SQL Server running under VMWare

Hi,

We are currently developing a very large data warehouse for local government to store information regarding Schools and Pupils. This database will, in addition to being a warehouse, contain an element of front end day to day use along side the slowly changing incremental warehouse data.

Currently the 3rd reich IT department here has decreed that we MUST have a virtualised server as that is the policy for all servers (eventhough we have paid for a full fat server out of or budget). There is currently no DBA in our IT department so they only think from the point of view of the machine and not data recovery, resilience, etc, etc...

I'm not asking if SQL server works on VMWare because I know it does, what I would really like to hear though is if there are any pitfalls and things I should look out for from a DBA point of view. I have already had some advise from other DBA's to say they would have real reservations implementing this as virtualised in a production environment, but what I am missing is some concrete reasons why. Personally, I would NOT like to see this virtualised, but the onus has been put on to us to proove that virtualising it is not a good idea.

Can anyone help me here or point me towards some research done by DBAs on virtualisation.