The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/27607
“Private VMware Clouds provide real disaster recovery solutions.” Conceptually, a virtual server can be thought of as a single file, albeit a very large one, that VMware interacts with to provide an operating application server. Just like a physical server, a virtual server is powered on, but it’s through the VMware software interface. During power-on, VMware reads the file and, from its contents, starts up a running application server within the physical host’s resource environment. The entire process looks very similar to starting up a physical application server, complete with booting and startup dialogs — but viewed through the VMware interface. What Are the Benefits of Virtual Servers? Modularity and portability are key benefits of a virtual server. The virtual server’s program files and parameters make up this file, which resides on storage that the VMware system can access. Optionally, application data may also be stored within this file or elsewhere, making an application server’s disk structure highly modular. Because of the sizes of the virtual server files, they are often stored on external storage provided through a storage area network (SAN). It is possible to store them on local disk drives, but space limitations quickly restrict capabilities and options. Determining data storage is an important consideration in designing a private Cloud virtualization infrastructure. By placing virtual server files on external SAN storage, the firm can take advantage of VMware’s more advanced features such as the ability to dynamically distribute resource utilization across servers, and providing local high-availability and application continuity to all virtual servers. VMware provides the ability to move the running virtual machine to another physical host with no effect on the running application server. This process can be performed manually or automatically by VMware should it detect high utilization occurring on one physical server. Should a physical server suffer a hardware issue and crash, VMware will automatically boot the affected virtual machines on other physical servers. VMware, in the firm’s private Cloud, extends these abilities to all servers in the environment without the need for complex and expensive clustering technologies required for physical servers. 64 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer The virtual server is fundamentally a file, so it can be moved between storage locations. VMware allows this move to occur with no downtime required of the server. The ability to move the running virtual machine to different host servers, and to move the underlying file to another location, has the primary benefit of extracting the virtual machines from the physical environment. Hardware and storage upgrades to the private Cloud can occur for most virtual machines in the background with no downtime or impact to application services. Copying a virtual server provides even more operational, as well as strategic, advantages. A copy can: • Be used to test an upgrade without affecting the production environment • Become a clone for additional virtual servers • Act as an offline server for disaster recovery purposes In addition to an outright virtual server copy, VMware provides “snapshot” copy capabilities as a powerful virtual server file management tool. This is a point-in-time copy of the virtual server that can be reloaded later if desired. It is quick and can be managed directly through the VMware software. Snapshots are useful in reducing the time required to try out new options or install new software since changes made to the virtual server are thrown out when returning to the snapshot. For example, a snapshot of the virtual server is typically taken before applying a service pack. If the service pack causes problems, then you simply go back to the snapshot. It does not have to be uninstalled, and there is not a long wait to retrieve a backup. Private VMware Clouds provide real disaster recovery solutions. Another benefit of the independence between the virtual machine and physical hardware is the ability to move and power on the virtual machine in any VMware Cloud, without the difficulties of restoring a physical server. In its most simple form, during a disaster, the firm’s virtual machine files could be restored from backup into another VMware Cloud hosted at a separate location or by a service provider. Unlike a restore to physical hardware, the machines will always boot