tmaster100
asked on
Virtualizing Servers
Hi,
I current have several servers and would like to bring this down to 2 or 3 servers to save power costs and of course management.
I have spec'd out some Dell 720's with dual processors, 16GB Ram and SAS 15K hard disks in RAID 1 using PERC controllers.
Question is which virtualization software should i use for this pupose? I am planning to put no more then two virtual servers on each box but on some would like to use one virtual server and keep the other free just in case i need to move a container from one to the other for either load balancing or redundancy.
Not knowing much about virtualization i am a little unsure on how it works. I would like to keep some capacity on each box for redundancy or another OS.
Also, it would be nice if the Virtualization software is either free or low cost.
Please help!
I current have several servers and would like to bring this down to 2 or 3 servers to save power costs and of course management.
I have spec'd out some Dell 720's with dual processors, 16GB Ram and SAS 15K hard disks in RAID 1 using PERC controllers.
Question is which virtualization software should i use for this pupose? I am planning to put no more then two virtual servers on each box but on some would like to use one virtual server and keep the other free just in case i need to move a container from one to the other for either load balancing or redundancy.
Not knowing much about virtualization i am a little unsure on how it works. I would like to keep some capacity on each box for redundancy or another OS.
Also, it would be nice if the Virtualization software is either free or low cost.
Please help!
vmware esxi has a free edition. They have the largest market share.
ASKER
Can i ask what the downside is on the Free version? Can you still backup and restore containers easily onto other physical boxes?
In the free version you cant do a online/live move, you would have to shut down the VM to move it. Take a look at http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/pricing.html and look for the VMware vSphere Essentials Plus Kit. Price wise it is not that bad.
Can i ask what the downside is on the Free version? Can you still backup and restore containers easily onto other physical boxes?
The free version is limited to 32GB per server, and you do not get all the advanced features that you could if you purchase a license.
Backup and Restore to physical boxes, Backups can be done easily on any version. See my EE Artciles which explains this in detail.
ASKER
Great, thankyou.
I will download vmware and read the docs you have provided and sample the product first hand.
Cheers.
I will download vmware and read the docs you have provided and sample the product first hand.
Cheers.
ASKER
Hi,
My company has decided to purchase Windows Server 2008 Enterprise which allows 4 VM's to be installed, or in layman's terms, 4 instances of Windows 2008 Server with a single Enterprise licence, this will work out perfect.
Now i understand the VMWare only supports a max of 3 VE's using Essentials Plus, not 4 as required.
I also understand Hyper-V comes with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and allows you to setup a copy of Server 2008, change it's role to a Hypervisor and then install another 4 copies of Windows 2008 Server on VE's sitting ontop of the Hypervisor.
Is this correct?
If so, will i need any other software with Hyper-V to manage two boxes running 8 VM's between them?
I know VMWare uses vCentre but surely Microsoft has a similar product availible to manage all from one location?
My company has decided to purchase Windows Server 2008 Enterprise which allows 4 VM's to be installed, or in layman's terms, 4 instances of Windows 2008 Server with a single Enterprise licence, this will work out perfect.
Now i understand the VMWare only supports a max of 3 VE's using Essentials Plus, not 4 as required.
I also understand Hyper-V comes with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and allows you to setup a copy of Server 2008, change it's role to a Hypervisor and then install another 4 copies of Windows 2008 Server on VE's sitting ontop of the Hypervisor.
Is this correct?
If so, will i need any other software with Hyper-V to manage two boxes running 8 VM's between them?
I know VMWare uses vCentre but surely Microsoft has a similar product availible to manage all from one location?
if you are using Windows 2008 Enterprise you can add the Hyper-V role.
Then you can create an host Virtual machines on that server.
If you want to manage Hyper-V hosts centrally you would use Microsoft System Center 2012.
Then you can create an host Virtual machines on that server.
If you want to manage Hyper-V hosts centrally you would use Microsoft System Center 2012.
ASKER
Thanks but it's awfully overpriced. With two physical boxes, each with 2 physical processors nd 4 VM's each the price is nearing $8K to $10K just for a pretty screen!
To manage two host servers it's probably overkill, because you can mange two servers using Hyper-V Manager.
ASKER
Thanks for that, just noticed that it supports Windows 7 only. We have only Windows XP so i guess that goes out the door.
I also noticed that Hyper-V only supports 64bit guest OS's. No good. Seems like a back and forward direction at every turn.
Perhaps my only other option is to use VMWare vSphere Essentials. It's licencing will cover up to 3 servers (3 hosts, 6 CPU's) and will provide vCentre to install on one of the guest OS's and allow me to connect to it via the vSphere Client on an XP box?? Essentials is also quite cheap.
I am running the vSphere Hypervisor (free) and the client works fine on XP.
I also noticed that Hyper-V only supports 64bit guest OS's. No good. Seems like a back and forward direction at every turn.
Perhaps my only other option is to use VMWare vSphere Essentials. It's licencing will cover up to 3 servers (3 hosts, 6 CPU's) and will provide vCentre to install on one of the guest OS's and allow me to connect to it via the vSphere Client on an XP box?? Essentials is also quite cheap.
I am running the vSphere Hypervisor (free) and the client works fine on XP.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Type 1 Bare Metal Hypervisors
VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi)
https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/index.php?p=free-esxi&lp=1
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd776191.aspx
You may want to look at RAID 5 or RAID 10 for better performance. Also you may require more total memory, depends on what memory is required in your virtual machines.
Here are some of my EE Articles you may want to read....
VMware ESX/ESXi Backup Guide
How to Backup an ESXi installation on an USB Flash Drive or SD card, for security or redundancy.
HOW TO: Improve the transfer rate of a Physical to Virtual (P2V), Virtual to Virtual Conversion (V2V) using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 5.0
HOW TO: Enable Jumbo Frames on a VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 5.0) host server using the VMware vSphere Client
HOW TO: Suppress Configuration Issues and Warnings Alert displayed in Summary status for ESXi 4.1 U2 or ESXi 5.0 after enabling SSH or ESXi Shell
HOW TO: Suppress Configuration Issues and Warnings Alerts after enabling vSphere HA in a VMware vSphere Cluster
HOW TO: Add Local Storage (e.g. a SATA disk) as a Raw Disk Mapping (RDM) or Mapped RAW LUN to a virtual machine hosted on ESXi
HOW TO: Add an iSCSI Software Adaptor and Create an iSCSI Multipath Network in VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 4.1
HOW TO: Add an iSCSI Software Adaptor and Create an iSCSI Multipath Network in VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESXi 5.0
HOW TO: Tutorial Video - Install VMware Tools for Linux on a VMware Linux virtual machine
HOW TO: Clone or Copy a virtual machine in VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESX/ESXi 4.x or ESXi 5.0
HOW TO: Add and Connect a USB Device to a Virtual Machine, hosted on VMware vSphere Hypervisor ESX 4.1 ESXi 4.1, ESXi 5.0
HOW TO: VMware Snapshots :- Be Patient
HOW TO: Performance Monitor vSphere 4.x or 5.0
HOW TO: VCP 5
HOW TO: Resize a VMware (VMDK) Virtual Disk
HOW TO: P2V, V2V for FREE - VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 5.0
HOW TO: Suppress Configuration Issues and Warnings Alerts after enabling vSphere HA in a VMware vSphere Cluster with only a single datastore
HOW TO: Use Dell OpenManage Server Administrator to Create and Manage a Virtual Disk (RAID Array) on a Dell PowerEdge Server with VMware vSphere 5.0, ESXi 5.0 installed.