Server VirtualizationAt University of Michigan

Terry AlexanderExec Director, Office of Campus Sustainability

Recent survey: approximately 200 server rooms and server closets housing thousands of servers on campus – huge concern over data security for research!

Using VaaS, we hope to gradually shutdown these inefficient spaces and consolidate services in well designed and operated data centers.

Moving to VaaS is a stepping stone to eventually moving to “cloud computing”

Virtualization as a Service (VaaS)

This service provides “virtual servers” to University units for a monthly fee that includes:

◦hardware cost

◦ life cycle replacement cost

◦ cost of support staff

◦utilities

A small server (1 CPU, 35 GB of disk) costs about $39 a month

How does VaaS work?

Commonly find servers using less than 5% of their processing power

Combining multiple virtual servers on a shared physical server uses the hardware more effectively

System administrators get out of the business of supporting hardware without losing control of programs or data

Departments continue to manage the server operating system and applications, but they no longer worry about the physical box

Efficiency Gains

Power savings – Physical vs. Virtual

An efficient data center uses about as much energy to cool and support the server as it does to power the server. – a 1:1 ratio. An inefficient data center can have ratios in the 10:1 or higher range ! For these estimates we assumed department data centers were at a very conservative 2:1 ratio.

It costs too much. ◦This is a valid concern – when pricing, need

to make sure it is a reasonable cost and phase in the process - as servers die switch to virtual. We have switched approximately 200 so far – to six central servers that include backups.

◦Server replacement is normally not accounted for at the unit level – run it until it dies and hope there is money available - $5-25k depending on server size.

The VaaS Hesitation myths

I lose control of my data.◦This is untrue – the data still resides on a server

you just cannot physically touch the server!◦Centralized VaaS also provides continual

backups of the data – something often neglected at the unit or department level!

Data retrieval is too slow over the network.◦This could be a valid concern if not planned

properly. Theoretically could have 600-800 virtual servers on one physical machine – but it does slow down. We set limit at 400 per machine to avoid this issue.

The VaaS Hesitation myths

My IT manager will no longer be needed – job insecurity.◦Again, absolutely untrue. The central VaaS only

takes care of the hardware. The unit still takes care of the software and data so IT staff will still be needed at the unit level.

Security is a concern - worm and virus attack kills everyone on the virtual server.◦This is untrue currently. The partitions on the

server have not been breached but who knows what can happen in the future. It is far easier to protect one physical server than 400 individual ones!

The VaaS Hesitation myths

Estimated Annual Carbon Savings with Virtualization

400 Virtual Servers:125,320 kW/yr = 90 Metric Tons CO2

400 Physical Servers:1,226,400 kW/yr = 881 Metric Tons CO2

Carbon Savings through Virtualization:1,101,080 kW/yr = 791 Metric Tons CO2