Generators, backup power generators... that got a chuckle out of me I' m in the fourth world, gents. We still rub sticks together, as Frank Zappa used to sing.
Pretty much flying solo on this and struggling to get the hardware vendor to sell me what I want and not what he must clear of his inventory. He wants his boxes sold and I want atuff that will still do the job in7 years,
Wiring is 20 years and was improvised on the fly, switches are cheap SOHO stuff. It's a miracle that it works.

Backup generators, he said...

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It seems that a lot of technologies are morphed together here.
Virtualization is different from redundancy which is different from backup/disaster recovery which is different from power/ups/electrical issues.

Sticking with virtualization ~ this leverages hardware of today to run multiple instances of an operating system on the same machine only limited by the machine resources such as memory or CPU or perhaps cost in licensing.

Keeping on that focus O-O check it out as it is a wonderful advancement or technology.

Just keep focus and not confuse with other technologies.

I work in a VM shop, you just can't beat it. I'm not a VM person, but most servers I work on are enterprise class VM's. The stuff is simply awsome, and solves a TON of issues related to large numbers of servers, offsite mirroring, backup with deduplication, all kinds of amazing things. Expensive ? Yes, but lot cheaper than running a bunch of dedicated hardware.

As the saying goes, you have to learn to walk before you can run.

The OP is apparently in an environment with relatively few resources. There are lots of these setups -- small to medium size businesses, few (or maybe just one) staff, you use whatever hardware and software you can get, and you run whatever the service providers or software vendors tell you to. You bounce from project to project, application to application, and you probably don't have a lot of resources to spare.

The advice to call the consultants is good advice, with the caveat that any good consultant is going to ask what your actual business need is. If you are worried about the electrical power going out, for example, then why are you thinking about virtualization? What is it you hope to achieve?

As others have said, virtualization can be a fantastic technology. I've worked with it for years, and it has really taken off in all sorts in cool directions. However, its proper implementation requires the right environment -- decent hardware configurations, knowledgeable staff, and competent system administration. Use the time now as a learning experience, with whatever resources you have at hand. Fortunately, there are a lot of "free" options available. This wasn't always the case.

Here are a couple of good google search ideas:
vmware tutorial for beginners
vmware vsphere tutorial for beginners

vsphere is a remote control program for VMWare.

Bill

Easy now,

Been struggling for 5 years now to get the hardware for a Domain and leave the current Workgroup structure. The operation is a small one, really small with 30 PCs an a century old building that eventually became practical since the city grew around it and it's now well located. But it is strictly small business. The Govmt suggested they adopt a warehouse logistic management software to optimize their energy needs (read reduce significantly) and that's what we're doing, pretty much in the dark.

Where I can help a little is making sure they ask some of the right questions and in doubt I buy quality stuff that will last a few years. I make the stuff last forever.

As per virtualization, I simply want to get ahead of future requirements/questions. Call it natural curiosity.


Originally will keep the DWM software in their own box and my domain in another BUT will start, on my own, to look for future uses of virtualization that might involve the DWM and another little MySQL server that I got on the side. In the remote future. Need to worry about getting Domain and DWM servers up and running and ducks in a row, herding cats is a better immage.

Don't really worry much about power outages at this point as far as the owners are pretty much used to them and are aware that I must work with wire and chewing gum most of the time. I provide the cheging gum most of the time, the wire I scavenge.

Since they will hurt badly spending big bucks for the planned servers they will want a rock solid setup and thus far no one considered UPS, backups, etc. The warehouse rewiring (professionally done, this time) plans have been shelved for the past two years and at this point I bless anything I can get my hands on, be it a working PS2 mouse or a used PC PSU.

Remember resources are very limited and extremely expensive. At least twice as expensive (prices) on a 1/4 of the income (roughly in U$D). All flavors available as long as you want vanilla.

I'm extremely grateful to you all for your time, help and ideas.
Used to be able to help you guys a lot more here at the board and remotedly but I'm getting outdated in a lot of subjects. I miss the fun.

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For info on Hyper-V, check out the videos at Microsoft's Virtual Academy - https://mva.microsoft.com

There's plenty of great info there including on clustering servers, which is one of the huge benefits of virtualizing with multiple physical hosts.

We started with ESXi and then later when MS changed Hyper-V so that most of the things you had to pay for in VMWare were now free in Hyper-V, we transitioned.

I think you'll find that there's not a huge learning curve to virtualization. You can start very basic, and take it as far as you want. If we're talking 30 PCs, you'll have room to not be at the pinnacle of efficiency right out of the gate.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
It seems that a lot of technologies are morphed together here.
Virtualization is different from redundancy which is different from backup/disaster recovery which is different from power/ups/electrical issues.

Yup.

If you have two pieces of identical hardware, and each is capable (CPU power, memory, etc.) of adequately serving the needs of the number of (virtual) servers you need, virtualization can let you have redundancy. Add an effective backup plan, with off-site storage, and you have part of disaster recovery. Add USPen, and possibly a generator, and you have power outage mitigation. Add a third identical server, off-site and Internet-connected, and you can have immediate disaster recovery.

Only your funds and your available talent limit what you can do.

I would recommend VMware over Hyper-V for the reason I'm led to believe the former is more stable.

quote:

I would recommend VMware over Hyper-V for the reason I'm led to believe the former is more stable.

I think VMWare may be superior for complex environments.
There are other differences but not needed in this down level discussion.
The OP can easily get started evaluating Virtualization with existing hardware and software with Hyper V.
Hyper V stability is not really an issue here.
There are other issues when picking a platform though.
Hyper V is still very good product and improving all the time.
If the OP has a free server box then why not try out VM Ware otherwise might be easier to get started with MS.