Posts tagged with live migration
Live Migration: Here to Stay
Posted by tmueting in 11:57 AM
(5 votes, average: 4.40 out of 5)
Loading ...I have recently returned from the HP Technical Conference and, although attendance was down a bit this year (likely due to the economy), there were still plenty of enthusiastic AMD customers and partners in attendance. The buzz around the availability of the recently released Six-Core AMD OpteronTM “Istanbul” processor and HP Proliant G6 servers was tremendous. HP has announced seven HP ProLiant platforms based on “Istanbul” processors as well as the availability of upgrade kits for existing G5/G5p platforms. I’m also happy to report that I had a packed room during my virtualization session on Tuesday.
In our booth on the exhibition floor we demonstrated the ability to use VMware’s VMotion to seamlessly migrate a running virtual machine between an HP Proliant G2 server running Dual-Core AMD Opteron “Rev F” processors (released in 2006), G5 server running Quad-Core AMD Opteron “Shanghai” processors, (released in 2007) and the newest G6 server with Six-Core AMD Opteron processors. We’ve just released a video on YouTube featuring a similar demo -- except that it also includes our upcoming processor codenamed “Magny-Cours”.
I’m constantly getting questions on the topic of live migration and VMotion in particular. Customers want to be assured that they can use VMotion to migrate virtual machines between older and newer versions of their AMD processer-based platforms. Apparently we and our technology partners could do a better job of getting the word out.
So let’s be clear -- the answer is a resounding YES!
Here are the facts. With the launch of our first quad-core processors, AMD formalized a functionality that had existed in our processors for a while under the feature name of Extended Migration. This capability enabled virtualization software vendors like VMware to support the live migration of a virtual machine between different versions of AMD processors starting with Rev E, which was released in 2004. Subsequently, with ESX 3.5 u2, VMware released a feature as part of VMotion called Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) that uses AMD Extended Migration to support VMotion between AMD Opteron processor generations. In order to utilize the feature, each server must be configured for EVC. For information on configuring EVC, see the “Migrating Virtual Machines” chapter in the Basic System Administration Guide for your ESX release. You can also gain a better understanding of EVC processor support and baseline definitions at the Enhanced VMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support VMware web page.
Keep in mind that live migration across AMD OpteronTM processor generations is supported by other virtualization software, including Citrix XenMotion and Microsoft HyperV Server 2008 R2 Live Migration. In fact, you can watch a demo showcasing Hyper-V live migration between Quad-Core and Six Core AMD Opteron processors.
And don’t forget the technology demonstration we did a year ago with Red Hat, showcasing live migration between an AMD and Intel processor -- the YouTube video is still getting a lot of views.
Rest assured, AMD is pushing the technology envelope to cover all bases when it comes to offering broad support for your virtualization environment.
Tim Mueting is a Product Marketing Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
Virtual Machines on the Move
Posted by Margaret Lewis in 5:15 AM
As you can imagine, migrating virtual machines without downtime is considered a core technology for building flexible and highly availability virtualized environments. So there were many questions around whether a hypervisor could gain widespread acceptance if it did not offer live migration capabilities. Fast forward to Spring 2009, and it is clear that Hyper-V has made a significant impact on the market.
In fact, a March article by Stephen Sowyer of Virtualization Review, highlights research by industry analyst firm, Gartner, who reported within the next five years “Microsoft and VMware will vie for bragging rights in the server virtualization infrastructure segment.” This builds on the October 2008 Worldwide Quarterly Server Virtualization Tracker from industry analyst firm, IDC, which concluded, “In its first quarter of general availability Microsoft Hyper-V delivered a strong showing, and when combined with Virtual Server 2005, Microsoft’s market share is 23% of new shipments.” These findings are truly significant given Microsoft entered the world of virtualization less than a year ago.
With today’s release of Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, Microsoft will offer live migration capabilities, enabling users to virtualize their IT environment in the most cost effective manner while having full access to enterprise-class features.
Now, a lot of folks new to virtualization don’t quite understand all the factors involved in making live migration a reality (in fact, I’m sure some of you are wondering why we keep blogging on the topic). To perform live migration with Hyper-V 2008 R2, you are required to have the failover clustering role added and configured on the servers running Hyper-V. Failover clustering requires shared storage for the servers in the cluster nodes so that all virtual machines can be stored in the shared storage area and running virtual machine state can be managed by one of the nodes (check out this great step-by-step guide on TechNet here).
An advantage for folks with a data center full of Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors—even various generations—is our stable platform approach enables folks to do live migration between the processor family (“Barcelona” to “Shangahi” to our upcoming six-core “Istanbul” processors) without losing any functionality—see for yourself as we migrate across all three generations with Hyper-V 2008 here.
This stable platform approach is something we also use for power efficiency. You may have seen that we recently announced our new low power (EE) processors which provide the same level of functionality as other versions but with a lower power envelope.
As you can imagine, I’m very excited about the live migration demonstration with Microsoft and its upcoming Hyper-V 2008 R2 technology. Working with the virtualization team over there has been a rewarding experience and I’m impressed with the inroads they have made on the virtualization market since the release of Hyper-V. I look forward to continuing to working with the team to push us all towards the “holy grail” of virtualization as it is a technology that truly enables a powerful and dynamic virtualization experience for customers.
Margaret Lewis (@margaretjlewis) is a Product Marketing Director at AMD. Her postings are her own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
Margaret Lewis, director, AMD commercial software and solutions
@margaretjlewis