Server virtualization framework: case of selected government ministries, Kenya
Date
2013
Authors
Buyeke, Zipporah Nyamweya
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
The very rapid development in chip technology has brought huge increases in processing capacity. Most current computer hardware is so powerful that in most cases only a small part of it, about 10 to 15 percent, is actually in use. Virtualization enables hardware to support more than one system and enables hardware utilization to go up to 75 or 80 percent. Current generation of servers have sufficiently large capacity such that even during peak load hours, the quality of service (QoS) can be guaranteed and be met while ensuring that service level agreements (SLAs) are adhered to. In the Kenya, Government ministries deploy dedicated servers are for single applications resulting in the problems of over-provisioning of resources for peak loads, underutilization of the servers, and high infrastructure maintenance costs. This research aimed at developing a framework to be used for implementation of server virtualization. Serve virtualization was first implemented the concept of virtualization in the 1960s by IBM through CTSS in order to combat the rigidity and underutilization of large, mainframe computers. Through virtualization, many scattered servers can be consolidated to a fraction of the original number, which will give a greatest ROI and increase their server utilization up to 80%. Virtualization solves efficiency problems by effectively providing a virtual, logical environment of computing resources rather than a rigid, physical environment by allowing multiple operating systems to run simultaneously on a single machine; and by tricking operating systems into thinking that a group of hardware components or servers is a single pool of computing resources. Before implementing virtualization solutions compatibility of existing software and systems, exiting licensing models, and performance overhead have to be taken into consideration. Server virtualization will enable ministries to meet the forecast for dollar-valued global IT spending. The study was exploratory and applied a case study method where the Ministries of Energy and Finance, also the Directorate of e-Government were used as cases with a sample size of 47 ICT staff. Both primary and secondary data that were collected through personal interviews and observation methods were used in the study. All government ministries have server-based systems with levels of utilization of the mid-range servers being 1% while utilization of the big servers was between 10 and 15. Server hardware purchase and ICT expenditure in the ministries were increasing. The research proposed a framework, Integrated server virtualization framework (ISVF) to be used during implementation of server virtualization in the ministries. ISVF has planning, analysis, design, implementation and support phases. When ISVF was tested, CPU usage increased from 15% to 76%, physical memory usage increased from 66% of 2GB to 78% of 8GB, and capacity of hard disk space in use was 165GB up from 6.9GB. The government should ensure that for dedicated server deployments, the numbers of servers are equivalent to the number of server-based systems; invest in equipping the ICT staff with the relevant skills to install server-based systems; implement server virtualization to enable them increase their levels of utilization of the mid-range and big servers; use the proposed Integrated framework in the implementation of server virtualization
Description
Master of Science in Computer-Based Information Systems
Keywords
Server virtualization, Government of Kenya