Oracle VM and LiquidIQ:
Optimizing Oracle VM Operations
Virtualization of the data center will provide greater service agility, higher asset utilization and lower management costs.
LiquidIQ is a fabric computing architecture that allows for unique capabilities within Oracle VM environments. Oracle VM gives data center managers the ability to increase the utilization of their server resources and provide much more IT flexibility through the use of Virtual Machines (VM). However, these capabilities are constrained by the inherent limitations of rack mount servers and their associated I/O architectures.
Universal VM Migration VMs can only be migrated across Oracle VM Servers inside a LAN segment with traditional rack mount server and switch topologies. This is due to the need for high connectivity for VM migrations.
LiquidIQ provides a pool of compute modules, which can access each other through a high-quality, high-bandwidth interconnect. With LiquidIQ, VMs can be migrated to any compute module in the LiquidIQ system, including across chassis migrations, leveraging the LiquidIQ fabric. Additional, all subnet definitions are software defined in LiquidIQ for maximum migration flexibility. Diskless VM migrations
VM migrations require diskless boot and file system configurations. The files for OS and applications
must be kept on a persistent SAN or NAS to enable VM migration. Rack mount servers are typically designed for local installation of the operating system—diskless operations must be configured manually. When VMs are migrated, IT managers must devote additional personnel resources for these new configurations.
LiquidIQ was designed from the ground up as a diskless system. Its built-in management system controls the root file systems and kernels for diskless operations. As a result, diskless VM migrations
can be performed at any time under software control, and without any manual server reconfiguration.
Flexible Oracle VM server re-shaping
Traditional rack mount servers provide a static set of processor, memory and I/O capabilities. Oracle VM Server is slave to those static rack mount server characteristics.
The LiquidIQ system is fully software defined. Users can change the physical components of a LiquidIQ Virtual Serverr by simply editing its software attributes. Processor, Memory and I/O characteristics of the LiquidIQ Virtual Server can be altered through simple software commands or driven via policy. LiquidIQ allows the user to simply alter the physical characteristics of the hardware
underlying an Oracle VM Server instance.
High Availability
LiquidIQ brings 99.999% availability to the data center. This is a critical platform characteristic as more and more VMs are placed on fewer server components. LiquidIQ has no single points of failure across compute, communications and I/O subsystems.
Oracle VM Manager gains control of servers, networking and I/O
The Oracle VM Manager can dynamically balance VM loads across multiple Oracle VM servers. However, rack mount servers are statically defined by their manufacturers and their components cannot be changed except for PCI card changes.
The Oracle VM Manager is limited by the subnets and/or VLANs that are defined on the Ethernet switching networks in the data center. Rack mount servers are subordinate to the connectivity zones defined on the Ethernet switches. This architecture complicates and increases the cost of load-balancing, disaster recovery resource allocation, or other VM-related activities. As a result, the reach and flexibility of the Oracle VM Manager is mired.
LiquidIQ delivers software defined networking in addition to servers. Subnets, VLANs and I/O routes are simply software definitions under the LiquidIQ system, and can be easily redefined. This allows the Oracle VM Manager to create new Oracle VM servers inside the appropriate
subnets/vlans and configure the I/O routes on the fly. This eliminates the costly and time consuming processes that typically involve coordination of server and networking groups when using rack mount servers.
Oracle VM management regime consistency
IT managers create a runbook that dictates how the VM based data center is managed. Rack-mount servers are usually matched to Ethernet switches to provide managed areas of Oracle VM servers and their associated VMs. When rack mount servers are scaled up beyond the network topology designed into the datacenter, the management regimes must be revisited as the network
is re-designed and connectivity zones are expanded or defined.
LiquidIQ provides a high-bandwidth communications subsystem that allows for non-disruptive additions of compute and I/O resources. All the resources have consistent connectivity, which allows the current Oracle VM management regimes to continue without disruption as the data center scales out.
High Security
LiquidIQ is based on a highly secure communication subsystem that is very well suited for multi-tenant hosting on the hypervisor.
Cabling Complexity Reduction
LiquidIQ eliminates up to 90% of the cables typically deployed in rack mount server based data centers. Linear Cost over Scale
LiquidIQ is designed to scale linearly with respect to performance, management and cost.
Oracle VM is a powerful tool for reducing data center costs and increasing resource allocation flexibility. IT is constrained by inflexible and costly traditional rack mount server and switch infrastructure.
LiquidIQ provides the compute, networking and I/O resource flexibility that complements
Oracle VM to deliver all the benefits of data center virtualization.
