Introduction to Virtualization Features (Part 1)

Foreword
• Having attended previous courses about cloud computing, you may already have a
good understanding of virtual machines (VMs) and the resources they use. This
chapter focuses on when and where we would need to use VMs and what
virtualization features VMs provide.
Course Objectives
• Upon completion of this course, you will:
• Understand virtualization features.
• Understand where and when virtualization features may be used.
Course Contents
• Introduction to Cluster Features
• Introduction to Virtualization Features
• Introduction to the Features of Huawei’s Virtualization Product
What are the Benefits of Virtualization
What do I get
by using
virtualization?

?
Benefit of Virtualization
• It is Cheaper
• It keeps costs predictable
• It reduces the workload
• It offers a better uptime
• It allows for faster deployment of resources
• It promotes digital enterpreneurship
• It provides energy savings
Characteristics of Virtualizations

Guest OS Guest OS Guest OS

Host OS

Partitioned Isolated
Encapsulated Independent

VM VM
Characteristics of Virtualizations
• Partitioning : In virtualization, many applications and operating systems (OS) are
supported in a single physical system by partitioning (separating) the available
resources.
• Isolation : Each VM is isolated from its host physical system and other virtualized
machines. Because of this isolation, if one virtual-instance crashes, it does not affect the
other VMs. In addition, data is not shared between one virtual container and another.
• Encapsulation : A VM can be represented (and even stored) as a single file, so its
identification is easy, based on the services that it provides. In essence, the encapsulated
process could be a business service. This encapsulated VM can be presented to an
application as a complete entity. Therefore, encapsulation can protect each application in
order to stop its interference with another application.
What is Cluster
• A cluster is a group of computers that collectively provide resources for users, including compute, storage, and
network
• Link:
• A. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoe1NHlNViI
• B. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BBDxzJL6fY
• C. https://youtu.be/4J5vldQBKxU
• D. https://youtu.be/60nR1PkLXVM
HA
• a set of computer hardware pieces that provide solutions for redundant operations, in the
event of network component failure. Many HA cluster systems are designed to support
enterprises that cannot afford to have critical interruptions to business processes if a single
computer or server goes down, or if a single office is compromised in an emergency situation.
• The cluster technology is used to overcome the limitations of a single physical host, thereby
preventing service interruption or reducing system downtime. HA in virtualization is actually
the compute-layer HA, that is, VM HA. If a compute node becomes faulty, the other compute
node in the cluster can be automatically started.
• A virtualization cluster usually uses shared storage. A VM consists of configuration files and
data disks. The data disks are stored on shared storage, and the configuration files are stored
on the compute nodes. If a compute node becomes faulty, the virtualization management
system (such as vCenter and VRM) rebuilds the fault VM on other nodes based on the
recorded VM configuration information.
• https://youtu.be/CBrphb5AKbA
HA Cluster Concepts
• Active/Passive Cluster  initially, only one node serves customers, and continues
working alone until it fails for some reason. At that point, both new and existing
sessions are transferred to a backup or inactive node. Always add one more
redundant component for each type of resource (n + 1 redundancy) to ensure you
have sufficient resources for existing demand, while covering potential failure.
• Active/Active Cluster  In a cluster with an active/active design, there are two or
more nodes with the same configuration, each of which is directly accessed by clients.
If one node fails, clients automatically connect to the other node and start working with
it, as long as it has enough resources (because one node is now handling the load for
two nodes). After restoring or replacing the first node, clients are again split between
the two original nodes.
Issues on HA
• Detecting host Faults  To check whether a compute node is faulty, the administrator needs to
periodically establish communication with all nodes in the cluster. If the communication with a node fails, the
node may be faulty. Use Huawei FusionCompute as an example. The heartbeat mechanism between the CNA
host and VRM enables VRM to check whether CNA is faulty
• Handling VM startup failures  When a VM is started on another host, services on the VM may fail to
automatically start, and even the OS may fail to start. Service recovery on the VM may fail or take a long time.
In this case, HA on the service plane is needed. If the active VM is faulty or cannot be restored, services will
be recovered on the standby VM using HA technologies such as the floating IP address and Keepalived
• Link: https://youtu.be/TIoZ7x4a6Zo
• Link: https://youtu.be/jvWJxg9uBKA
Virtual Cluster Features

VM VM VM VM VM VM VM VM

Cluster
Load Balancing
• Load balancing is a cluster technology that distributes loads (such as network services and traffic) to multiple
network devices (such as servers and firewalls) or links. This improves service processing capabilities and
ensures high service reliability.
• Advantages:
 High performance: Load balancing evenly distributes loads to multiple devices, improving the performance
of the entire system.
 Scalability: Load balancing easily increases the number of devices or links in a cluster to meet the service
growth requirements without degrading the service quality.
 High reliability: If one or more devices or links are faulty, services are not interrupted, improving system
reliability.
 Easy management: Management work is concentrated on the devices that use the load balancing technology.
The device group or link group only needs to be configured and maintained.
 Transparency: For users, a cluster is a device or link with high reliability and performance. Users do not
need to care about the network structure. Adding or deleting devices or links does not affect services.
How a load balancer works
1.A client, such as an application or browser, receives a request and tries to connect
with a server.
2.A load balancer receives the request,and, based on the preset patterns of the
algorithm, it routes the request to one of the servers in a server group (or farm).
3.The server receives the connection request and responds to the client via the load
balancer.
4.The load balancer receives the response and matches the IP of the client with that of
the selected server. It then forwards the packet with the response.
5.Where applicable, the load balancer handles SSL offload, which is the process of
decrypting data using the Security Socket Layer encryption protocol, so that servers
don’t have to do it.
6.The process repeats until the session is over.
 Load Balancing Methods
• Round Robin: This is the default method, and it functions just as the name implies. The load
balancer directs requests in a rotating fashion, with the first server in the group fielding a
request and then moving to the bottom, where it awaits its turn to be called upon again. This
technique ensures each server handles about the same number of connections.
• Weighted Round Robin: With this method, each server is assigned a weight (or preference),
usually commensurate with its capacity. The higher the weight, the more requests a server
receives. For instance, a server assigned a weight value of two receives double the requests of
a server assigned a value of one.
• Sticky Session: Also known as session persistence, this method links specific clients and
servers for the duration of a session. The load balancer identifies a user attribute either through
a cookie or by tracking the user’s IP address to make the link. Once the link is established, all
requests from the user are sent to the same server until the session is over. This improves the
user experience while also optimizing network resources.
• Least Connections: This method assumes all requests generate an equal amount of server
load. As such, the server handling the lowest number of requests receives the next request that
comes in.
• IP Hash: This algorithm creates a unique hash key based on both the source and destination IP
address of the client and the server. The key is used to route the request and enables a
dropped connection to be reestablished with the same server.
Virtual Cluster Features (2)
VM

VM VM VM VM VM VM VM

Cluster
• four compute nodes in the cluster and eight VMs with the exact specifications are
running. When the administrator creates a VM and does not specify the host for the VM,
the system automatically creates the VM on the second or fourth node with a light load. A
large number of VMs are running on the third host. After a period of time, the system
automatically detects that the load on the third host is heavy and migrates VMs on this
host to other light-load hosts.
• The load threshold can be specified by the system administrator or defined by the
system. In Huawei FusionCompute, if a host's CPU and memory usage exceed 60%, VRM
migrates VMs on the host to other hosts. Before the migration, the administrator can set
an automatic migration task. Alternatively, the administrator can manually perform the
migration after receiving a notification.
Virtual Cluster Features (3)
VM

VM

Virtual Resource Pools

VM

VM

VM

Cluster
Scalability
• Vertical Scaling (scale-up): In a traditional non-virtualization environment, all services
are deployed on physical machines. In the initial phase of system construction, the
service volume is not large. Therefore, the hardware resources configured for physical
machines are limited. As the service volume increases, the original hardware cannot meet
service requirements and needs to be upgraded continuously, for example, by adding
CPUs or expanding memory from 256 GB to 512 GB. If the service volume keeps
increasing, the physical machine must be replaced, and the service migration requires a
machine shutdown.
• Horizontal Scaling (scale-out): In virtualization, all resources are pooled to carry
service VMs. When the service volume increases, you only need to add resources to the
resource pool, without having to add hardware resources. During the actual
implementation, you only need to add servers.
Memory Overcommitment
• Memory overcommitment allows VMs to use more memory than the total physical memory of the server by
leveraging specific technologies to improve VM density.

• Memory overcommitment technologies include memory ballooning, memory swapping, and memory sharing.
Generally, the three technologies need to be applied together and take effect at the same time
• Memory sharing: Multiple VMs share the memory page on which the data content is the same
Virtual Cluster Features (4)
Memory Memory Memory
Sharing Ballooning Swapping

70%

VM 3 VM 3 VM 3
2 GB 2 GB 2 GB

70%

VM 2 VM 2 VM 3
2 GB 2 GB 2 GB

20%
VM 1 VM 1 VM 3
2 GB 2 GB 2 GB

Hypervisor
4 GB
• Memory sharing: Multiple VMs share the memory page on which the data content is the same
the physical host provides 4 GB physical memory for the hypervisor and allocates the memory to three VMs.
The three VMs read data from the same physical memory. According to the memory virtualization
implementation principles, the hypervisor maps this memory segment to different VMs. To prevent any VM
from modifying data in this memory segment, all VMs have only the read permission on this memory segment.
If VMs need to write data to this memory segment, the hypervisor needs to create a memory segment for
mapping. With the memory sharing technology, 6 GB of virtual memory can be allocated to VMs based on 4 GB
of physical memory.
• Memory ballooning: The system automatically reclaims the unused memory from a VM and allocates it to
other VMs to use. Applications on the VMs are not aware of memory reclamation and allocation. The total
amount of the memory used by all VMs on a physical server cannot exceed the physical memory of the server.
• Memory swapping: External storage is virtualized into memory for VMs to use. Data that is not used
temporarily is stored to external storage. If the data needs to be used, it is exchanged with the data reserved on
the memory.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apHiJeD5iKo
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NDtYanjWtI
Question & Answers