Hyper-V Deployments

[micktagg]

Hi Guys I am the Technical Lead for a group of BSF Schools here in Bradford, Deployed Hyper-V utilizing Fail Over Clustering on all central service servers with the exception of DC's and Remote Desktop Servers, These included both types of MIS servers CMIS and SIMS, SQL Cluster, App servers, Follow me printing servers, VLE (Unbuntu Client on Hyper-V), etc. If anyone needs a few pointers drop me a line I am familiar with VMware ESXI but in my opinion especially with Hyper-V 2012 VMware could be the next Netware! I really don't see and advantage over Hyper-V especially in SME organisations (I still think in large cloud virtualization VMWare still has it, but how long that will last who knows) and of course the cost advantages for using Hyper-V especially in schools is overwhelming. First 2 tips make sure you have good network structure and a good quality SAN capable NAS or a real SAN if you have the money, otherwise it will be a headache to use Fail Over. Stand Alone Hyper-V is also better than ESXi for one big reason, you can easily move a VHD from one host to another using 'Copy and Paste' this can be an alternative strategy using 'Manual Fail-Over' which is still a big jump up for recovery on using bare metal servers. I would also be interested in receiving requests for paid consultancy from anyone wishing to migrate as this I have discovered thos is more of a night time / weekend work activity. Edited June 23, 2013 by micktagg