[ESXi vs VMWareServer] How to setup my Apache and IIS?

[stevejones20111]

Goal: I have to run [PHP+Apache+MySQL over Apache] and [ASP+SQL Server over IIS] on the same machine.

Solution 1: PHP+Apache+MySQL over Windows.

Solution 2a: Linux (PHP+Apache+MySQL) in VMWare Server over Windows.

Solution 2b: Linux (PHP+Apache) in VMWare Server over Windows. MySQL is installed on Windows and is accessed by Linux Virtual machine via the local network.

Solution 3: Windows in VMWare Server over Linux.

Solution 4: Linux and Windows over ESXi.

For 1: I don't take this solution, because non-native Linux environment gives low PHP performance and no good url rewrite support.

So I have to decide between solution 2, 3 and 4.

I understand 4) is the best solution in terms of performance. But I'm new to VMWare. I need easy managability. I am not sure if something would mysteryously go wrong on my ESXi machine someday.

So my question comes down to [Performance gained by ESXi] VS. [Managability gained by VMWare Server].

I don't know how much performance I could gain by using ESXi and how difficult it will be to use in the production environment.

Anybody with real-world experiences in it? Thanks!

[AWo]

I would always prefer ESX(i) if you have a second machine to manage all the stuff. VMware Server has some difficulties. To access the GUI you need the right browser, etc. and it seems that VMware Server development has stopped. However, if the host doesn nothing more than hosting the guests performance might be still O.K.

AWo

[idle-jam]

4 would be the best option. ESXi isnt that hard and mostly are done in GUI. i would advise the evaluator guide as it will guide you to use/test/run ESXi in the shortest possible time.

• View VMware vSphere Documentation
• VMware vSphere 4 Evaluator's Guide

[NuggetGTR]

ESXi box with 2 vms linux and windows.

This is the best shot. you would get better overall performance from the servers doing it this way

Cheers

[LucasAlbers · Accepted solution]

Vmware server development is dead, to the absolute best of my knowledge no further patches or versions are forthcoming.

I would never start a deployment on a software platform that is end of life.

Performance on esxi better is dramatically fairer under heavy load, it has hard resource scheduling that guarantee's fairness.

Managing esxi is like managing an embedded linux or cisco box, it has unixy qualities but a number of unique commands and caveats.

If you are worred about the learning overhead and are familiar and comfortable with managing linux in general, you could also consider esx.

ESX has more commands that feel like rhel 5.2, it is less an appliance than esxi, and feels more like a special purpose rhel box.

When I first started with esxi 3.5 the only hard part was figuring out how to upload a vm.

Configuring everything else was really easy and doable via the vsphere client.

Using vmware server will work, but its not the best solution in terms of performance or future bug fixes.

[DSTAVERT]

You will also want to make sure that the hardware is capable of running ESXi. ESX(i) have a relatively strict set of hardware requirements. You can check the Hardware Compatibility List http://vmware.com/go/hcl or for whitebox servers you can check http://vm-help.com whitebox hcl and the vm-help forums.

[stevejones20111]

Thanks for your answers! However, my server is not at home, it is placed in the Data Center. I've only remote access it via the network. Anything I could do?