Virtualization Made Simple

Server Consolidation vs. Server Virtualization

According to Gartner, “many consolidation programs meander into a virtualization implementation, and the majority of virtualization programs include consolidation.”¹ If your goals are to increase server utilization and consolidate multiple applications safely onto a fewer number of servers, Librato delivers a simpler solution than server virtualization.  Librato allows you to realize the benefits of server consolidation faster and more easily.

Librato’s Approach: Simplified Server Consolidation

Librato Load Manager™ is an easy-to-deploy container virtualization solution that groups applications into resource containers and manages access to physical resources such as CPU, memory, storage I/O and network bandwidth. With multiple containers on a single operating system (OS) instance, Librato Load Manager can drive up server utilization with little performance overhead (typically less than 1%).  More importantly, it is easy to deploy Librato’s container virtualization in existing environments:

• Simple installation:  Librato Load Manager simply installs like any user application.  You can install Librato software directly onto existing servers with applications which you plan to consolidate.  Our goal is to make this process as non-disruptive as possible even for your production environments.
• Single OS instance:  Unlike server virtualization, there is no need to install an OS for each virtual server.  Assuming the one-application-per-server model, this means every application requires its own copy of the OS.  This makes sense in test and development environments or when consolidating servers running legacy applications.  However, when you have already standardized on the OS, whether it’s Linux or Windows, Librato allows you to host multiple containers on a single instance of the OS.  You can realize the full benefits of consolidating servers – less physical servers and OS instances to manage.
• No changes to the OS or applications:  Another enabler for a quick deployment is Librato’s transparency.  Librato Load Manager slides in transparently between applications and the OS.  It does not require any changes to the applications – not even a recompile or re-linking process.  Particularly for Linux environments, Librato does not modify the Linux kernel, allowing you to protect your investments in the standard OS distribution.

In a matter of hours, Librato containers can be installed and configured to monitor how applications utilize system resources.  With detailed and precise understanding of applications’ behaviors, you can safely consolidate diverse applications onto fewer servers.  This non-disruptive approach allows Librato container virtualization technology to simplify server consolidation.

¹ Gartner, “IT Infrastructure and Operations Leaders Key Initiative: Virtualization and Consolidation,” G00163253, December 31, 2008: 3