I have tried to wrap my head around this for a while.. what is the best way yo virtualize with VMWare/MS Virtual Server 2005 R2?
I have used MS Virtual Server on W2K3R2, and VMWare workstation on Win XP64 before, now i want to set up a dedicated server for a virtual environment.
My environment will be two base servers for web/file/DB services, and a few for testing purposes. (Maybe even my domain DC)
Server will be 2*Opteron dual core, 4 GB Ram, a terra storage in raided something, whats the best approach for this?
Should i use something like VMWare ESX/GSX with virutal W2K3s on top, or a W2K3R2 install with VMWare Server or MS Virtual Server 2005 R2 on top of that?
Seems like the loss of juice could be greater wit ServerOS/VirtualLayer/Virt
Got ideas?
(And yeah.. this is for home play only, no mission critical crap going on..)
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The bucks is not an issue.. I get whatever SW and HW i want at work for "home education".
I want the juice.. :-P
I was under the impression that a virtual machine only can utilixe 768 MB RAM anyway, but this is maybe wrong?
Also.. is it possible to run a decent virtual dev workstation on a ESX (Alongside 3-4 virtual servers)?
With bucks not being the issue, then ESX :) IMHO, it is by far the better product. My production server environment (mission critical), is all running in VMware Infrastructure 3.
As for RAM limits, I can't speak to the other products, but that is not accurate in ESX. In ESX 2.5.x, each virtual machine was capped at 4GB of RAM. In VMware Infrastructure 3 (ESX 3.x), it was increased to 16GB of RAM. Of course, it depends on the OS that you are running whether it can take advantage of that much RAM.
As for a test/dev workstation, definitely. If you ballpark 768MB of RAM to your 3 other servers, that should leave plenty for a test/dev virtual workstation. Always keep in mind the overhead that is needed to virtualize. You don't want to assign all 4GB of RAM to your virtual servers or they will start swapping to disk. The ESX kernel needs some too :)
You can have an ESX server up and running in literally 10-15 minutes. I would recommend you give it a shot and I think you'll be pleased.
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by: rvthostPosted on 2007-03-10 at 04:39:22ID: 18693676
For home play...save the bucks and go with the freebie's VMware Server (formerly GSX) or MS Virtual Server. Production environment....definitely VMware ESX for performance. Microsoft has no equivalent competitive product.
FYI - You mentioned two base servers, a DC, and a "few" test machines. You'll have to watch your RAM with only 4GB in the box. Each virtual server won't be able to have much with that config.