Starting Virtualization

[AmmarSM]

Hi

i want to virtualize my physical servers and i don't need vMotion also we have down time of day or two not a problem and i plan to use Acronis for virtual machines backup, so can i use only the free software VMware server and also can buy a support plan will that be enough ? i plan to virtualize even an exchange with only these tools is it enough ? we have around 35 user and around 5 physical servers i plan to virtualize which is application server and share-point, and update server plus active directory and exchange.

[WessexFan]

If you want to stand up an environment for not much money, then I would recommend you provision a decent physical server, install ESXi with the free license and begin to virtualize the physical servers using VMwareGO. This is what I do for the development labs.

[athlon_crazy]

As what WessexFan has mentioned, just go for ESXi if you have supported hardware to run this tiny Hypervisor. Remember, VMware Server is Based OS Hypervisor and I think VMware already drop VMware server from their support (Check here if VMware do). While ESXi is Bare Metal Hypervisor which come with small footprint and perform faster than VMware Server. Considering you will run exchange server later, ESXi is your best bet for your virtualization platform.

About support, I think you can buy per incident support from VMware here

[AmmarSM]

Thanks all for the replay, so the VMWare hypervisor is it the same ESXi or a different product ? And if different what's difference

Is between them ?

And is hypervisor is an operating system the server can boot from ? Will it be installed on hard disk ? And is it windows based or

Like old does operating system ?

[athlon_crazy]

Last time we called it as ESXi and now it's well known as VMware vSphere Hypervisor.

Yes, this product running on their own hypervisor OS and can be installed onto local or usb drive. Unlike classic ESX which do have service console (redhat like), this hypervisor come with minimal bash & command. Recommended all configuration and automation task must be performed through vSphere client, vMA (virtual machine appliance) or remote CLI tool.