DRS fundamentals
Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) has gained popularity in the modern business environment as a utility used in balancing computing workloads with resources available for a given project. It is important to identify the fundamentals of DRS in order to understand its relevance to a business entity. The basic factor of this utility is that it emphasizes on precision when it comes to assigning resources to different tasks.
According to Walker (2010), it is not possible to maintain service levels if the resources cannot be managed properly. The level of competition in the current markets is getting very stiff, and firms are forced to find ways of improving efficiency in order to remain profitable. One of the ways of doing this is to cut down expenses and try to maximize the profits. This can be achieved if the resources are planned for properly.
According to Schmidt and Charlton (2015), another fundamental feature of DRS is that it enables the planners to balance the resources and workload in a virtual environment. In the past, planners would rely on estimates when assigning resources to different projects. However, it has been confirmed that using estimates is not effective when assigning resources. This makes it necessary to find better alternatives which will provide the needed accuracy.
DRS offer a unique environment for the planner to have a virtual environment where the workload and resources can be balanced as it would be in a real-work situation. It not only helps in assigning the material resources but also time and human resources. It identifies the best individuals who can address each of the tasks in a given project based on their skills and experience. It also defines time that will be taken by each party to complete a given task.
Describe VMotion and how it works
VMotion is widely used in migrating virtual machines from an underperforming or failing server to a target server that is performing optimally. This system works in a very simple way. The virtual machine has sets of files which are stored on a shared platform (Ferguson, 2013). VMware’s clustered VMFS (Virtual Machine File System) makes it possible to have installation of multiple ESX Servers.
The multiple servers can access same machine files at the same time. When moving from a source server that has a problem to a target server, the memory of the virtual machine is transferred rapidly and with precession. The virtual machine will switch instantaneously from operating on source ESX to destination ESX sever seamlessly (Khnaser, 2009).
VMotion ensures that the transfer from one server to another is imperceptible to the user. This is done by ensuring that memory transactions of the user are not affected in any way during the transfer process. Another way of ensuring that users do not detect or are not affected in any way during the transfer is by reducing the period of transfer.
Ferguson (2013) says that when this is happening on Gigabit Ethernet, it takes less than two seconds to have a seamless transfer from one underperforming source server to a better performing target server. When the system state and memory has been successfully copied to a target server, source virtual machine is suspended by VMotion. The bitmap that has been copied on the target server will be used to run the machine without interfering with user’s data.
References
Ferguson, B. (2013). The official VCP5 certification guide. Upper Saddle River: VMWare Press.
Khnaser, E. N. (2009). VCP: VMware certified professional. Indianapolis: Que Publishers.
Schmidt, R., & Charlton, D. (2015). VCA-DCV VMware Certified Associate-Data Center virtualization on vSphere: Study Guide. Hoboken: Sybex.
Walker, J. (2010). Establishing and Maintaining Service Levels. Bingley: Emerald.