Datasheet

Chapter 1: Overview of Virtualization
25
Application and version — The name and specific version number of the application. Each
version of an application that you must support should be listed separately because it may have
specific operating system requirements, use specific hardware, and so on.
Current operating system and version — The operating system under which the application is
currently running.
Operating system patches or service packs — Any specific patches that have been applied to
the running operating system, including service packs for Windows - based applications .
Other supported operating systems — Other operating systems and associated version
numbers that this version of this application is supposed to run on.
Software execution environment — Any auxiliary libraries or software packages that the
software requires, including the version numbers. This includes software such as the Java virtual
machine or GNU Java runtime; scripting environments such as Perl, awk, sed, and so on;
interpreters; and auxiliary programs that the application can start communication with.
Trying to decipher shared and dynamically linked library requirements can be quite complex. On Linux
systems, you can use the
ldd (list dynamic dependencies) command to identify libraries that an
application requires, including the version of the system ’ s C library that it uses (glibc, uclibc, newlib,
and so on). On Microsoft Windows systems, you can use an application such as Dependency Walker,
which is included with the free Process Explorer (
www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/
ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx
) .
Required privileges and /or users — Any privileges required for installation and execution,
including any specific user and/or group that the software must run as.
Associated hardware and drivers — Any hardware that is specifically associated with this
version of this application, such as a specific video card, sound card, network interface card,
or storage device. If this hardware required special drivers from the hardware manufacturer,
you should note their source and version numbers. If the hardware uses standard system
drivers, it is still a good idea to note these to ensure that they are available for and supported on
any other operating system that you may want to move the application to. You should also note
any video resolution requirements.
Current video resolution — The video resolution at which the application is currently running,
if appropriate. You can simply mark this field as N/A for server or command - line software.
Memory requirements — Any specific memory requirements that are associated with the
application. This should include any limits on the maximum amount of information that the
server or application can use.
Memory in the current host system — The amount of memory that is available in the system on
which this version of this application is currently running. You can use this information for
virtual machine memory sizing purposes if the application does not have explicit memory
requirements.
Current application performance — Your own or your users ’ perception of how well the
application runs and performs on its current host. Although it is not an empirical measurement,
you can use this information to help assess the memory and processor requirements of any
virtual machine to which you consider moving this application. This can help determine if, for
example, you may want to pin a virtual machine to a specific processor to minimize
administrative overhead and help guarantee the responsiveness of any applications or servers
that it supports.
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