Top 10 things you must read about VMware’s VMotion technology By Eric Siebert published: Monday, December 01 2008
VMotion
is a revolutionary and powerful feature of VMware VI3 that allows for a running
virtual machine to be hot migrated from one host to another without any
downtime to the guest operating system. Because of the complexity of moving a
virtual machine from one host to another there are some specific requirements,
specifically with the host CPU that must be met for the feature to work
properly. Understanding CPU compatibility can often be confusing and trying to
make incompatible CPUs work together can often be challenging. Because of this
VMware has recently introduced a new feature called Enhanced VMotion to help
eliminate CPU compatibilities within a CPU brand. The items on this list will
help you understand how the various VMotion features work, how to configure
them and how to understand and overcome incompatible CPUs amongst hosts to make
VMotion work. It includes blog posts from some well-known and respected
bloggers that offer tips and information, important VMware knowledgebase
articles that clarify the CPU compatibilities and white papers and
presentations from VMware.
VMware VMotion
and CPU Compatibility
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vmotion_info_guide.pdf
A white paper
from VMware that explains how VMotion works, the differences between CPU types
and features, what CPU masks are and how to use them and what Enhanced VMotion
is.
Understanding
CPU Compatibility Constraints for VMotion (VMworld 2007 - free registration
required)
http://www.vmworld.com/mylearn?classID=11641
A VMworld 2007
presentation that explains the complexities behind CPU constraints with
VMotion, problematic CPU features, compatibility groups of CPUs, relaxation of
restraints and hardware support for enhanced VMotion compatibility.
VMotion CPU Compatibility for
Intel & AMD processors and how to override CPU masks due to CPU mismatch
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1991 / http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1992 / http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1993
Three VMware knowledgebase
articles that cover specific CPU compatibility information for Intel and AMD
processors and how to override CPU masks due to CPU mismatch within CPU brands.
How to obtain,
configure and use VMotion and how VMotion works
http://searchvmware.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid179_gci1279864,00.html
An article from
Andrew Kutz that covers how to license VMotion, how to configure and use it and
the technical details behind how it works.
VMotion Compatibilty
http://blog.scottlowe.org/2006/11/23/vmotion-compatibility/
An article from Scott
Lowe that covers CPU masks and how to understand them and set them properly to
override CPU compatibility constratints.
How to setup and use VMotion: A Screencast
http://searchservervirtualization.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid94_gci1268244,00.html
A screencast from Andrew Kutz that shows
how to setup and use VMotion. It covers how to configure it, potential gotchas
and how to perform a VMotion migration.
What is Enhanced
VMotion Compatibility anyway?
http://vmguy.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/38
An article from
Dave Lawrence that explains the technical details about CPUID instructions and
how Enhanced VMotion Compatibility helps to solve the problem of using
incompatible CPUs with VMotion.
Overview of
VMotion migration compatibility error messages
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003684
A VMware
knowledgebase article that covers the many possible error messages that may be
experienced with VMotion and how to resolve them.
Enhanced
VMotion Compatibility (EVC) processor support
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003212
A VMware
knowledgebase article that covers the Intel and AMD processors that are
supported by Enhanced VMotion Compatibility.
Live Migration
with AMD-V Extended Migration Technology
http://developer.amd.com/assets/Live%20Virtual%20Machine%20Migration%20on%20AMD%20processors.pdf
A white paper
from AMD that covers the challenges and technical details of using VMotion
across incompatible CPUs and how CPUID instructions are used.
Related Links:
Complete 'Top 10' Collection, Top 10 things you must read about virtualization and compliance, Top 10 things you must read about processors and virtualization , VMotion
Eric Siebert is a 25-year IT veteran with experience in programming,
networking, telecom and systems administration. He is a guru-status
moderator on the VMware community VMTN
forum and maintains VMware-land.com,
a VI3 information site.
|
