[Hardware/Misc Related] VM Ware

[mattx]

My small brain is confused again.

I was going to go with ESXi but now it's all changed again and on looking at the VMWare web site I'm bombarded with different flavors of their products. Has anyone got a page they can point me to which has a simple breakdown of what / how many servers I can run ? FYI I'm looking to run Zimbra and around 5 to 6 servers. And remember, my brain is tiny.

[Arthur]

I think this is the page you need to look at...

http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphe...omparison.html

You definitely want ESXi though.

Currently, customers can deploy VMware vSphere using either VMware ESXi or VMware ESX hypervisor architectures. However, VMware vSphere 4.1 and its subsequent update and patch releases are the last releases to include both ESX and ESXi hypervisor architectures. Future major releases of VMware vSphere will include only the ESXi architecture. (Source)

The number of licenses you need to buy depends upon how many physical processors your hosts have. Going from the free edition of ESXi to any of the other vSphere editions is simply a case of entering the relevant license info.

Each vSphere kit or edition is licensed on a per-processor basis, according to the number of physical processors (CPUs) on each host. In the case of vSphere kits, the listed entitlement for CPU capacity discussed later in this document applies to more than just one host. Customers can purchase and deploy or redeploy any mix of servers, as required; each processor in a socket may contain multiple cores. Customers may deploy vSphere on physical processors that contain up to six processing cores at no additional charge (see following note). Customers that require limits beyond the processor entitlements must purchase additional vSphere licenses.

Note: VMware vSphere Advanced and Enterprise Plus editions include expanded core entitlements up to 12 cores per CPU. (Source)

[vikpaw]

I don't want to confuse matters, but if you want some of the extra features, like a management console, and GUI interface, yet are on a limited budget, and don't need all the advanced features of a VMWare installation it's worth considering VMWare Essentials which is a startup kit for SMBs. It has basic and Plus option, and is limited to 3 physical servers only at your location, and i think there's a processor limit too, but other than that it's really good and most importantly really cheap.

As for how many servers you can run, it depends on how powerful the host is, and how powerful you want the VMs to be. You can easily run 5/6 on one host with enough RAM/Disk space and CPU. But i'd go for two physical hosts, so you get some lee way and fault tolerance options.

We're currently running regular VMWare licence, Advanced edition here. A quad xeon, with only 12GB RAM is easily running Exchange, and the Intranet with room for one more service. Another runs SIMS and the WDS server (hardly used). I've got a 32GB RAM box, dual proc' that is happily doing DNS, Print, Cisco management, IT helpdesk and test server 2008R2.

Hope that helps.