WIXLIB

Linking the networkand the virtual machineDamian ReevesChief Technology OfficerZeus Technology

IntroductionDamian Reeves, CTO, Zeus TechnologyZeus develops Application Traffic Management Software that makesnetworked and web-enabled applications faster, more reliable, secureand easier to manage.Founding member of VMware’s VDIMember of VMTNVMware Technical Alliance partnerCome and talk to us later, at booth #TODO

Managing Application trafficWeb Servers:Apache, IIS, Zeus Web Application Servers:WebLogic, WebSphere,JBoss, .NET, OWAWeb Services:SOAP, XML-RPCRemote desktopsRDPOther TCP/UDP services:Mail (POP, IMAP, SMTP),DNS, Database, Media Manage traffic to clusters of machines to deliver reliability, scalability, manageability

Existing SolutionsF5: Big-IP 9 Local Traffic ManagerCitrix NetscalerCisco CSS and Catalyst devicesFoundry Server IronHave viewed application traffic management asa task for the networkAre ‘packaged’ as proprietary hardwareappliances

The next generation of Application Traffic ManagersDrive to put more and more intelligence into the traffic managementlayerDeep packet inspection, request and response processing, XMLprocessingHardware and ASIC based solutions are inflexibleNew generation of Software-based traffic managersF5, Netscaler and some others are on boardCisco is following with AON product line (most ambitious of all)

Zeus ZXTM ProductSoftware-based Application Traffic Manager.Uniquely deployable in Virtualized Environments, as well as traditionalservers, blades and appliances.Other unique capabilities:Powerful TrafficScript programming languageTrafficScript is fully XML-literate –XPath, XSLT, ValidationIntegration possible with SOAP-basedControl APISSL DecryptionService ProtectionRequest RulesTCP offloadReq. Rate ShapingLoad BalancingSession PersistenceSSL EncryptionBandwidth Mgmt.NodeNodeVirtualServerPoolPoolPoolZXTMResponse RulesContent CompressionHTTP CachingReportingWeb-based UISOAP Control APIService Level MonitoringBandwidth ManagementTCP OffloadRequest LoggingMonitorsj Monitorsj MonitorsNodeNode

Problems that Application Traffic Managers solveFasterOffloading compute intensive tasks to specialised software SSL Content Compression XML searching, preprocessing andpostprocessing HTTP Response CachingProtocol OptimizationTCP Optimization

Accelerating SSL on /banks shifting logins to nonssl pages.htmlSustainedRequest Rate- better)Rate -TimeSSL -(loweris better)25001000045%SSL Transactions per secondResponse Time (ms)Error eous UsersSimultaneous UsersSimultaneous Users800800800100010001000

Apache’s performance under latency is poorHTTP Transaction per Second (higher is better)HTTP Transaction Time (lower is better)120004T PSTransaction Time nd Trip Latency (ms)Round Trip Latency (ms)200200400400

Problems that Application Traffic Managers solveMore reliableCan scale services so that they still function under loadCan detect service failures and route around themMore secureSingle point of entry; isolates servers from remote, untrusted clientsProtocol securing Application Traffic Inspection Example: ZXTM made servers immune from HTTP Smugglingattacks

Problems that Application Traffic Managers solveEasier to Manage:Visualisation tools for the infrastructure: Diagnostics for performance or availability problems Faster time-to-fix Critical path analysisManage your traffic Application sensitive traffic authentication, transformation androuting

Intelligent Traffic Routing in an RDP EnvironmentImagine a remote desktop scenario:Datacenter in one location, call center staff in anotherMobile desktop usersCurrent SolutionsCitrix/Terminal Server/ICAVDI-style RDP based

First Generation SolutionsAlice’s Desktop192.168.28.104Chris’ Desktop192.168.28.211Bob’s Desktop192.168.28.176

Next Generation Solution – Connection ManagerDeploy intelligent connection manager, ZXTM, between clients anddesktopsEnables single point of contact – easier to manage and deployZXTM identifies users during loginConnects user to their own desktopTells VMware to resume desktop first if need beUse pools of VMs for access to generic applicationsReduce hardware required by another factor of 3Easier, cheaper maintenanceAutomated recovery from server/VM failures

Schematic

Remember TrafficScript? body request.get();string.regexmatch( body, "mstshash (.*)\n" ); user string.trim( 1 ); body cgi?user ". user, "" ); code 1;if( code ! 200 ) connection.discard(); desktop string.trim( body );log.info( "Mapped user ". user." to desktop ". desktop );connection.setPersistenceClass( “desktop” );connection.setPersistenceKey( desktop );pool.use( “desktops” );

Managing traffic with agilityWhat do I mean by ‘agile’?What enables this agility?Common ‘agile’ way of managingchanges:Test, Deploy, Migrate, Reap

Customer Example: BT.comHosting complex BEA WebLogic-based applicationSeveral hours downtime for each application update!

Customer Example: BT.comGeneration 31UserCurrent ServiceLegacyServiceInstanceGeneration 32DeveloperNew UserNext tion 33Next version(in development)

Closing the LoopA Traffic Manager like ZXTM has a unique overview of applicationstatus:Performance: response times, errorsAvailabilityLogin and other eventsZXTM could then initiate aprovisioning actionReporting and alerting toadmin for manual interventionReporting and alerting to‘utility manager’

When managing Remote DesktopsResource ReallocationZXTM can initiate resource reallocation (or work in sympathy with it)User connection trackingWhen is it ‘safe’ to perform remote administration?Security policiesZXTM is another place where security policies can be implementedEnd-to-end SSL wrappingKnown man-in-the-middle attacks

The ‘Utility Manager’Dynamic provisioning and migration ofapplications to meet business demandsZXTM is a complementary component:Deployed within the virtualized environmentMonitors the performance of services withinthe virtualized environmentAs performance problems are detected,ZXTM alerts the Utility ManagerUtility Manager (VirtualCenter) provisions anew application instance and informs ZXTMZXTM intelligently routes and balance trafficacross all the instances of the applicationAll communication and configuration takesplace via VMware’s and ZXTM'sSOAP APIs.ZXTM can provide a fundamental monitoringand traffic management service withinvirtualized environments

Not quite like this

More like this

Using the Utility Manager: ExamplesZXTM detects that a service has failed1. ZXTM requests that Utility Manager restart VM from known goodsnapshotZXTM detects that a service is underperforming1. ZXTM informs utility manager Utility manager decides to VMotion one or more VMs2. Utility manager tells ZXTM to ‘drain’ the VM3. VM is VMotioned (unavailable for 30 seconds or so ) ZXTM uses other VMs, or failpool returns ‘Too Busy’ message4. Utility manager tells ZXTM to ‘undrain’ the VM

Future Trends in Service ProvisionDesktop provision will be a small part of the internal service provisionDistributed applications built from components (SOA model)This offers even greater technical challengesMonolithic applications beingreplaced with servicecomponentsPoint-to-pointcommunications untenableas complexity / volumeincreasesIntroduction of ESBs – a newbottleneck

Future Trends in Virtualization IntegrationToday:Manage Virtual Machines?or Manage Entire Services?

Future Trends in Traffic ManagementAvailable as software components, supported on VMware and othervirtualization platformsZeus’ initiatives with Virtual Machines

Wrapping UpThank you for your time and attention.Any questions?http://knowledgehub.zeus.com/

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Zeus ZXTM Product Software-based Application Traffic Manager. Uniquely deployable in Virtualized Environment