Jump to content


anyweb

MMS 2010 Labs: Powered by Hyper-V, System Center & HP

Recommended Posts

(Pardon the interruption on the Dynamic Memory blogs, but I was busy at MMS 2010 and needed to blog this content. I'll have more on DM soon.)

 

Virtualization Nation,

 

We just wrapped up Microsoft Management Summit 2010 (MMS) in Las Vegas. MMS is the premier event of the year for deep technical information and training on the latest IT Management solutions from Microsoft, Partners, and Industry Experts. MMS 2010 was a huge success from a number of standpoints. Starting with sold out attendance (and attendance was way up from last year), compelling keynotes from Bob Muglia and Brad Anderson to the release of new products including:

 

* System Center Essentials 2010

* System Center Data Protection Manager 2010

* System Center Service Manager 2010

 

...there was something for everyone. Furthermore, many folks were very pleased to learn that Opalis (our datacenter orchestration and automation platform) was joining the System Center family. Why is this a big deal? Well, for our customers who have purchased the System Center Datacenter Suite license it means that Opalis is now included in the System Center Suite. That's customer focus. You can find out more about Opalis here.

 

There was a lot to experience at MMS, but I'd like to focus on something you may or may not have heard about...

 

MMS 2010 Labs

 

One of the most popular activities at MMS are the MMS Labs. The MMS Labs are very busy and constantly booked. These advanced, usually multi-server, labs are created and configured to walk IT professionals through a variety of tasks such as:

 

* Introducing new products (Service Manager Labs were very popular this year)

* Exploring new product features

* Advanced topics, automation, best practices, tips and tricks

* and much more...

 

In past MMS events, virtualization has been used throughout in a variety of ways and to varying degrees, but this year the team decided to move to an entirely Hyper-V infrastructure. In short:

 

>> ALL OF THE MMS 2010 LABS WERE VIRTUALIZED USING WINDOWS SERVER 2008 R2 HYPER-V AND MANAGED VIA SYSTEM CENTER <<

 

.and the results in terms of manageability, flexibility, power usage, shipping costs and more are staggering. What do I means, let's start with this factoid:

 

>> The MMS 2010 Labs delivered ~40,000 Hyper-V VMs for ~80 different labs in 5 days on just 41 physical servers <<

 

No, that's not a typo, that's just the tip of the iceberg.

 

>> In the past for MMS, we shipped 36 RACKS,

 

~570 servers, to host MMS labs.

 

For MMS 2010, we shipped 3 RACKS.

 

Yes, 3 RACKS with 41 servers.

 

(Ok, technically, 6 half racks because they're easier to ship.) <<

 

So, what were these racks filled with?

 

Servers. All servers were configured identically as follows:

 

* 41 HP Proliant DL380G6 servers (Dual socket, quad-core, Nehalem Processors with SMT, 16 LPs per system) each configured with 128 GB of memory and 4 300 GB SAS drive of local storage striped (no SANs were used), These servers were simply incredible. Performance, expandability, performance.

* All networking was 1 Gb/E switched (no 10 Gb/E) and demonstrates the efficiency of Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Even with hundreds of labs going on simultaneously, network bandwidth was never an issue on 1 Gb/E

* Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and System Center

* Virtual machines were configured on average with 3-4 GB of memory each and the majority of labs used multiple VMs per lab.

 

The power draw on each server when fully loaded was about 200 watts. Maximum power draw for the 41 servers was 8,200 watts. If we do a broad comparison against our previous 570 servers (assuming a similar power draw) the comparison looks like this:

 

* 570 servers * 200 watts per server = 114,000 watts

* 41 server * 200 watts per server = 8,200 watts

 

clip_image006_thumb.jpg

 

>> Power reduction of 13.9x on the servers. <<

 

read the rest here > http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/05/06/mms-2010-labs-powered-by-hyper-v-system-center-hp.aspx

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.