the technologies are new, and they vary significantly across the different solutions. Kudos to Todd for diving in. (more…)
"I/O Unplugged" is a combination of experts from Xsigo offering I/O virtualization facts and opinions. Visit often for fresh insight and vision into the virtual I/O world and where it is heading.
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Who We Are
Xsigo was founded in 2004 to drive the development of virtual I/O, a new class of data center server connectivity. The company is based in San Jose, California.
