Yeah, I should've been more specific: when I said around 30 users per box I was speaking in the sense that we'll have an average of 180 concurrent users, so with 6 boxes, and CTX doing the load balancing, we'll get around 30 users per box each day. However, what I should've been talking about is what we COULD get for users on each box if we tried to load them all up. I've seen my servers handle 40-45 users on a box without problems... Also, if I had a large server with 8 processors and lots of RAM and all, I better be able to get more than 6 to 8 Citrix boxes at my specs on it, if not, why would anyone buy VMWare really, it is a server consolidation/containment product that is selling off the shelves just for this reason, isn't it? What do you think is the best way for me to tell with hard data, how over/under utilized my servers are right now (Resource Mgr., perfmon, etc...) what do you guys use? Thanks, /jL -----Original Message----- From: Jeremy Thomas [mailto:jeremy.thomas@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 3:51 AM To: 'thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' Subject: [THIN] Re: VMWare ESX From what I remember of the DL360s, (I'm talking G1s here - I've not played extensively with G3s), they don't have a great deal of redundancy built in. That makes them a dubious choice as VMWare hosts. Also, if you get about 30 users per server, you must be hitting a bottleneck somewhere, probably with RAM of processing. I don't quite see how that would be improved if you started running 2-3 virtual terminal servers on the same hardware. VMWare is good for running test servers where performance is not an issue - You can quite happily run a large number of servers on a single box if you have the RAM and disk space to do so. The other thing you can use it for is to consolidate hardware - if you get a large server (8way with lots of RAM and disks), then you can probably run 6-8 production Citrix servers on it with about 30 users on each, or 20-30 test servers. _____ From: Luchette, Jon [mailto:JLuchette@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 11:00 PM To: 'thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' Subject: [THIN] Re: VMWare ESX What do you think about an HP DL360 g3 with 2gb of RAM? That's what I've got, 6 of them... -----Original Message----- From: Claus, Brian [mailto:BClaus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 4:55 PM To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [THIN] Re: VMWare ESX I also believe 10:1 is stretching it...but I've NEVER known a sales rep to exaggerate ;) I'd _guess_ that a HP DL360 G3 with dual processors and 4 GB of RAM could safely do a 4:1 ratio. My servers get hit pretty hard...40-50 users concurrent with over 60 different published apps. _____ Brian Claus, MCP, Network+, A+ Network Administrator WESCO Distribution, Inc. 225 West Station Square Drive, Suite 700 Pittsburgh, PA 15219-1122 Phone: 412-454-2412 Fax: 412-454-2540 <mailto:bclaus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> bclaus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx _____ -----Original Message----- From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Ryan Lambert Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 4:48 PM To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [THIN] Re: VMWare ESX I was reading the product specs, and like you said... it looks like he'd be able to get like 6-10:1 if the utilization was pretty low... in theory. Then again, I don't have any real world experience with managing the product, so I am sure the "YMMV" rule applies here. From what he said, seems like these servers are getting pegged as it is... I'd think 10:1 was stretching it a bit. VMWare is something we've considered for our future plans... so I am definitely interested in this topic... -----Original Message----- From: Steve Greenberg [mailto:steveg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 4:40 PM To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [THIN] Re: VMWare ESX 2-4 Virtual servers on one hardware box is my real world experience with Citrix. Could be 6-10 servers if you are consolidating servers with very low utlization....as always it depends on what apps you are running. Steve Greenberg Thin Client Computing 34522 N. Scottsdale Rd. suite D8453 Scottsdale, AZ 85262 (602) 432-8649 (602) 296-0411 fax steveg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____ From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Luchette, Jon Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2004 1:25 PM To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [THIN] VMWare ESX Hello, we are looking at VMWare ESX. I just got out of a meeting with them and I was just wondering what any of you can tell me from your experience to expect as a general rule of consolidation with Citrix boxes. Right know we have 6 duals, with 2 gb of RAM, and are getting about 30 users per box. If we were to go with ESX, how many servers should we plan on consolidating to? Have any of you guys done something like this recently? We were told in the meeting that we could go anywhere in the vicinity of 6:1 to even 10:1. That seems a bit much to me, do any of you have any good VMWare consolidation stories for me? Thanks in advance, /jL