Blog Posts

It was officially announced that VMware has joined Microsoft's Software Virtualization Validation Program - known as SVVP. This is big news because it means that VMware hypervisors can become a validated and supported platform for Microsoft applications, including my favorite Exchange. The catch currently seems to be in the details. VMware ESX has not yet been certified (MS KB article with supported 3rd party hypervisors), although VMware has joined the SVVP.

I think that Microsoft and VMware coming to agreement on a process that leads to better support is a big win for their customers (Many of which are Dell customers too). Although the certification tests have not yet been run with ESX, it is my humble opinion that it is just a matter of time until it is a validated and supported hypervisor through the SVVP. The other big benefit here is that I will be able to remove some of the footnotes from my Exchange on VMware whitepapers once this is all settled.

Additionally the Exchange team blog has an excellent post with a link to a doc with their recommendations for running Exchange on Hyper-V which should be of great assistance to customers looking to do such a solution.

Todd

As many of you have probably figured out by now, I've spent a lot of time working with Exchange in VMs. Some of that time was spent explaining to peers, users, customers, and family members just exactly why in the world anybody would want to put Exchange into a VM. (To be honest - I don't think I was able to convince my mom.)

Early this week I ran across an entry titled Eight Good Uses for VMware and Other Virtual Machine Software on the TechnologySpeak blog. Number three on the list - Running an Exchange Server to Keep Outlook Synchronized. Turns out that having a local Exchange Server on your home network can make it much easier and faster to sync up Outlook across the 4 or 5 systems that you have at your house. If you are reading this entry, then I would bet that you have at least that many.

The only caveats that the blog calls out:

"The initial setup is a little bit tricky if you're not familiar with installing servers and server software, but once you get it going, it works very smoothly. Also, for many, the initial cost of buying the software might be prohibitive."

Meaning that you have to be a geek or a professional Exchange admin or both. On the cost perspective I initially thought that it might be really really prohibitive, but a little digging around and it looks like Microsoft Small Business Server licenses aren't too bad. The list price for SBS R2 is $599, which includes the Windows Server OS, Exchange Server, and 5 CALs.

With the memorial holiday weekend coming up, I think that everybody should take a break from the grill and spend some time getting your own virtualized Exchange Server setup for the house.

Todd

These days, it seems like everybody is at least looking at using VMware. It's the cool thing to do. Clearly.

But what about when you run something like Exchange or SQL Server or Oracle? It seems that almost everybody is cool with virtualization, until you start talking about stuff like this. Then there is a pause. Some decide to push forward, others decide to wait, still others may declare that they would never do it!

There are lots of issues to consider including support, performance, backup, disaster recovery, and even non-technical things like organizational structure and management support. So the answer for everybody isn't the same. The next TechTuesday chat is going to have this as it's discussion point - Running enterprise apps virtualized - to let everybody learn from each other.

Todd