System Sizing Guidelines for Integrity Virtual Machines Deployment -- Hardware Consolidation with Integrity Virtual Machines

4
Virtualization makes it easier to share hardware because one Integrity Server can host multiple
instances of an operating system. However, combining multiple OS instances on a single physical
machine requires planning.
The steps to consolidating workloads with Integrity VM are:
1. Identify hardware utilization characteristics of workloads that are candidates for
consolidation.
2. Determine utilization levels for the workloads based on averages or peaks – carefully
consider the latter if the workloads all peak at the same time.
3. Convert utilization levels to expected utilization on the physical server‟s hardware.
4. Identify an aggregate (physical hardware) utilization target/threshold you are comfortable
with. It is usually prudent to start low, to allow for workload growth.
5. Calculate the size of the physical server(s) required for consolidating the workloads, taking
into consideration the memory and mass storage requirements of the VM Host as well as
those for each workload‟s VM.
Identifying Workloads Suitable for Hardware Consolidation
A key consideration during the planning stage is to determine whether the workloads are suited for
hardware sharing or dedicated hardware. Dedicated hardware solutions include standalone
servers, hard partitions, or virtual partitions.
The hardware requirements often determine whether the workload is suitable for hardware sharing
or dedicated hardware solutions. Workloads that may be better suited for dedicated hardware
include:
 Extremely I/O or OS (system call) intensive
 High utilization, i.e., resource utilization exceeding 50% of target hardware configuration
Workloads that are ideal candidates for hardware sharing using Integrity VM include:
 Production workloads with low (less than 20% of target) hardware utilization
 Software development
 Software validation and quality assurance testing
 Functional test of software, including proof-of-concept functionality
Software development and test of tiered applications (such as client-server) are particularly well
suited for Integrity Virtual Machines. The flexibility provided by unique configuration of the
software stack in each VM lends itself to powerful consolidation development and test scenarios.