Trying to Determine what VMware product is necessary.

[tjansa]

I hope this is posted in the correct place.  Setting up and configuring a virtual environment is completely new territory to me.  I work for an industrial automation company and am researching the possibility of using virtual machines for some of the computers we use in our systems. For any given job we typically have a data server, an HMI server, and any number of client PCs.  I am wanting to create a repeatable virtual environment to run the data and HMI servers. I would be looking at creating 2, possibly 3, virtual machines per host.  I would need to be able to configure each virtual machine to communicate on multiple networks and would like to set up some sort of automatic backup.  Every host would be stand-alone and not connected together so I don't believe I need any sort of centralized management. I know the hypervisor is the main component needed, but I'm not sure if the hypervisor is really the only component I need. 

I hope that makes sense.  I know part of getting the correct answers is being able to ask the correct questions.

Thank you in advance for your help.

[Lalegre]

Hey @tjansa,

First of all, the minimal software requirements you need in terms of VMware products, is the ESXi (Hypervisor), the core which gives you the ability to virtualize resources. From there you can have multiple ESXi standalone or managed by a vCenter Server which gives you some additional features such as VDS, centralized management, SSO, etc. Of course this is sold separately or it can come in a package but means additional expenses.

Regarding other requirements you will need some TCP/IP connectivity, Storage for the disks of your virtual machine, external solutions such NTP, DNS. etc.

Take a look at the Essentials Kit on the VMware page and try to engage with sales for more support and follow up.

[bluefirestorm]

Assuming that your industrial automation needs to have either serial, parallel, USB, or specialised controller cards that needs to be interfaced to the industrial equipment that is being controlled, that could be a potential problem with using virtualisation.

The PCIe passthrough of specialised cards could pose a technical problem/hurdle that may not be overcome.