My PhD oral defense. An overlay network of VMMs (the vMatrix) which enables backward-compatible improvement of the scalability, reliability, and interactivity of Internet services. Three applications demonstrated: 1. Dynamic Content Distribution 2. Server Switching 3. Fair placement of Game Servers

1. Applications of Virtual Machines For Scalable, Reliable, And Interactive Internet Services Ph.D. Oral Examination Amr A. Awadallah June 24 th , 2006 [email_address] http://www.awadallah.com/vmatrix

2. What is The vMatrix?

3. Virtual Machine Monitors Virtual Machine Monitor (aka Hypervisor) Real Machine (CPU, Memory, Disks, Network) Virtual Machine 1: vCPU, vMem, vDisk, vNet OS1: Windows 2000 Oracle, IIS Virtual Machine 2: vCPU, vMem, vDisk, vNet OS2: Linux MySQL, Apache

4. Live Demo of VMware player:

8. Today Is Static Mirroring

9. Dynamic Content Distribution

10. Two Tier Architecture

12. Challenges: Mobility (NAT) VMM RM VM Agent VM1 VM2 192.168.1.10 NAT/LB Internet 64.58.77.28 DNS maps.yahoo.com  64.58.77.28

13. Challenges: Security (VPNs) VMM VM1 VM2 RM VM Agent VPN Intranet DNS 192.168.1.10 172.21.162.9 c009.proxy.yahoo.com maps.yahoo.com  64.58.77.28 NAT/LB Internet 64.58.77.28

16. The AJAX Solution

19. Static Servers (ala Circuit Switching) FINANCE SPORTS Load Balancer

20. Server Switching (ala Packet Switching) FINANCE & SPORTS Load Balancer vMatrix Oracle Key: Peak of Sums < Sum of Peaks

22. vMatrix Framework: The Oracle: This is the main control program Hibernation Nest : VM files are suspended and stored here for later retrieval. Production Cluster : Live operational VMs, typically only one VM per RM Loading Chambers : Development and Maintenance Cluster, there could be more than one VM per RM here. RM VMM VM VM VM VM VM VM VM VM VM RM VMM VM VM VM RM VMM VM VM VM RM VMM VM RM VMM VM

23. Lifecycle of a server VM Loading Chambers Hibernation Nest Instantiated 1. A large number of virtual servers are stored as dormant files on a SAN or Netapps 2. A number of virtual servers are activated in a shared RM so that developers & system admins can upgrade, debug, or patch them. 3. A virtual server is activated on a dedicated RM and exposed to live load.

24. Sample Implementations: Real Machine (PIII-550MHz, 640MB RAM, 9GB hard disk) VMware ESX VMM Server (consumes 184MB RAM, 3.5GB hard disk and 5% CPU) Virtual Machine exposes a PIII-550MHz with 512MB RAM and 5.5GB hard disk. Operating System: Red Hat Linux 9 Apache Web Server MySQL Database PHP (Hyper Text Processor) PHP-Nuke and osCommerce Internet Services Real Machine (PIII-550MHz, 640MB RAM, 9GB hard disk) VMware ESX VMM Server (consumes 184MB RAM, 3.5GB hard disk and 5% CPU) Virtual Machine exposes a PIII-550MHz with 1024MB RAM and 5.5GB hard disk. Operating System: Yahoo FreeBSD 4.8 YLIB (Yahoo C/C++ Libraries) YSS (Yahoo Structured Search) Yahoo! Autos Search Network API

27. Delay Sensitivity of Online Games: Extremely Lag sensitive (on the order of 50ms) First Person Shooters (FPS) (Halo, Battlefield2, Doom, CounterStrike) Moderate sensitivity to lag (on the order of 500ms) MMORPG and RTS (World of Warcraft, Everquest, Generals) Not sensitive to lag (on the order of seconds) Turn Based Strategy (Civilization 4, Risk, Chess, Pool)

28. Screenshot from Halo PC:

29. The Problem: Unfair Lag Clan A Clan B 130ms 30ms Game Server

30. The Solution: Equi-Ping Server Clan A Clan B 80ms Real Machine 80ms VMM Virtual Game Server in VM

33. Halo PC VM Server Stack Real Machine (PIII-550MHz, 640MB RAM, 9GB hard disk) VMware ESX VMM Server (consumes 184MB RAM, 3.5GB hard disk and 5% CPU) Virtual Machine exposes a PIII-550MHz with 512MB RAM and 5.5GB hard disk. Operating System: Windows XP (1.8GB) Halo PC Game Server (278MB)

40. Thank You