...compared to the physical servers. The paper determines the value of virtualization in the computer architecture of today’s world which is designed to run on a single operating system and therefore, most of the computer resources are left underutilized. The focus would be to determine whether the virtualized servers are more secure than their physical counterparts giving the advantages of virtualization therein. Virtual servers over physical servers Virtualization entails the obstruction of physical resources away from their underlying logical resources to improve flexibility and agility, reduce costs and therefore, improve the value of the organization. In a virtualized context, computing environments can be dynamically expanded, created, moved or shrunk as demand varies. Server Virtualization entails allocating several occasions of an operation system to run simultaneously on a single server. Virtualization of servers is achieved by applying a hypervisor to allocate logically and separate physical computer resources. The hypervisor enables a guest operating system to function as if it were solely in control of the hardware while running on the virtual machine, oblivious that other guests are sharing it (Bakshi & Yogesh, 2010). The security benefits of virtualized servers over physical servers Virtualization of servers in the current world is surrounded by a very sophisticated management infrastructure that enables the user to spin up, store, and run virtual machines: the benefits...
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...Introduction The company that I work for has introduced and implemented Sever Virtualization technology but there is a very great concern in the security aspect of this implementation. So in this paper I will be discussing the security implications that are brought to the table by implementing Server Virtualization. Virtualization is a methodology that divides a computer’s resources into different environments and/or partitions. It was first developed in the 1960’s by IBM Corporation in order to partition a large mainframe computer into several logical instances running on one mainframe computer as a host .The main (and only) computer is called a host and multiple Virtual Machines can be created within the host. The VMs live independently of one another and different operating systems and applications can be loaded on each VM. Hypervisors play a significant role as far as resource allocation is concerned. Virtualization of servers has contributed tremendously to organization over the very short period since it was introduced to the IT and network environment. The organizations that have adopted this technology have gained a huge benefit in terms of cost savings, lower energy consumption, and the lesser space needed. Although this is very good and useful technology, the understanding of the importance of security enforcement still remains the cornerstone in the implementation of this technology. The introduction of newer and more complex environment triggers advancement as...
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...Feature Comparison Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Contents Introduction ............................................................................... 4 More Secure Multitenancy ..................................................... 5 Flexible Infrastructure .............................................................. 9 Scale, Performance, and Density ....................................... 13 High Availability ..................................................................... 18 Processor and Memory Support ....................................... 24 Network ................................................................................... 24 Storage ..................................................................................... 25 Manageability ......................................................................... 25 Feature Comparison: Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V 2 Copyright information © 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This document is provided "as-is." Information and views expressed in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, may change without notice. You bear the risk of using it. This document does not provide you with any legal rights to any intellectual property in any Microsoft product. You may copy and use this document for your internal, reference purposes. You may modify this document for your internal, reference purposes...
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...VMWARE WHITE P A P E R W H I T E PAPER Virtualization Overview 1 VMWARE WHITE PAPER Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 3 Virtualization in a Nutshell ................................................................................................................... 3 Virtualization Approaches .................................................................................................................... 4 Virtualization for Server Consolidation and Containment ........................................................... 7 How Virtualization Complements New-Generation Hardware .................................................. 8 Para-virtualization ................................................................................................................................... 8 VMware’s Virtualization Portfolio ........................................................................................................ 9 Glossary ..................................................................................................................................................... 10 2 VMWARE WHITE PAPER Virtualization Overview Introduction Among the leading business challenges confronting CIOs and IT managers today are: cost-effective utilization of IT infrastructure; responsiveness in supporting new business initiatives;...
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...Project 2: Virtual Network Design Jaime Galena ITCS-408 Mr. Shu 12-12-14 Western Dynamics is a midsized specialty manufacturing company. They have decided that a virtualized environment would help reduce costs and provide for a smaller carbon foot print. As the company’s first step in this direction, they have decided to move two of their current physical domain controllers into a virtualized environment. The company expects this system to reduce network traffic and improve throughput between virtual servers and desktop clients. The current environment of Western Dynamics has physical machines for the Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP), Domain Name Services (DNS), and Active Directory. They have recently purchased a new Quad Core computer with two Network Interface Cards (NIC) and 8 GB of RAM. This hardware should be capable of meeting the requirements necessary to run all three servers in one box. This is how the network currently looks, and how the proposed network will look like. Current network Router Router AD Server AD Server DNS Server DNS Server DHCP Server DHCP Server Switch Switch Printer Printer Printer Printer Switch Switch Switch Switch Group of 100 workstations Group of 100 workstations Group of 75 workstations Group of 75 workstations Virtualized Virtualized Proposed network Router Router DHCP DNS AD Server DHCP DNS AD Server Switch Switch Printer ...
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...Virtualization is a technology which allows one physical server to run many virtual servers. By virtual server, I mean a software container that contains a full operating system and set of software, just like a traditional server would. Each virtual server “believes” that it is running on physical hardware, and thus any software you would run normally on real physical machines will work without modification in a virtual server. Furthermore, each virtual server appears to the outside world – to clients which connect to them – to be traditional physical machines with dedicated hardware. The operating system of the physical server provides hardware interfaces to the virtual servers via simulation in softwre: CPUs, hard drives, network interfaces, displays, CD roms, etc.. The physical server translates I/O to these virtual devices to the I/O to the requisite physical devices, if necessary. The resources allocated to virtual machines can be changed nearly on-demand (disk, memory, network interfaces); most operating systems need merely to be rebooted in order to see the new resources. Limiting factors in how many virtual machines an individual virtualization server can run are simply how much memory, disk space and network bandwidth the virtualization server has available to it, and to how many resources each virtual machine consumes. A very basic virtualization server could host eight to twenty virtualized machines. Furthermore, most implementations of virtualization...
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...Running Head: Virtualization How will virtualization change the way government agencies do business in the future? Virtualization Abstract: Server and application virtualization is a hot topic among many government information technology program managers. Today’s government agencies are focusing on reducing expenses while improving the capabilities that information technology provides its customers. This is a difficult task to accomplish with shrinking budgets. A key technology that can help reduce costs in multiple ways is virtualization. Virtualization is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as an operating system, a server, a storage device or network resources. There are many advantages and disadvantages associated with virtualization. Each government agency that is considering virtualization needs to investigate both aspects and make the informed decision according to their business needs and their customers. Depending on the environment that some agencies operate in, virtualization may not be a logical or realistic choice for many of its information technology needs due to security policies that may be in effect. This is especially true within the intelligence community (IC) and Department of Defense (DoD) where they are required to keep different security classifications of data physically separated. Even though system security classification and policy effect government IT environments, the emergence...
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...Virtualization is technique which allows sharing single physical instance of application or resources among multiple organizations In virtualization you are able to separate the operating system from the hardware that runs operating system and you can transfer the entire operating system with application setting from one piece of server hardware to another piece of server hard ware and everything stay intact Back in old days if you want to migrate your server operating system from one piece of physical hard ware to another piece of hardware you have to do back all data then you have to migrate the operating system Using virtualization the operating system actual sets above the hardware you can just take the...
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...several interconnected machines whose assets are placed together in a virtual machine (VM) that upholds and controls itself (Marks, 2010). Different from other distributed systems, the architecture of cloud computing is detached from the physical system it depends on. This allows intense flexibility since resources can be removed or added according to real needs. Even though cloud computing is not a critical breakthrough with respect to technology (most technologies used in this paradigm were already accessible); it has changed the usability of technology in most virtual environments (Pfleeger and Pfleeger, 2007). Another business model has surfaced whereby each resource or application is given as a service, accessible on-demand and payable on a per-usage basis on the internet. Another concept in cloud computing is virtualization; a major technology for implementing cloud computing settings (Velte, Velte, and Elsenpeter, 2010). The main objective of virtualization involves polling together various material resources into one virtualized setting through detailed virtualization software, such as Xen and Vmware. The other goal involves creating a sequence of logical or virtual machines using an active selection of resources. Additionally, virtualization allows effective use of obtainable resources. Certainly, this expertise has ensured that the computing reserves allocated to virtual machines are indirectly associated with the fundamental physical infrastructure, although...
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...Securing the Virtualized Server Introduction The IT industry’s focus on virtualization has increased considerably over the years. Its appeal sprung from the ability to run several virtual machines on one physical computer resulting in saving companies the cost of having to purchase additional computer systems or servers. Just like their physical counterparts, the task of securing a virtual computer environment poses many challenges for IT technical personnel. The benefits of server virtualization have been touted over and over again to include load balancing, lower power consumption, ease of management, isolation from attackers and malware. While the benefits of virtualization have made it a “must-have technology” that continues to evolve, there are a number of security challenges and best practices that must be carefully considered when considering implementation. This paper will address the virtual server platform and the challenges and best practices in securing virtualized servers. The Evolution of Virtualization It is the theory that the concept of virtualization had its origins during the days of mainframe computers in the late 1960’s to early 1970’s, when IBM began developing time-sharing solutions for organizations. This endeavor was aimed at increasing the efficiency of both users and the expensive computer resources they shared by, in-effect, sharing usage of computer resources among a large group of users. This resulted in a breakthrough in the...
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...[pic] Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Started with Hyper-V Microsoft Corporation Published: December 2007 Author: Kathy Davies Editor: Ron Loi Abstract This guide helps you become familiar with Hyper-V™ by providing instructions on installing this new technology and creating a virtual machine. [pic] Copyright Information This document supports a preliminary release of a software product that may be changed substantially prior to final commercial release, and is the confidential and proprietary information of Microsoft Corporation. It is disclosed pursuant to a non-disclosure agreement between the recipient and Microsoft. This document is provided for informational purposes only and Microsoft makes no warranties, either express or implied, in this document. Information in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to change without notice. The entire risk of the use or the results from the use of this document remains with the user. Unless otherwise noted, the example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious, and no association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document...
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...ITDM IT WATCH ON VIRTUALIZATION SUBMITTED BY GROUP 9 CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION TO VIRTUALIZATION 2. TYPES OF VIRTUALIZATION 3. ADVANTAGES OF VIRTUALIZATION 4. VIRTUALIZATION IN INDIA 5. REFERENCES INTRODUCTION Virtualization is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as an operating system, a server, a storage device or network resources. In layman's term, virtualization allows you to run an independent operating system within an existing operating system using the existing hardware resources. So if you want to learn another operating system like Linux, you can use virtualization to run Linux on top of the existing operating system. Virtualization is the abstraction of IT resources, separating their physical instance and boundaries from their function. Virtualization has brought important innovation to IT Virtualization concept was first developed by IBM in the 1960s to fully utilize mainframe hardware by logically partitioning them into virtual machines. These partitions will allow mainframe computers to perform multiple tasks and applications at the same time.. During the 1980s and 1990s, desktop computing and x86 servers become available and so the virtualization technology was discarded eventually. Client-server applications and the emergence of Windows and Linux made server computing significantly inexpensive....
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...Microsoft Exchange 2010 on VMware Best Practices Guide Microsoft Exchange 2010 on VMware Best Practices Guide © 2011 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. This product is covered by one or more patents listed at http://www.vmware.com/download/patents.html. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. VMware, Inc 3401 Hillview Ave Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com © 2011 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Page 2 of 70 Microsoft Exchange 2010 on VMware Best Practices Guide Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................... 7 1.1 Purpose .......................................................................................................................... 7 1.2 Target Audience ............................................................................................................. 7 1.3 Scope ............................................................................................................................. 8 2. VMware ESX Host Best Practices for Exchange .............................. 9 2.1 CPU Configuration Guidelines ....................................................................................... 9 2.2 Memory...
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...By the use of virtualization, VMware hides the physical computing platform by showing another abstract computing platform to the users. VMware developed a range of products, most notable of which are their hypervisors (virtual machine manager). A virtual machine (VM) is a simulation of a machine that is usually different from the target or host workstation using a Virtual Player; which provides the means of running the virtual environment. Virtual machines emulate the computer architecture and functions of a real world computer. Virtual machines are separated into two major classifications, based on their use and degree of correspondence to any real machine: * A system virtual machine provides a complete system platform which supports the execution of a complete operating system. These usually emulate an existing architecture, and are built with either the purpose of providing a platform to run programs where the real hardware is not available for use (for example, executing software on otherwise obsolete platforms), or of having multiple instances of virtual machines lead to more efficient use of computing resources, both in terms of energy consumption and cost effectiveness (known as hardware virtualization, the key to a cloud computing environment), or both. * A process virtual machine (also, language virtual machine) is designed to run a single program, which means that it supports a single process. Such virtual machines are usually closely suited to one or more programming...
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...2.9 Virtualization Virtualization permits users to form, copy, share, migrate, and roll back virtual machines, which can enable them to run a range of applications . However, it also introduces new opportunities for attackers as a result of the extra layer that has to be secured . Virtual machine security becomes as necessary as physical machine security, and any flaw in either one could have an effect on the opposite . Virtualized environments area unit at risk of all sorts of attacks for traditional infrastructures; but, security may be a greater challenge as virtualization adds additional points of entry and additional interconnection complexness . Unlike physical servers, VMs have 2 boundaries: physical and virtual . 2.10 Virtual machine monitor...
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