Introducing Veritas Virtual Infrastructure from Symantec: Block-based Virtualization Built on Enterprise Storage Management for Your Enterprise Infrastructure

[Kimberley]

Written By: DCIG LLC

Abstract

File-based virtualization solutions, like VMware ESX Server, are best suited to low-impact file, print and web services. For applications and databases, you need a block-based virtualization system designed for high performance and seamless LUN management. Symantec’s expertise in volume management has been focused on solving this problem, the result of which is Symantec’s new VxVI solution. Solving this problem from the Volume Manager layer offers unique advantages for expanding the useful deployments of virtualization in enterprise environments.

Executive Summary

VMware is the predominant platform that many companies are initially using for server virtualization. While VMware does not result in performance or configuration problems for many of the initial application servers that companies seek to virtualize (file, print and web servers), many application servers do not fit so neatly into the VMware virtualization model. This forces companies to postpone – possibly permanently – the virtualization of these servers and delay the energy, hardware and space savings that virtualization delivers.

There are two possible technical reasons that prompt companies to postpone the virtualization of some of their servers: application performance requirements and/or the inability to manage their new virtual infrastructure. High performance servers with strict service level agreements (SLAs) need access to network and storage resources as application demands dictate. While they can do that now using current tools, once the environment is virtualized using VMware, these tools do not work as they did prior to virtualization. Further, if application problems should occur, once an environment is virtualized using VMware, it extremely difficult to isolate, monitor and correct the source of the problem.

As companies look to virtualize the mission critical, performance intensive segment of their server infrastructure, it is imperative that the settings found in their current physical environment carry over into their new virtual environment. Veritas Virtual Infrastructure (VxVI) from Symantec now makes this possible. Using VxVI, companies can preserve these settings as they virtualize these servers while also preserving the centralized storage management capabilities that Symantec delivers and to which enterprise customers are already accustomed. In so doing, companies can immediately realize the energy, hardware and space saving that they are seeking from server virtualization without putting their infrastructure at risk.

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