Implementing a Virtual Server Environment: Getting Started

Chapter 5: Identifying a Pilot Project
As stated earlier, moving to a virtualized environment is a journey. It’s completely up to you whether
to start with a project that is highly visible and very important to your business, or with a smaller
project just to get oriented to a virtualized environment. HP has worked with customers who have
done both. Starting small allows you to always add new projects and new functionality later because
these technologies are designed to work well together.
Do you want to address some of your short term problems first? Is there some problem that can be
solved very simply and quickly? Do you want to replace legacy hardware or implement a completely
new project? Do you want to create an application service or utility so that new applications can be
deployed more quickly in the future?
Regardless of what project you pick, here are a just a few things to consider:
• What version of the operating system and application software will you need? If you are
moving to a new hardware platform or a new version of the OS, HP recommends that you do
a complete software-stack assessment to ensure that all of the software you need is available
and supported.
• It is wise to get buy-in from your application software providers about your new strategy or
architecture.
• Be sure that you understand the performance requirements for sizing partitions or for
application stacking. (The next chapter addresses this point.)
• Be sure to obtain management support within your own organization or from the line of
business that owns the application.
General guidelines
Here are some general guidelines and thoughts to keep in mind regarding the technology choices that
you must make for your virtualized environment.
As an alternative to having a separate server for each application, you can divide a larger server into
partitions. Partitioning solutions are great for isolating applications that have security or availability
concerns. They are also useful if applications need a different version of the OS, different kernel
tunables, or different versions of the application software. Finally, creating a new partition on
existing resources is much easier, quicker, and cost effective than provisioning a new server.
Partitioning is a relatively low-risk option because it allows you to maintain application isolation even
though the application may not be on its own physical server. In addition, if there is a concern about
availability due to multiple partitions on one server, nPars or the HP Serviceguard product might be a
good solution.
Avoid sizing for unexpected growth or for peak processing. Instead, use iCAP or TiCAP. Partitioning
solutions also allow you “right size” and move cores between partitions for handling peak loads.
Although this is not risky, the solution can become slightly more complex when using TiCAP, since you
will most likely want to add automation with WLM or gWLM to manage its usage effectively.
Application stacking with Resource Partitions or Secure Resource Partitions can be an excellent choice
for applications that work well together and that can coexist on the same version of the OS. This
solution can increase server utilization and, in many cases, can save a significant amount of money in
software licenses and support costs.
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