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Microsoft Adds Quick Storage Migration Feature to SCVMM

PostDateIcon June 25th, 2009 | PostAuthorIcon Author: Rich Brambley

Edwin Yuen, Microsoft Virtualization Team Senior Technical Product Manager, has introduced Hyper-V’s latest feature closely emulating VMware’s virtual infrastructure enterprise product offerings. Quick Storage Migration (QSM) is being added to System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 R2. SCVMM 2008 R2 Release Canidate was recently released to the public. Hyper-V’s final release was integrated in Windows Server 2008 SP2.

Quoting Yuen’s post on the Microsoft Virtualization Team Blog titled System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 – Quick Storage Migration, here are some high level notes about QSM:

  • QSM enables the migration of a VM not only between storage locations but also from one SAN to another
  • QSM relies on Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)
  • QSM can move the virtual disks of a running virtual machine independent of storage protocols (iSCSI, FC) or storage type (local, DAS, SAN), with minimal downtime
  • QSM will not be available on the free Hyper-V Server 2008 version and requires Microsoft’s Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)
  • Quick Storage Migration is included with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 both in the Enterprise Edition and the Workgroup Edition
  • A VM can remain running for the almost the entire duration of the transfer of its virtual disks from one storage location to another. The post estimates the VM downtime to be under 1 minute in most cases assuming W2K8 R2.
  • The VM is put into save-state (Hyper-V snapshot) for a brief interval to migrate its memory state and associated differencing disks.

Yuen’s post provides a feature comparison table of QSM versus VMware’s Storage Vmotion. The following is a screen shot of the table.

It should be noted that many of the features in the table favor Microsoft because Quick Migration requires VM downtime and is not a fully live migration like VMware’s Storage Vmotion. Regardless, Microsoft’s ability to automate the storage transfer with minimal VM downtime should be recieved well by most administrators.

Check out Yuen’s post in it’s entirety for technical details on how QSM works as well as projected sample scenarios.

Check out the SCVMM Team Blog for the other comparible features to VMware that are being introduced in this VMM Release Canidate

Related Posts

PostCategoryIcon Posted in hyper-v, microsoft, MS VMM, scvmm, server 2008, storage vmotion, vmetc.com | PostTagIcon Tags: , , , , ,
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  • Joel

    Hmm, that comparison is really screwed up..
    To compare a MS product that is not yet released to an VMW product that is a generation old???

    How about compare the latest products that you actually can get? (W2k8 vs vSphere4)

  • Dracolith

    You can get W2k8 R2.

    I agree comparing against VI3 instead of vSphere seems like a self-serving comparison choice.

  • http://vmetc.com rbrambley

    Joel,

    You have a point with the proven -ness (couldn't think of a better word) of VMware SVMotion. However, MS has come a long way quickly with the ability to use a clustered file system and shared storage, and now has an answer for automated storage migration. Will the first version be acceptable? We'll see.

    As Dracolith points out both W2K8 R2 SP2(containing Hyper-V) and SCVMM R2 Release Candidate are available now and together provide a working, but not final, version of QSM.

  • http://vmetc.com rbrambley

    LOL. Isn't it understood that marketing is supposed to be self serving? The QSM vs SVMotion table is definitely leaning towards Redmond, WA. No doubt!

    What if you hot clone a VMware VM to a new storage location, and then power off the original and power on the new VM (essentially like QSM). Then you could match both technologies row for row. No? ;)

  • Joel

    Exactly, W2k8 R2 (RC2) is in some kind of beta, not released yet.
    This just shows that MS is way behind VMW and they know about it!

  • Dracolith

    That would work great for completely stateless servers, e.g. DNS servers, web servers, and proxies that don't have any local databases or session files stored on them (any VM that doesn't hold critical data).

    Otherwise, the problem is data loss between the time the clone started and the time you started the clone operation and the time you powered off the old VM.

    Lets say you have an Exchange Server VM.
    (1) You start the hot clone
    (2) An e-mail comes into your exchange VM and is stored in Joe's mailbox
    (3) The hot clone finishes
    (4) You power off the original VM and power on the new one.

    Joe has lost the new e-mail message that arrived, the sending mailserver won't re-send, because the original Exchange VM already acknowledged succesful delivery of the message.

    Matters are more severe if the VM is a domain controller in a multi-DC environment, replication can be seriously messed up. If the VM is running a SQL server for a financial application, or the backend for an e-commerce app, you can lose transactions or orders.

  • Dracolith

    That would work great for completely stateless servers, e.g. DNS servers, web servers, and proxies that don't have any local databases or session files stored on them (any VM that doesn't hold critical data).

    Otherwise, the problem is data loss between the time you started the clone operation and the time you powered off the old VM.

    Lets say you have an Exchange Server VM.
    (1) You start the hot clone
    (2) An e-mail comes into your exchange VM and is stored in Joe's mailbox
    (3) The hot clone finishes
    (4) You power off the original VM and power on the new one.

    Joe has lost the new e-mail message that arrived, the sending mailserver won't re-send, because the original Exchange VM already acknowledged succesful delivery of the message.

    Matters are more severe if the VM is a domain controller in a multi-DC environment, replication can be seriously messed up. If the VM is running a SQL server for a financial application, or the backend for an e-commerce app, you can lose transactions or orders.

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