VMWare Virtualisation Project

[Archipelego1]

Morning all,

 

We're currently looking into a project to migrate our physical infrastructure to Virtual. We've already deployed a few VM's on servers with local attached storage, and have an Equallogic SAN which is used purely for file storage. We have a main server room which will be used to host the main infrastructure and a backup server room that we'll use as a DR site. The DR site will contain a cut down version of the main infrastructure. We're also looking to do offsite replication to another site. We've engaged with a few companies to understand the solutions that would be available to us.

 

Given that we're late to the Virtualisation game, I'd like to take advantage of everyone's knowledge to learn from your positive experiences and also mistakes

 

Questions to my fellow Edugeeks ...

 

What solutions do you have in place

What did you learn from your deployments

What would you do differently if you were to start again

Can you recommend any companies who you've worked with in the past.

 

Thanks muchly.

[mikkydoos]

Im VMWare. I think most on here will advocate the MS option though.

 

VMWare is super solid but costly. Very adaptable though for larger scale deployments.

 

Its a bit of a pain but can easily be done in house. No need for companies imo.

[jertsy]

I have VMWare and its solid, I think Hyper-V has mostly caught up now and I would go with that if I was doing it today as its free! I was late to the virtualisation party too, and you Learn as you go but get a good comapny to help out and to support you during the roll out and beyond as that is crucial in my opinion as there is so much to learn.

[Gardinho]

Another vote for VMWare. It's been awesome since we installed it 4 years ago.

 

4 hosts and about 25 VMs at the moment.

[Norphy]

VMware is the better solution but I don't think it's better enough to justify the huge price premium over Hyper-V and System Center. With Windows 2016 around the corner, it's going to be even harder to justify buying VMware for a new deployment.

 

Whichever solution you go for, try and get some budget for training. It will be useful, these are complex products and I don't think you'll get the best out of either of them without it.

[TechMonkey]

VMWare here. 3 hosts, 25ish VMs. Never used Hyper-V but stayed away previously due to the fragile nature but have heard in recent years that it is a lot better.

Possible to do it yourself but for such a crucial bit of infrastructure I'd be tempted to get a company in. As others have said, training, training, training.

 

From what you have all ready you are in a very good situation.

 

Companies wise, we are in Kent and used ADM Computing. It will depend on where you are though.

[twin--turbo]

Vmware comes in many price plan varieties.

 

Essentials and essentials plus are quite cheap really.

 

VMware is actually very easy to install and get running. (OK I have some experience) our current cluster took 4 Hrs from unboxing 3 R730's to having a 3 node Vmware cluster with Multiple vlaned network.

 

I would use NFS to do Backend Storage on your Eq San... Don't need ISCSI these days, NFS should out perform it without the complexity.

 

TT

[bart21]

Company we used to use for DR as a service was Proact it uk.

 

They can consult or they offer dr as a service.