Task Overview

This assessment item requires you to produce a short report by investigating and advising a company on some key topics and aspects of the use of virtualisation technologies. Note: answering these questions will help you build a solid base for your next assessment item. You must also provide references in your report using the APA 6th edition style of referencing. A guide to the use of APA referencing can be found in the Interact Resources section.

Task

ACL Realty is a large real estate firm. Their core competence is their understanding of the real estate market, and their understanding of their customers and the customer needs. ACL Realty current self-managed a small data centre that has the following servers:

2 x Active Directory domain controllers on Windows Server 2008 R2, (2 x Xeon 3.6GHZ, 8GB RAM, 140GB HDD). These servers are used for authentication and authorisation;

3 x SQL Server 2003 database servers on Windows Server 2003 (2 x Xeon 2.8GHZ, 4GB RAM, 500GB RAID-5 array). These servers are used for database operations for Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint and their Client Property application;

1 x Exchange 2007 email server on Windows Server 2008 R2 (2 x Xeon 3.6GHZ, 8GB RAM, 250GB RAID-1 array);

4 x Windows Server 2003 File and Print servers (2 x Xeon 2.8GHZ, 4GB RAM, 250GB RAID-1 array);

1 x SharePoint 2007 server on Windows Server 2008 R2 (2 x Xeon 3.6GHZ, 16GB RAM, 250GB RAID-1 array);

1 x RENet Client Property and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) application server on Windows Server 2008 R2 (2 x Xeon 3.6GHZ, 8GB RAM, 250GB RAID-1 array);

2 x Red Hat Enterprise 5 Linux servers running Apache and TomCat (2 x Xeon 2.8GHZ, 16GB RAM, 140GB HDD).

The board of ACL Realty knows that their core competency is their understanding of the real estate market in their area of operations, and their understanding of their customers and their needs. They have been advised to retire most of their old physical servers and start moving their operations onto a virtual platform. You have been employed to advise the board on various aspects of virtualisation.

The board wants a report from you that answers the following questions:

1. Explain the role that Virtualisation plays in the current data centre environment. You must research and explain:

a) How will virtualisation assist ACL Realty to improve operations in their Data Centre? Provide supporting references for your report.

b) What are the minimum requirements that ACL Realty will need to consider before starting to implement a virtualisation solution in their data centre? Provide supporting references for your report.

c) Provide one relevant example of an organisation using these technologies.

d) Your answer for this section should be between 400 – 500 words

2. You have to explain what you consider to be the key attributes of a VM so that it can be considered efficient.

a) What are some of the key attributes of a VM to be considered an efficient VM. Provide supporting references for your report.

b) What important points will you consider when using a VM as a server? Why do you consider these important? Provide supporting references for your report.

c) Your answer for this section should be between 400 – 500 words and address the points d) in the marking rubric.

3. A virtual appliance is a key concept in the virtualisation world. There are currently many hundreds (probably thousands) of virtual appliances available for use.

a) Discuss the differences between a virtual appliance and a vApp? Provide supporting references for your report.

b) ACL Realty has been offered the chance to upgrade their RENet Client Property and CRM application to a Virtual Appliance. Would you recommend this approach to ACL Realty? Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. Provide supporting references for your report.

c) Your answer for this section should be between 400 – 500 words

Rationale

This assessment consists of three questions assessing the basic understanding of virtualisation and related concepts. This assessment covers the following learning outcomes:

• be able to list and explain the importance of different virtualisation technologies for x86 and UNIX based platforms;
• be able to evaluate which virtualisation technology should be used in a given set of requirements; and
• be able to discuss and evaluate the requirements for effective VM management