Microsoft updates its Virtualization Infrastructure Planning and Design Guides for R2

Virtualization can be a really cool and useful technology, but if you don’t know where to start or how to begin your implementation process, it can quickly lose that cool factor.

You aren’t alone if you’re new to virtualization and find yourself asking, “How do I begin?” Microsoft’s Solution Accelerator team believes it has an answer for you. The group has been working on and refining a number of different guides to help with planning and design processes for Microsoft virtualization technologies. And because Microsoft recently updated Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 with R2 releases, the team has freshened its solution guides accordingly.

The Microsoft Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guide for Windows server virtualization and for SCVMM have been updated to reflect the new features and functionalities found in Windows Server 2008 R2 and SCVMM 2008 R2. The updated guides outline the critical infrastructure design elements that are crucial to a successful implementation of these virtualization products.

New technologies have been introduced to help improve the flexibility, performance, and scalability of the environment; technologies such as live migration, cluster shared volumes, dynamic virtual storage support, enhanced processor support, and enhanced networking support have been added.

As an example, the IPD guide shows the following nine steps representing the most critical design elements in a successful, well-planned implementation of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V R2 server virtualization:

Step 1: Determine the Virtualization Scope

Step 2: Create the List of Workloads

Step 3: Select the Backup and Fault-Tolerance Approaches for Each Workload

Step 4: Summarize and Analyze the Workload Requirements

Step 5: Design and Place Virtualization Host Hardware

Step 6: Map Workloads to Hosts

Step 7: Design Backup and Fault Tolerance

Step 8: Design the Storage Infrastructure

Step 9: Design the Network Infrastructure

Likewise, the IPD guide showcases the following seven steps that represent the most critical design elements in a well-planned Virtual Machine Manager design.

Step 1: Define the Project Scope

Step 2: Determine Whether to Integrate with Operations Manager for Reporting

Step 3: Design Operations Manager Integration

Step 4: Determine the Number of VMM Instances Required

Step 5: Size and Place the VMM Server, SQL Server-based Server, Database, and Web Server

Step 6: Size and Place the Library Servers and Libraries

Step 7: Design the Network Connections

The IPD guide stresses the need for ensuring that a virtualized infrastructure serve the requirements of the business, and that you don’t virtualize just for the sake of virtualizing. Make sure it solves some need for reducing cost, improving performance or reliability, or reducing complexity.

You can download these new Microsoft IPD virtualization guides from the Solutions Accelerators Web site on TechNet.