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virtual servers

Server Virtualization Course - 6 Weeks - $395.00

The Server Virtualization Course is designed to provide you with the skills to build and administer a server that is hosting 30-100 virtual servers. This 6 week course is a course where all of the training is done on a real server. Students will log into our servers and perform all skills and perform all tasks on our network so an instructor can work with the student on a one-to-one basis. Students will have the ability to talk with the instructor on the phone asking questions and working through an evaluation of their work during the week.



This course is designed to give you the necessary skills to administer a server that hosts virtual servers as well as the network services needed to run that server. Practical skills are the focus of the course.

Practical Skills Learned + Practiced in Real Situations = Success!

If you are interested and would like to talk to the trainer who will be conducting the class, send an email to set up a time to discuss the class.

 

Server Virtualization with OpenVZ $395.00
Click Here to Order

Why Consider Virtualization?
1. Consolidation Saves You Money
With virtualization you can take the hardware you are running on one server which is running at 40% capacity and now create additional servers and have with that same server running at 80% capacity. You use your resources more effectively and you save money.
2. Backups and Cloning are Simple
Clone your website and then replace it when needed.
3. Test New Applications
Your can use virtual servers to test any new applications that you may want to use for your organization.

Virtual Server TrainingVirtualization Comparison

Single Kernel
RAM for Host
Graphical Interface
Hosts Per Server
OpenVZ
yes
30
no
30-100
XEN
no
512
yes
4-10
VMWare
no
512
yes
4-10

Why Choose OpenVZ? (taken from the OpenVZ.com website)
20 % of each Class Sold will go back to support the OpenVZ project.

1. OS Virtualization
From the point of view of applications and Virtual Environment users, each VE is an independent system. This independency is provided by a virtualization layer in the kernel of the host OS. Note that only a negligible part of the CPU resources is spent on virtualization (around 1-2%).

2. Network virtualization
The OpenVZ network virtualization layer is designed to isolate VEs from each other and from the physical network

3. Resource Management
OpenVZ resource management controls the amount of resources available for Virtual Environments. The controlled resources include such parameters as CPU power, disk space, a set of memory-related parameters, etc.

4. Two-Level Disk Quota
Host system (OpenVZ) owner (root) can set up a per-VE disk quotas, in terms of disk blocks and i-nodes (roughly number of files). This is the first level of disk quota. In addition to that, a VE owner (root) can use usual quota tools inside own VE to set standard UNIX per-user and per-group disk quotas.

5. Fair CPU scheduler
CPU scheduler in OpenVZ is a two-level implementation of fair-share scheduling strategy.

6. User Beancounters
User beancounters is a set of per-VE counters, limits, and guarantees. There is a set of about 20 parameters which are carefully chosen to cover all the aspects of VE operation, so no single VE can abuse any resource which is limited for the whole node and thus do harm to another VEs.

How the Course is Run

1. Self-Paced Individual Training
The self-paced style allows you to work on your own schedule and set up instructor training when it works for you. The student studies the material and then view the live examples from the instructor. Students will be provided a 200 page manual for the class. This manual provides theory as well as practical step by step application.

2. Instructor Led Live Class
The student will have 4 live sessions with the instructor in the two week period. The instructor will demonstrate the projects and solutions for troubleshooting so the student has the opportunity to view the process as well as read about the process before they perform the projects. During this time
will have 24/7 contact with the instructor via email and will be able to setup a telephone conference any time they need help.

3. Instructor Monitored Project Completion
The course requires the student to complete a number of projects on a live server to gain experience working with virtual servers. These projects are done under the instructors supervision.

Projects
Each
project is designed to develop skills in managing a server with many virtual servers.

Project# 1: Installation
Installation of the necessary programs will be covered and tips on configuration settings.

Project #2: Manage the Node Firewall
The hardware node is the server that hosts the virtual servers. It is critical that the firewall be set up correctly to prevent any intrusion attempts as the hardware node controls all of the virtual servers. This project will go into detail on how to set the firewall up so that it will not only protect the hardware node but the virtual servers as well.

Project #3: Manage the Node Security
Managing services, tcp_wrappers, user accounts, locking down the server so that it is as secure as possible is covered in this project.

Project #4: Create a Virtual Server
Step by step students are taken through the process of building virtual servers. This process includes selecting a template and using that template to build a working server in less than 5 minutes!

Project #5: Manage the VPS Firewall
Firewall are placed on the virtual server as they function as real servers and therefore need the same protection. Several firewall options will be considered including Bastille-Linux and the lokkit.

Project #6: Install Programs on the VPs
Once the server is created users will want to install server applications or services so the servers are useful for the organization.

Project #7: Manage the Resources on the VPs
Each virtual serve can be managed individually, so that the total hardware node resources may be divided any way that you want to configure it. This project will help the student manage those resources.

Project #8: Clone the VPs
Students will learn how to clone a virtual server as a backup or to create a new virtual server.

Project #9: Troubleshooting Resources on the VPs
Troubleshooting usually involves readjusting the resources for a virtual server. This project will help students recognize problems and then solve the resource issues.

Project #10: Managing Templates
Determining which templates to use and how to set templates up will be the subject of this project.

Project #11: Connecting to a Serial Interface
Virtual servers can be set up to use serial devices for connecting to a router for example. This project will show students how to designate serial connections for the virtual server.

Project #12: Using Multiple Network Cards
Separate network cards may be used to connect to any number of networks from different virtual servers on the same hardware node. This project helps students set up those separate network connections.


The information below is taken from the OpenVZ.com website. It provides you with a basic understanding of some the powerful features of OpenVZ.

The architecture of OpenVZ VEs is different from the traditional virtual machines architecture because it always runs the same OS kernel as the host system (while still allowing multiple Linux distributions in individual VEs). This single-kernel implementation technology enables running Virtual Environments with a near-zero overhead. Thus, OpenVZ offer an order of magnitude higher efficiency and manageability than traditional virtualization technologies.

OS Virtualization
From the point of view of applications and Virtual Environment users, each VE is an independent system. This independency is provided by a virtualization layer in the kernel of the host OS. Note that only a negligible part of the CPU resources is spent on virtualization (around 1-2%). The main features of the virtualization layer implemented in OpenVZ are the following:

* A VE looks and behaves like a regular Linux system. It has standard startup scripts; software from vendors can run inside a VE without OpenVZ-specific modifications or adjustment;
* A user can change any configuration file and install additional software;
* Virtual Environments are completely isolated from each other (file system, processes, Inter Process Communication (IPC), sysctl variables);
* Processes belonging to a VE are scheduled for execution on all available CPUs. Consequently, VEs are not bound to only one CPU and can use all available CPU power.

Network virtualization
The OpenVZ network virtualization layer is designed to isolate VEs from each other and from the physical network:

* Each VE has its own IP address; multiple IP addresses per VE are allowed;
* Network traffic of a VE is isolated from the other VEs. In other words, Virtual Environments are protected from each other in the way that makes traffic snooping impossible;
* Firewalling may be used inside a VE (the user can create rules limiting access to some services using the canonical iptables tool inside the VE). In other words, it is possible to set up firewall rules from inside a VE;
* Routing table manipulations and advanced routing features are supported for individual VEs. For example, setting different maximum transmission units (MTUs) for different destinations, specifying different source addresses for different destinations, and so on.

Resource Management
OpenVZ resource management controls the amount of resources available for Virtual Environments. The controlled resources include such parameters as CPU power, disk space, a set of memory-related parameters, etc. Resource management allows OpenVZ to:

* Effectively share available Hardware Node resources among VEs
* Guarantee Quality-of-Service (QoS)
* Provide performance and resource isolation and protect from denial-of-service attacks
* Collect usage information for system health monitoring

Resource management is much more important for OpenVZ than for a standalone computer since computer resource utilization in a OpenVZ-based system is considerably higher than that in a typical system. As all the VEs are using the same kernel, resource management is of paramount importance. Really, each VE should stay within its boundaries and not affect other VEs in any way — and this is what resource management does.

OpenVZ resource management consists of three components: two-level disk quota, fair CPU scheduler, and user beancounters. Please note that all those resources can be changed during VE runtime, there is no need to reboot. Say, if you want to give your VE less memory, you just change the appropriate parameters on the fly. This is either very hard to do or not possible at all with other virtualization approaches such as VM or hypervisor.

Two-Level Disk Quota
Host system (OpenVZ) owner (root) can set up a per-VE disk quotas, in terms of disk blocks and i-nodes (roughly number of files). This is the first level of disk quota. In addition to that, a VE owner (root) can use usual quota tools inside own VE to set standard UNIX per-user and per-group disk quotas.

If you want to give your VE more disk space, you just increase its disk quota. No need to resize disk partitions etc.

Fair CPU scheduler
CPU scheduler in OpenVZ is a two-level implementation of fair-share scheduling strategy.

On the first level scheduler decides which VE is give the CPU time slice to, based on per-VE cpuunits values. On the second level the standard Linux scheduler decides which process to run in that VE, using standard Linux process priorities and such.

OpenVZ administrator can set up different values of cpuunits for different VEs, and the CPU time will be given to those proportionally.

Also there is a way to limit CPU time, e.g. say that this VE is limited to, say, 10% of CPU time available.

User Beancounters
User beancounters is a set of per-VE counters, limits, and guarantees. There is a set of about 20 parameters which are carefully chosen to cover all the aspects of VE operation, so no single VE can abuse any resource which is limited for the whole node and thus do harm to another VEs.

Resources accounted and controlled are mainly memory and various in-kernel objects such as IPC shared memory segments, network buffers etc. etc. Each resource can be seen from /proc/user_beancounters and has five values assiciated with it: current usage, maximum usage (for the lifetime of a VE), barrier, limit, and fail counter. The meaning of barrier and limit is parameter-dependant; in short, those can be thought of as a soft limit and a hard limit. If any resource hits the limit, fail counter for it is increased, so VE owner can see if something bad is happening by analyzing the output of /proc/user_beancounters in her VE.

 

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