lenge is not unique to virtualization. An
enterprise faces similar issues when it
introduces a new operating system to its
environment. Scaling difficulties, however, are particularly important when it
comes to virtualization for two reasons:
first, virtualization increases the number of systems that must be managed,
as discussed in the section on system
sprawl; second, one of the main benefits
of virtualization is central management
of the infrastructure, which cannot be
achieved without a suitably scalable
management framework.
tion and size of operational teams.
Interoperability. Many enterprises
have achieved a good level of integra-
tion between their backbone systems.
The addition of a server in the config-
uration-management system allows
it to get an IP address and host name.
The tool that executes a power-down
draws its data about what to power
off seamlessly from the configuration-
management system. A change in a
server’s configuration will automati-
cally change the checkout logic applied
to it. This uniformity and tight integra-
physical infrastructure.
As a result, enterprises are left with
a choice: either they live with a mul-
titude of frameworks with which to
manage the infrastructure, which in-
creases operational complexity; or they
must engineer their own solutions that
work around those limitations—for ex-
ample, the now open source Aquilon
framework extending the Quattor tool-
kit ( http://www.quattor.org). Another
option is for enterprises to wait until
the vendor ecosystem catches up with
enterprise-scale requirements before
they virtualize. The right answer de-
pends on a number of factors, includ-
ing the enterprise’s size, business
requirements, existing backbone of
systems and tools, size of virtualized
and virtualizable infrastructure, engi-
neering capabilities, and sophistica-
tion massively simplifies operational
and administrative work.
