1. Simple, Powerful and
Affordable Virtualization
Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper-V ™
on intel® Xeon® Processor-based Servers
S o LU T i o n b R i E F You’re probably well aware that virtualization can help you simplify and consolidate
your IT infrastructure, improve service levels and streamline new application deploy-
Reduce Costs through ments, all while dramatically lowering your total costs. Yet up until now you may have
been concerned about the cost and complexity of deploying and managing virtual-
Server Consolidation
ization. It’s time to take a fresh look.
Windows Server® 2008 R2 Hyper-V™ running on the latest Intel® Xeon® processor-
based servers provides all the benefits of enterprise-class server virtualization in an
integrated solution that is optimized for midsize and smaller businesses.
• Low Acquisition Costs and Easy Deployment — Hyper-V is included in the
Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system at no extra cost. You can migrate
your existing applications into virtual machines with just a few clicks and
without disruptive changes to your software environment.
• Simplified Management Using Familiar Tools — Manage your physical
and virtual servers from a single control panel using the included tools or System
Center Virtual Machine Manager. Your staff will be able to maintain your systems
more efficiently and with less downtime, and deploy new applications in minutes.
• Exceptional Performance and Scalability — The latest Intel Xeon processor-
based servers deliver more than double the virtualization performance1 of previous-
generation servers with reduced energy consumption and outstanding reliability.
Many organizations are using them to achieve ten to one or higher consolidation
ratios, with corresponding reductions in power, space and management costs.
• The Highest Levels of Compatibility, Reliability and Support —
Thousands of businesses are using Hyper-V running on Intel Xeon processor-
based servers to run business-critical applications. You can deploy it with
confidence in your production environment.

2. A Solution for Your In the event of an attack, you can quarantine infected
systems and bring replacement VMs online almost
Toughest iT Challenges instantly to minimize downtime.
Hyper-V introduces a thin layer of software that transforms a
single physical server into multiple “virtual machines” (VMs), Move your custom applications
each capable of hosting a guest operating system. It gives to a higher-value architecture
you unprecedented control over your hardware and software Migrate legacy custom applications into VMs running on
assets. You can add or subtract processing, memory or I/O powerful new servers to improve performance and reduce
resources to a running VM or quickly migrate a running VM costs. Most older Windows® operating systems can be
to a different physical server. The benefits are far reaching. migrated without software changes, and virtualization
can help you improve returns for migrating RISC/UNIX*
Reduce your costs or mainframe applications.
through server consolidation
By consolidating applications onto powerful new servers,
businesses can typically reduce server numbers by an order
Hyper-V:
of magnitude or more to drive down costs and breathe new The Virtualization Software
life into overcrowded data centers. (To estimate the benefits You’ve been Waiting For
in your environment, use the Intel ROI calculator at:
Hyper-V gives you the flexibility and control you need to
www.intel.com/go/xeonestimator).
consolidate your entire server infrastructure. You can con-
solidate unmodified Windows, Linux* and Xen-based Linux
Maintain systems and operating systems on the same server, including both 32-bit
software without downtime and 64-bit versions. You can allocate up to four processors
You can easily move applications to different servers for and 64 GB of memory per VM for demanding workloads. You
scheduled maintenance. You can also duplicate a VM can also configure advanced networking capabilities, such
almost instantly, so you can deploy and test patches, as VLANs, network address translation and firewalls. You
upgrades and new applications without putting your can even add or remove virtual NICs without downtime.
production environment at risk.
Hyper-V is fully integrated into the Windows operating
environment for a simple and trouble-free virtualization
implement high availability and experience.
disaster recovery cost-effectively
Hyper-V works seamlessly with the clustering, failover and System Center Virtual Machine Manager Workgroup
load-balancing capabilities of Windows Server 2008 R2. Edition simplifies physical-to-VM conversion and VM mana-
You can implement high availability and disaster recovery gement. It can help you identify best-fit physical servers for
without the high cost of hardware duplication. Also, Hyper-V each operating system (OS) environment and then copy the
supports live migration, adding additional flexibility to move entire OS into a VM without interrupting performance on the
running VMs from one physical host to another without any source system.
disruption of service or perceived downtime. System Center Essentials 2007 provides compre-
hensive, policy-based management of physical and virtual
improve security machines from a central location. It simplifies provisioning,
Isolate your business and web-interfacing applications monitoring, change management and troubleshooting.
in separate VMs and configure security independently
for each VM to protect your business more effectively.
2

3. Multiplying Your
Returns with intel Xeon
Processor-based Servers
Choosing the right server hardware increases the value of
virtualization. The industry-leading performance, reliability
and flexibility of Intel Xeon processor-based servers offer
fundamental advantages.
built for Virtualization
Intel Xeon processor-based servers support Intel® Virtual- Superior Consolidation Ratios
ization Technology † (Intel® VT), which provides hardware
With two high-performance, quad-core processors
assistance for key virtualization processes throughout the
(capable of running 16 concurrent software threads) and
server platform to enable more powerful, efficient and
up to 144 GB of memory, a 2-socket server based on the
affordable virtualization solutions.
Intel Xeon processor 5500 series can support multiple
Intel VT helps to improve performance and scalability by applications and heavy workloads with ease. Each proc-
reducing the need for compute-intensive hypervisor transi- essor provides up to 8 MB of fast on-die cache, Intel®
tions and software translations between the guest and host Hyper-Threading Technology◊ and Intel® QuickPath
operating systems. This enhances overall server performance technology, which provides up to 3.5 times the system
and enables more VMs to run on a host server at near- bandwidth of previous-generation processors.
native performance.
If you are looking for even higher consolidation ratios,
Intel® VT FlexPriority delivers additional performance improve- consider 4-socket or larger servers based on the Intel®
ments by minimizing the impact of requests, or “interrupts,” Xeon® processor 7400∆ series. With up to 24 cores and
which come from other devices or applications and can be a 256 GB of memory in a single 4-socket server, these
significant source of performance loss in virtual environments. systems deliver higher capacity for large-scale consolida-
Intel VT FlexPriority introduces a special register to monitor tion. Many IT organizations achieve order of magnitude
the priority of tasks. Only the highest priority interrupts get reductions in server numbers to dramatically simplify
immediate attention, so the processor can perform more management and reduce operating costs.
useful work with fewer distractions.
industry-leading Energy Efficiency
Up to nine Times the Performance The energy-saving benefits of consolidation are increased
∆
The latest Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series-based by the intelligent power management capabilities of the
servers increase performance by a factor of two compared Intel Xeon processor 5500 series. With Intel® Turbo Boost
with previous-generation systems, and by a factor of nine Technology,§ these systems deliver peak performance when
compared with older, single-core processor-based systems.2 you need it, while scaling down energy consumption when
With these performance gains, you can expect performance workloads are low. You get up to 2.2x the performance of
to improve substantially as you move applications from previous-generation servers in a similar power envelope,3
dedicated older servers into VMs on these more along with an estimated 50 percent reduction in idle power
powerful systems. consumption.4 Windows Server 2008 R2 fully supports this
intelligent power management, dynamically scaling power
per core to match workloads.
3

4. High Reliability
Intel processor-based servers deliver the highest record If you have not yet deployed virtualization in your data
of uptime in Windows environments. The latest Intel Xeon center, now is the time to explore your options. Chances
processors extend this advantage by delivering new enter- are you can reduce your server numbers by a factor of 10
prise-class reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) or more, while improving service levels and dramatically
features. Support for features such as Error Correction Code reducing your total costs.
(ECC), memory mirroring and sparing and the Windows
Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) help you achieve
higher reliability and uptime per server.
For More information
Microsoft Virtualization for Small and Midsize Businesses:
Get Started Today www.microsoft.com/virtualization/solutions/smb/
Until recently, the cost and complexity of virtualization has default.mspx.
overshadowed the enormous potential benefits it offers for
Virtualization on Intel Xeon processor-based servers:
small and midsize businesses. Windows Server 2008 R2
www.intel.com/go/virtualization.
Hyper-V running on Intel Xeon processor-based servers
eliminates the key barriers to implementation, by providing
enterprise-class performance and functionality in an
integrated solution that is easy and affordable to
deploy, manage and extend.
Δ
Intel processor numbers are not a measure of performance. Processor numbers differentiate features within each processor family, not across different processor
families. See www.intel.com/products/processor_number/ for details.
†
Intel® Virtualization Technology requires a computer system with an enabled Intel® processor, BIOS, virtual machine monitor (VMM) and, for some uses, certain
platform software enabled for it. Functionality, performance or other benefits will vary depending on hardware and software configurations and may require a BIOS
update. Software applications may not be compatible with all operating systems. Please check with your application vendor.
§
Intel® Turbo Boost Technology requires a platform with a processor with Intel Turbo Boost Technology capability. Intel Turbo Boost Technology performance varies
depending on hardware, software and overall system configuration. Check with your platform manufacturer on whether your system delivers Intel Turbo Boost Tech-
nology. For more information, see http://www.intel.com/technology/turboboost.
◊
Hyper-Threading Technology requires a computer system with an Intel processor supporting Hyper-Threading Technology and an HT Technology enabled chipset,
BIOS and operating system. Performance will vary depending on the specific hardware and software you use. See http://www.intel.com/info/hyperthreading/ for more
information including details on which processors support HT Technology.
1
-Socket Intel® Xeon® processor X55700 2.93 GHz-based platform running Microsoft Windows Server* 2008 EE R2 (with Hyper-V) has a 2.7x higher score on the
2
vConsolidate benchmark than a 2-socket Intel Xeon processor E5450 3.0 GHz-based platform running Microsoft Windows Server 2008 EE SP2 (with Hyper-V).
For details see: http://www.principledtechnologies.com/clients/reports/Microsoft/HyperVR2_0709.pdf.
2
Performance comparisons are based on measured SPECjbb2005* benchmark results (Intel Corporation Feb. 2009).
3
Compared with servers based on the Intel® Xeon® processor 5400 series. This claim is supported by multiple performance results including an OLTP database bench-
mark and a bandwidth intensive scientific computing benchmark (SPECfp_rate_base2006). Intel internal measurement (Feb. 2009).
4
Intel internal measurements of 221 W at idle with Supermicro 2xE5450 (3.0 GHz 80 W) processors, 8x2 GB 667MHz FBDIMMs, 1x700W PSU, 1x320 GB SATA
hard drive vs. 111W at idle with Supermicro software development platform with 2xE5540 (2.53 GHz Nehalem 80 W) processors, 6x2 GB DDR3-1066 RDIMMs,
1x800 W PSU, 1x150 GB 10k SATA hard drive. Both systems were running Windows* 2008 with USB suspend select enabled and maximum power savings mode
for PCIe link state power management. Measurements as of Feb. 2009.
Performance tests and ratings are measured using specific computer systems and/or components and reflect the approximate performance of Intel® products as
measured by those tests. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance. Buyers should consult other sources
of information to evaluate the performance of systems or components they are considering purchasing. For more information on performance tests and on the perfor-
mance of Intel products, visit Intel Performance Benchmark Limitations www.intel.com/performance/resources/benchmark_limitations.htm.
Copyright © 2009 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, and Xeon are trademarks
of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.
Copyright © 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows
Server, Hyper-V, and the Microsoft logo are trademarks, or registered trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
Printed in USA 0909/SH/OCG/XX/PDF Please Recycle 322387-001US
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