Cisco Cisco UCS 6248UP 48-Port Fabric Interconnect White Paper
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Virtualization using VMware ESX provides an abstraction layer that decouples the physical hardware from the
operating system to deliver greater IT resource utilization and flexibility. Virtualization allows multiple virtual
machines with heterogeneous operating systems (for example, Microsoft Windows 2008 Server and Linux) and
applications to run in isolation side by side on the same physical machine. A virtual machine is the representation
of a physical machine by software. It has its own set of virtual hardware (RAM, CPU, NICs, hard disks, etc.) on
which an operating system and applications are loaded. The operating system sees a consistent, normalized set of
hardware regardless of the actual physical hardware components. VMware virtual machines contain advanced
hardware features such as 64-bit computing and virtual symmetric multiprocessing. Figure 3 shows server
virtualization with VMware ESX in which virtual machines directly access the network through Cisco Data Center
VM-FEX.
operating system to deliver greater IT resource utilization and flexibility. Virtualization allows multiple virtual
machines with heterogeneous operating systems (for example, Microsoft Windows 2008 Server and Linux) and
applications to run in isolation side by side on the same physical machine. A virtual machine is the representation
of a physical machine by software. It has its own set of virtual hardware (RAM, CPU, NICs, hard disks, etc.) on
which an operating system and applications are loaded. The operating system sees a consistent, normalized set of
hardware regardless of the actual physical hardware components. VMware virtual machines contain advanced
hardware features such as 64-bit computing and virtual symmetric multiprocessing. Figure 3 shows server
virtualization with VMware ESX in which virtual machines directly access the network through Cisco Data Center
VM-FEX.
Figure 3. VMware ESX 5.0 with Cisco Data Center VM-FEX
Microsoft Windows 2008 Release 2 Overview
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Release 2 (R2) is Microsoft’s multipurpose next-generation operating system
designed to increase reliability and flexibility. Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 introduces powerful next-
generation tools, built-in virtualization technology, and security and server management enhancements to
efficiently manage IT operations, reduce costs, and improve performance of business-critical systems. The main
improvements offered in Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 are:
designed to increase reliability and flexibility. Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 introduces powerful next-
generation tools, built-in virtualization technology, and security and server management enhancements to
efficiently manage IT operations, reduce costs, and improve performance of business-critical systems. The main
improvements offered in Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 are: