Virtuality
Friday, June 12, 2009 19:59
Optimised I.T ‘Virtualisation’ is finally becoming the realised norm across the carbon hungry server rooms of today, and not before time either.
For those who aren’t fully aware the term basically describes a method of installing multiple software ‘machines’ on a single hardware unit (a server) and saves untold amounts of previously wasted, and increasingly expensive, electrical energy. Contrary to what you may think the vast majority of server operating systems don’t need all encompassed access to the full power of the hardware they’re installed on, those expansive arrays of hard disks and fans which suck up the amps are there merely to provide resilience and scalability than contribute to any high end processing delivery, plus, unlike that desktop PC of yours there’s no requirement for the pull of high end graphics engines either.
Although already widespread across internet hosts thanks to the lucrative cost effectiveness of being able to rack up (and sell) a box with umpteen virtual servers installed on it it’s in the business enterprise where the necessary attention has been seriously lacking up until quite recently. I know from first hand experience that it was far from unusual to have a room full of energy hungry high end servers sat sucking up electricity and air-con resource whilst ticking over at 5% load (maximum), most certainly. You’d have your mail server, your storage array, a domain controller (or two) and quite possibly several more disparate database units and/or ad-hoc legacy departmental W.H.Y’s all just sat there in the rack happily gorging through enough power in a week to keep several third world communities in light and heat for substantially longer than anyone would care to believe or be bothered about even if they did, a blinkered, inefficient and shamefully decadent state of affairs to say the least.
However times are changing and needless to say the progressive world of Ubuntu is once again smoothing the way for us, as of version 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Ubuntu Server comes combined with a ‘Virtual’ install option, previously (up to 8.10) this was a seperate download tagged as the jeOS version (pronounced “juice”).
jeOS (and now the Virtual option) was (and is) an efficient variant of the full server OS optimised for installation inside virtual environments from the likes of VM Ware or KVM, benefits include a substantially reduced footprint, better performance and fewer updates (resulting in less maintenance), not only that but the option for installing it couldn’t be simpler, seriously, check this out.
- Pre-configure your virtual destination drive
- Boot as usual from the regular Server CD (or .ISO / .DMG file).
- Select the F4 (or fn F4) “Mode” Option
- Choose “Install a minimal Virtual Machine”
- Proceed as normal selecting your required server components.
That’s it.
