Virtual Systems Workload Characterization: An Overview

Virtual systems and virtualization technology are taking the momentum nowadays in data centers and IT infrastructure models.Performance analysis of such systems is very invaluable for enterprises but yet is not a deterministic process. Single-workload benchmark is useful in quantifying the virtualization overhead within a single VM, but not useful in whole virtualized environment with multiple isolated VM and varying workload on each and can’t capture the system behavior. We need a common workload model and methodology for virtualized systems so that benchmark results can be compared across different platforms. In this paper we will present an overview of the key requirements and characteristics of virtual systems performance metrics and workload characterization which can be considered one step further in implementing virtual systems benchmark and performance model that describe the effect of the applications, host operating system and the hypervisor layer on the performance metrics of virtual workloads. An overview of Intel® vCon modeland VMware VMmark will be introduced as examples for the consolidated servers’ workload evaluation.