VMware ESXi Virtualization Scalability and Elasticity

Questions and Answers

What is the primary function of the hypervisor in the given diagram?

Providing connectivity to the physical world

Providing fault tolerance

Managing directory services and storage

Running virtual machines (correct)

What is the likely result of increasing resources to a virtual machine?

Crashes of the virtual machine

No change in application performance

Increased application performance and ability to support more users (correct)

Reduced application performance

What is the purpose of the load balancer in the scenario?

To distribute incoming traffic across multiple virtual machines (correct)

To manage directory services and storage

To provide fault tolerance to individual virtual machines

To increase resources to individual virtual machines

What is the term for adding more resources to a virtual machine to handle increased load?

Scalability Signup and view all the answers

What is the benefit of having multiple virtual machines behind a load balancer?

Increased application performance and ability to handle high traffic Signup and view all the answers

What is the relationship between the physical hosts and the virtual machines?

The virtual machines are running on the physical hosts Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary motivation for increasing resources to a virtual machine?

To handle increased load and support more users Signup and view all the answers

What is the term for quickly adding or removing resources to match changing business needs?

Elasticity Signup and view all the answers

What is a key benefit of scalability and elasticity in infrastructure as a service?

Automated server management with pay-per-use pricing Signup and view all the answers

How does the service provider charge the user for infrastructure as a service?

Based on the actual usage hours of each server Signup and view all the answers

What is the advantage of pay-per-use pricing in infrastructure as a service?

Customers pay only for the services they use Signup and view all the answers

What is a key difference between traditional server deployment and infrastructure as a service?

Fixed pricing vs. pay-per-use pricing Signup and view all the answers

What is the main benefit of infrastructure as a service for customers?

Reduced costs due to pay-per-use pricing Signup and view all the answers

What allows the system to automatically bring up new servers as needed?

Elasticity Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of scalability in a cloud computing environment?

To meet the demand by increasing the resources available Signup and view all the answers

What is elasticity in the context of cloud computing?

The ability to automatically bring up or take down servers on demand Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using software as a service?

To not have to worry about any of the infrastructure whatsoever for scalability Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary difference between infrastructure as a service and software as a service?

Software as a service provides less control over the infrastructure Signup and view all the answers

What is an example of a cloud service provider?

Google Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary responsibility of a customer using infrastructure as a service?

To configure the communications between VMs Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary benefit of using cloud services?

To put somebody else in charge of the scalability and elasticity Signup and view all the answers

What is an example of software as a service?

Salesforce Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary difference between scalability and elasticity?

Scalability is manual, elasticity is automatic Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary advantage of scalability and elasticity in a cloud computing environment?

To automatically adapt to changing demands Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Scalability and Elasticity

Scalability refers to the ability of a system to handle a growing amount of work by adding resources to the system, such as increasing the number of servers or improving hardware. It is often associated with long-term growth and planning, where capacity is gradually increased to accommodate increasing load. Scalability can be both vertical (adding more power to existing machines) and horizontal (adding more machines to the system).

Elasticity, on the other hand, emphasizes the ability of a system to automatically adjust resources in response to real-time variations in demand. It involves dynamically provisioning and de-provisioning resources to handle fluctuating workloads. Elasticity is particularly important in cloud computing environments where workloads can be highly variable and unpredictable. The main goal is to optimize resource utilization and cost efficiency by expanding or contracting resources as needed.

In summary, scalability is about capacity enhancement to handle growth, while elasticity is about dynamic resource management to handle variability in demand.

Scalability is the ability to meet demand by increasing resources available for that demand.
This can be achieved by increasing the resources of a single virtual machine or by adding more servers to distribute the load.
Load balancing can be used to distribute clients across multiple servers.

Manual vs. Automated Scalability

Manual scalability requires manual intervention to increase or decrease resources and add/remove servers.
Automated scalability, or elasticity, allows resources to be increased or decreased automatically in response to demand without human intervention.

Benefits of Cloud Services

Cloud services provide scalability and elasticity without requiring customers to manage infrastructure.
Service providers are responsible for managing infrastructure, allowing customers to focus on individual virtual machines.
Customers only pay for the resources they use, like a utility bill.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

IaaS allows customers to manage individual virtual machines and network them together.
Service providers manage the underlying infrastructure, including virtualization and physical networking.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

SaaS provides customers with access to software applications without requiring them to manage underlying infrastructure.
Examples of SaaS include Salesforce and Gmail.

Key Characteristics of Elasticity

Elasticity allows resources to be automatically added or removed in response to demand.
Resources are only allocated when needed, reducing waste and costs.
Customers are charged only for the resources they use.

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Description

Explore the concepts of scalability and elasticity in virtualization, both in-house and in cloud services, with a focus on VMware ESXi hosts and virtual machines. Understand the connectivity and networks behind the scenes.