Virtual Solution

[virtualserverst]

Afternoon all,

I am currently working for a Private School and have been asked to spec a solution for virtualizing 4-8 machines. I have a HP DL360 G5 server and 2 TB of Network attached storage - can anybody list exactly what would be needed EXSi licenses etc, to keep the cost of this project a little as possible?

thanks in advance?

[weinstein5]

Welcoem to the Forums - If you are going to run a single ESXi host then I would down the free version - https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/index.php?p=free-esxi&lp=1 - documentatoin check here - http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vs_pages/vsp_pubs_esxi40_u1_i_vc40_u1.html

Acouple of things as you move forward - make sure you have sufficient memory for the virtual machines you plan to run, how your networked storage is presented ESXi/ESX can only access NAS/NFS

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[PaulSvirin]

If you need only to run some VMs without any HA etc. , then you surely can choose free ESXi license.

Anyway, please specify the closest and more future tasks for the system.

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iSCSI SAN software

[virtualserverst]

It is just going to be used an introduction into virtualisation. If i loaded the DL360 with 2 x 72GB and 4 x 146GB disks then could i use the 2 x 72GB's mirrored for ESXi host o/s and then used the 4 x 146GB as RAID 5 Storage for my VM's?

If i choose to install the free ESXi then can i upgrade later to take advantage of features such as HA and vmotion?

thanks for your help.

[weinstein5]

Your configuration sounds fine for ESXi -

When you decide to move to HA etc all you will need to do is acquire the approriate licensing and add to your ESXi server - you will not need to reinstall

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[PaulSvirin]

I think your plans 100% fit into the ESXi features:

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iSCSI SAN software

http://www.starwindsoftware.com