Service overview
IT Services provides a service for virtualizing Linux and Windows servers for McGill academic, administrative, and qualifying research units.
This service provides virtual servers (the ability to run multiple heterogeneous OS and applications that are completely isolated from one another on the same physical Intel base server) using VMware vSphere technology at the core of the server service and enterprise SAN (Storage Area Network) storage for all data.
All virtual servers operate within physical server clusters, with redundant network connections and using SAN (Storage Area Network) storage located in a secure data centre which provides hardware redundancy to minimize unscheduled downtime.
A virtual machine (VM) can be created from a finite choice of current Windows operating system (OS) or Red Hat Linux.
Service Inclusion
36-month VM lease that includes:
- Two virtual CPU (vCPU), 4GB of memory and 100GB of performant SAN storage
- Data backups with five (5) week retention (one full and six differentials per week) with the capability to perform a full system restore
- Host level system updates for the infrastructure
- Remote console access to the VM
- Migration from an existing physical server to a VM (physical to virtual [P2V] process)
- VMware Snapshots – performed by the VM lessee and can be retained for up to 48 hours
- VMware clones - Upon client request 2 business days in advance: a prescheduled VM clone that will be retained for as long as a client pays for additional storage
- Adding of vCPUs, memory, memory reservations and storage
- Increased protection against hardware failure due to cluster architecture, hosts are
- clustered
- in environmentally controlled facilities
- housed in separate, physical locations
Service Exclusions
- Physical access to the data centre and any hosted server part of any cluster
- VM Systems Administration
- A qualified System Administrator needs to fully manage the VM, which includes:
- The guest OS and all subsequent service packs or patches
- All installed applications, monitoring and upgrades
- Remote access as well as power-on/off of their VM
- Updating “VM Tools” upon request by IT Services personnel
- Performance tuning
- A qualified System Administrator needs to fully manage the VM, which includes:
- The following are not supported:
- Hardware dongles
- Connection of any physical peripheral devices to the host servers
- Physical access to the host server
- Creation of a VM if the client requesting it does not have an appointed, qualified System Administrator
- Virtual to physical (V2P) conversions
- VM’s that share a disk – no shared .vmdk
Who can use it
McGill faculty, staff, researchers and research units can make a request through their departmental system administrator or Local Area Network (LAN) administrator.
If the server administrator is not a McGill employee, their sponsor (a McGill department/unit director or manager) will need to request an affiliate account, which can then be granted access to the server. Note that the affiliate account will not require a mailbox, as it is only used for authentication purposes.
How to request & access the service
Please fill out the request form New custom virtual machine.
For help connecting to a Virtual Machine (VM), please contact your IT System Administrator. If you do not have one, please contact the IT Service Desk.
NOTE:
If you are accessing the server from outside the McGill network, you will need to first establish a VPN connection
For IT Services staff only
Submit the appropriate request form for your needs:
- New custom virtual machine
- Change virtual machine resources CPU, memory, disk)
- Decommission a virtual machine
Cost
Refer to Rates and prices for data products and services.
Availability
The service is available 24 X 7, except during planned maintenance or outages, which will be posted on the IT Services website.
Contact your IT System Administrator for your VM availability.
Frequently asked questions
None available at this time.
Best practices & policies
A virtual machine snapshot allows you to save a virtual machine’s state (power) and data (disk, memory) at a specific point in time, so that you can revert the VMware Virtual Machine to that exact state at a future time, if needed.
Members of McGill IT Services who have access to a Virtual Machine, through vSphere, are able to manage snapshots themselves. See Virtual machine snapshot.
See Best practices for using snapshots in the vSphere environment
Training & documentation
See Best practices section, above.
Support
For general support contact your IT System Administrator; if you don't have one contact the IT Service Desk.