Fw: better platform for virtualization

[Shahar Dag]

oops, I post it to Michael & not to the list

Shahar

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Shahar Dag 
To: Michael Lewinger 
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2010 8:51 AM
Subject: Re: better platform for virtualization


Hello Michael

I once took a course about Windows 2008 servers (but I am not an expert, I didn't even install it).

I will try to point some subjects:
MS has hyper-V which is their virtual platform.
They have a tool that convert a physical server to virtual server (I think it is called VSMT).
I think they have a tool for load balance in a virtual cluster NLB, and a tool for cluster fail over.
MS also have a server version without GUI, to reduce resources requirement and enhance security.
They admit that VMware is better, but they claim that they provide a complete working solution.

If I had to build the system I would:
1. Measure the load of all the servers (this will give a clue how many physical servers I really need).
2. Put all the data on external file system (this is a must if you want to move a virtual server from one physical machine to another).
3. Create a virtual cluster with fail over. The resources of the cluster should be enough that in the case of failure in one physical server, the rest of the cluster will hold all the virtual machines.

Sorry that I can't come with real suggestions.

Shahar
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Michael Lewinger 
  To: Israeli Linux mailing list 
  Cc: Arie Blum ; Oleg Kovalev 
  Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 5:49 PM
  Subject: better platform for virtualization


  Hi there,

  I'd like to ask your oppinion on the virtualization of several WINDOWS servers installed on a client's medium business server room. There are about 6 crucial servers (priority, exchange, file server, and some others) that need to be accessible when they fail. Currently, each server has its own RAID storage. There is only 300GB of data to be kept on those servers (mostly exchange and file server). The virtualized servers should become alive when one of those main servers dies, and theoretically, no more than 2 VMs should be running in parallel.

  What would be the best virtualization platform for such a requirement ? Windows 2008 server, or XEN ? 
  Would a fast single Xeon processor be able to handle this requirements ? 8GB or 4GB ?
  Would you consider VMWARE on top of CENTOS ?
  Would you suggest that the data should already be kept on a NAS appliance as of now, even before DRP takes place ?
  (If yes), which NAS solution would you use ?
  Would you consider a cloud-based backup program such as Crashplan to backup this data ? Is there any other enterprise-level backup app that can store backups on cloud storage ?

  I appreciate all your answers !

  Michael 
  --------------------------------------------------------
  Michael Lewinger   -   MBR Computers
            http://mbrcomp.co.il
         support at mbrcomp.co.il
                  054-2284055







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