S 2.445 Selection of suitable hardware for virtualisation environments

Initiation responsibility: Head of IT

Implementation responsibility: Head of Purchasing

The commonly used operating system and server virtualisation solutions have individual requirements regarding the underlying hardware architecture and/or the equipment of the virtualisation server with hardware components such as network interfaces or mass storage cards. These requirements must be taken into consideration when procuring server systems if these are to be used as virtualisation servers. There are some basic differences regarding the hardware requirements for the different kinds of virtualisation (operating system, hypervisor-based, and host-based server virtualisations). These are described in the following.

Requirements of operating system virtualisation and host-based server virtualisation

Systems for operating system virtualisation and so-called host-based server virtualisation solutions can usually rely on comprehensive driver support of the basic operating system they were installed on. An example for an operating system virtualisation includes Sun Solaris Zones integrated into the Solaris operating system. For example, host-based server virtualisations include Microsoft Virtual PC, Sun VirtualBox, or VMware Server, which may be installed on a compatible operating system just like a traditional service. Normally, every hardware component (interfaces, SCSI controllers, and such like) supported by the selected operating system can be used. Numerous components can usually be used in such cases.

Requirements of hypervisor products

However, hypervisor products entail significantly more stringent requirements regarding the selection of the hardware components to be used in combination with the virtualisation solution. These include Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESX, or XEN, for example. These constitute an operating system reduced for virtualisation and usually provide limited hardware support and/or are equipped with a limited set of drivers or entail specific hardware requirements regarding the processor used. For example, the virtualisation solution XEN may only be used without any restrictions if the processor contains virtualisation functions (Intel VT, AMD-V). The same holds true for Microsoft Hyper-V.

Regardless of the selection regarding the virtualisation solution to be used, compatibilities must be checked when planning the virtualisation environment. For operating system virtualisation solutions and host-based server virtualisation solutions, the executability of the virtualisation software in the corresponding operating system with the selected hardware must be checked.

Selecting the hardware

Suitable physical servers must be selected as the hardware platform for the virtualisation solution. The manufacturers of virtualisation solutions regularly release updated compatibility lists certifying certain hardware configurations as being suitable, i.e. providing a guarantee for the suitability of the hardware. Such lists should be taken into consideration when selecting the hardware, especially if the hardware is to be used in productive operations.

Furthermore, the support services and guarantees agreed in the maintenance agreements for the virtualisation software often are not granted at all or only to a limited extent if the hardware used is not certified by the manufacturer. For environments already used productively and working without any problems, the extent to which the manufacturer also grants support for the virtualisation product in combination with the existing, not certified hardware must be checked.

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