What are you using for your Hosts?

[rsoulliard]

HI,

My office went virtual a couple of months ago. We currently have a couple of EMC Clariion in a cluster with a shared array. We are already planning on adding a couple of hosts. I was just curious about what other servers people are using as Hosts and what OS are on them. Our Clariions are using Linux, but no one in my IT department has alot of Linux experience. As far as I can tell by the documentation we should be able to install ESX Server on a Windows based Host. Is this any better/worse than using a Linux one?

Thanks

Ron

[christianZ]

First you can not install ESX on windows - ESX includes own OS - you don't need here any host's os any more. ESX (or better VI 3.5 ) is not free.

I guess you meant VMWare Server (I would prefer ver. 1.04 not 2) - it needs a hosts OS. When you haven't any Linux knowledge in house then it would be hurt to use Linux as host OS. In that case take Windows - but remember VMWare Server performs better on Linux host.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Hi Ron, as already mentioned, VMware Server 1.x (2.0 is currently in beta) runs on either Windows or Linux. ESX is a hypervisor thus requires no host OS. There are currently 3 versions of ESX available - ESX 3.5 and 3i. Both offer the same functionality and the main difference is that 3.5 uses a Redhat virtual machine for management purposes. So knowing Linux will help for some troubleshooting and tasks, but the install inself is very easy and you can do all of your management from the VI client which is a Windows app. VMware 3i starts at $500 (2 CPU license) and the starter edition of ESX 3.5 is $1000 so if you're planning on using Windows as the host, it may not really add that much expense.