[THIN] Re: VMWare ESX Server
- From: "Ron Oglesby" <Roglesby@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2004 07:35:31 -0600
Steve, Joe, you are my types of guys.
Call me if you guys ever want a gig. I always have room on my team for those
that "get it".
Ron Oglesby
Director of Technical Architecture
RapidApp, Chicago
Office: 312 372 7188
Mobile: 815 325 7618
email: roglesby@xxxxxxxxxxxx
_____
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Steve Greenberg
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 10:59 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: VMWare ESX Server
Great points Joe. Joe and I are collaborating on a project right now in
which VMWare ESX is doing some amazing stuff. We are putting all the low
utilization servers as VM's such as TS licensing, CTX Licensing, WI and CSG,
Softricity Sequencing mahines, etc. We are seamllessly able to move these
virtual production machines onto other physical machines with no interuption
to production, it really is quite amazing! Server cloning and recovery is
as simple as accessing a file !
However, as Ron re-iterated about resource intensive applications, our
production Metaframe farm servers are on dedicated physical blade hardware
because we expect to push them to absolute max for I/O, RAM and CPU.
Perhaps this one client example provides a practical idea of how it works
best- many underutilized servers as VM's, roles requiring absolute
performance get dedicated hardware.........
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 Joe Shonk
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 9:03 PM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: VMWare ESX Server
Hmm. Not quite sure how to respond with coming across as being rude. ESX,
VirtualCenter and vMotion add quite a bit of value to an organization. The
ability to move a live server from one piece of hardware to another is
really something.
Here are few benefits:
Provide HA hardware for machines that normally wouldn't get HA
solution (or even backend to a SAN)
Uptime of servers during Hardware failures, upgrades and
Maintenance
Consolidation of resources (how many servers really need
2x3.6GHz procs?
Isolation of Apps/services
Instant provisioning of servers
Hardware independence
Portability of the servers (Also with Disaster recovery)
Eventually, well have dynamic server allocation and automatic
server provisioning
I won't even go into the benefits of "virtual" application, but yes it can
be better than the real thing.
If you look future roadmaps (Intel, Amd, dell, HP/Compaq, IBM) you will see
that they are focusing heavily on providing hardware support VM. Dual-core
and multi-core processor for example.
Joe
_____
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of RMC - Brian Hill
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 11:24 AM
To: 'thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: [THIN] Re: VMWare ESX Server
I've never been a fan of VMs in the production environment. I have used
them for development a few times, but even then, I prefer a "real world"
scenario for development as well. I've had DC's that were flaky, with the
only variable being VMWare. Dunno, maybe it's just me. Hardware cost are
relatively cheap these days, the form-factor is small, so I don't think VMs
buy you a whole lot. They have their place I suppose, but they are not
something I pursue. Virtual "anything" can never be as good as the real
thing IMO.
Brian
-----Original Message-----
From: Jennifer Hooper [mailto:jennifer.hooper@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 12:23 PM
To: 'thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: [THIN] VMWare ESX Server
Hi Guys -
Here's the situation. We are about 1/4th of the way through converting
our production data center (full of old, out of warranty Compaq servers) to
IBM BladeCenters running VMWare ESX Server 2.0 (I think... whatever the
latest version is). We use Platespin to convert the physical server to the
VMWare image and move it over to the Blade it's going to live on. Right
now, we have an average 5 servers per blade planned, and several have
already moved over, because the hardware failed that they were on. However,
some of the application folks are uncomfortable with this solution, not so
much the Blade technology, as the VM technology. Needless to say, we're
already experiencing failures, and stuff not running right - performance
issues, network issues, etc. (Can you believe that they are going to run
our Root Domain Controllers on this?) I have already experienced a drag on
one of my Citrix servers that moved to virtual space, and can't fix it up.
So what I would like to do before things get too much more hairy, is to
try to find out what the success rate of running something like this in
production, and if there are a lot of people out there doing this. Feel
free to share with me any nightmare stories too! :)
Thanks much!
Jen
Jennifer Hooper
Peregrine Systems, Inc.
Sr. Network Engineer
mailto:jennifer.hooper@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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