How do I?

[pdm_abb]

Folks;

First let me apologize for my inexperience....I have been a VM Workstation user for quite a while and need to try to understand what direction to head in. Maybe some of you have had the same questions in the past and can now offer some solid advice.

I am involved in the deployment of Windows based systems that are used for Industrial Process Control. A small system usually comprises of a Domain/DNS Server (W2K3 R2), and two other windows servers (W2K3) that are part of the domain. In Addition to the servers we usually have a number of Client PC's (WXP Pro SP2). So in the case of this type of small system there are at minimum of 3 servers as well as switches etc

So..What I want is a single PC that can handle all the Servers, but still maintain the XP machines as physical machines. Ideally a PC that would say have 3 or 4 CPUS, say 2 raided drives per VM ect. What should I consider. ESXi or ESX. From what I read the ESXi is embedded and maybe doesn't have a host OS...I dunno yet...but willing to learn!

I want to reduce the hardware costs for all the servers and switches as well as the degree of difficultly of doing upgrades.

Thanks in advance

Drew

[weinstein5 · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Forums - From what you decribe it sounds like either ESX or ESXi will do what you need as long as you do not have a need for specialized hardware required for you process control - ESX and ESXi do not handle specialized hardware. ESX and ESXi essentially provide the same virtualization hypervisor - the difference is how you manage that hypervisor ESX with the Service Console or ESXi it is embedded in the hypervisor. A properly configured machine oculd manage multiple virtual machines -

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