Virtualization Essentials, 2nd Edition

Chapter 13Understanding Availability

The information age has altered our expectations regarding services. The Internet provides round-the-clock service and gives us access to everything from the latest news to our latest bank statements. The servers and data centers that deliver information need to be available as close to 100 percent of the time as possible. This requirement also holds true in a virtual environment. By using traditional availability solutions, a single virtual machine can be as reliable as a physical one. With capabilities physical servers cannot easily replicate, virtual machines can be more available than physical servers. By stacking multiple virtual machines on a single host, new techniques are available to ensure that ...