QLogic 2600 Series Hyper-V Virtual Server Engine - Manual (Page 6)

Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V
The newest release of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V delivers a
high-performance VM chassis harnessing the new I/O
capabilities of Gen 5 Fibre Channel storage networking and
10GbE data networking. Several new features of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V are highlighted below:

vCPU—VMs can now have up to 64 virtual CPUs (vCPUs) and 1TB of virtual RAM (vRAM) allowing Tier-1
applications to be virtualized and new levels of VM density to be reached.

Virtual Fibre Channel (Virtual FC)—Hyper-V now enables VM workloads to access Fibre Channel SANs by
provisioning virtual Fibre Channel ports with a standard Worldwide Name (WWN) within the guest OS.

Live Migration—Virtual FC also enables Live Migration of VMs across Hyper-V hosts while maintaining Fibre
Channel connectivity. Two WWNs are configured and maintained for each virtual Fibre Channel Adapter.

Live Storage Migration—A VM’s Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) storage can now be migrated without shutting down the
VM. The operation copies data from source storage device to a target via a Fibre Channel or similar interconnect.

Multipath I/O (MPIO)—Hyper-V now extends MPIO capability to VMs, ensuring fault-tolerant Fibre Channel
connectivity for delivering high availability and resiliency to virtualized workloads.

Gen 5 Fibre Channel—To help maximize efficiency of Live Migration and Storage Motion, Hyper-V includes support
for 16Gb Fibre Channel, the fastest storage interconnect available today.

10GbE and SR-IOV—Allows 10GbE NICs to appear as multiple virtual devices that can optimize I/O performance by
providing direct I/O for individual VMs.
From a storage planning perspective, when comparing Windows Server 2012 to previous versions, there are
two specifications which stand-out: the amount of memory/VM (1TB) and the amount of active VMs per
machine (1,024).
With today’s storage usage, a petabyte of storage could be needed to support 1,024 VMs. While this
scenario is unlikely for at least a few years, running 100 VMs with 512GB of virtual memory each on a single
server (which would require 52TB of storage for the memory contents alone) is very foreseeable.
The ability to provide high-performance storage is critical for a high-density or Tier-1 virtualization strategy.
The new storage tools in Hyper-V that we will cover later in this paper (virtual Fibre Channel, offloaded data
transfer, and the new virtual hard disk format) can positively impact performance in these environments.
A New VM Chassis
In Hyper-V, Virtual Fibre Channel enables SAN connectivity
on a per VM basis.
Virtual
Fibre Channel