What are the shortcomings of running GSX and ESX in the same environment?

[gdunn1]

I have a situation where there is an existing server that has GSX VMware loaded on it.

I have budget to put one more server out there but I am putting ESX infrastructure on it.

I have a customers AD domain controllers on the GSX server but want to know if I migrate one over to the ESX server what will i expect.

I assume this is ok, but there may be alot of admin difficulties.

Can someone explain this to me.

Of course, yes I am new to the VM world. thanks much!

[jayolsen]

Your best bet would probably be to build a new domain controller on your new ESX server. Promote and after everything replicates transfer the roles over to it.

[gdunn1]

Gary Dunn

Thanks!! appreciate it.

More detail.

The application has to have redundancy. If one fails, it needs to failover to the other AD/Domain Controller.

I need to have one running on the ESX box and one running on the GSX box.

[jayolsen]

Using ESX and GSX won't provide any built-in application failover. Does your application support its own heartbeat type failover detection?

[gdunn1]

Gary Dunn

hmmm. No. it doesn't. So, I really would either need 2 ESX servers. or rebuild the GSX server as an ESX server.

[Ken_Cline]

Your domain controllers will automatically fail over in the event of the failure of one. If you have one on each host (whether ESX, GSX, Workstation, MSVS, Xen, a physical box, whatever - it doesn't matter), then you will have fault tolerance because that's a native feature of the Active Directory service.

As for your subject question (shortcomings of GSX/ESX in same environment) - it's basically two environments to manage and you can't just copy VMs from one to the other (you'll need to export/import them). It's a good migration strategy, allowing you to gain the benefits of ESX without having to spend the $$$ to upgrade your entire environment at once...but I would suggest planning and budgeting to do a total infrastructure upgrade in the future.

VMware Communities User Moderator

[gdunn1]

Appreciate it guys! Have a great day!