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Chris4486
Contributor
Contributor

Newbie questions about vSphere

Hi everyone,

I watched the webcast yesterday and thought everything sounded really slick. I'm the IT person for an SMB and I've done a lot of reading on VMware and virtualization in general and I get it but I don't quite get vSphere. I've installed ESXi a few times and did some basic creation of VMs. Easy stuff. I'm planning a big move to virtualization and with the announcement of vSphere I'm not quite sure how it fits into where I'm at.

My original plan, based on a recommendation from a VMware reseller, was to buy two identical and powerful machines that could individually run all my VMs at once. The second machine would be used as a failover. However, what I don't like about this is that I already have two or three machines that I could easily use for virtualization if I just put some more ram into them.

Now, with the announcement and marketing hype of vSphere, it sounds like I can install ESX/ESXi(?) on each host along with the vSphere addon (is it an addon?) to turn the three or four physical hosts I have into one large virtual host. My VMs would live on the virtual host and everything would connect to some shared storage.

But I think I'm confused about the whole thing so I'd appreciate any guidance and/or information you can give me to help me see things for what they are.

Thanks,

Chris.

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4 Replies
glynnd1
Expert
Expert

To simplify things a little, think of vSphere as VI4, where VI stands for Virtual Infrastructure.

VI3 is the current version of ESX and VirtualCenter.

Therefore, vSphere is the new version and it does have new features that will change things.

If you already have some servers that have similar x64 CPUs, and adding RAM is all you need, you are a good step in the right direction.

I would suggest you spend a little bit of time learning about the various different licensing packages the VMware offers. One can get great virtualization for little money if one is willing to live without some of the advanced features like VMotion.

After that you'll need to look at some shared storage - I have opinions there, but I wouldn't want to be seen as biased Smiley Wink

jbogardus
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

If your servers are on the Compatibility list you can consider using them. Especially if they are all the same model & CPU type:

If they are different models & CPU type then there are additional complexities (Look up Ehanced VMotion) to enable VMotion failover functionality.

'To turn the three or four physical hosts I have into one large virtual host' requires setting up a VMware Cluster. To use VMware Cluster functionality you need to be using a VirtualCenter (now vCenter) Server to manage you separate ESXi as a Cluster. vSphere doesn't have any critical new features for the basic VMware VMotion, DRS, and HA Cluster functions that were already present in the previous version.

To use failover functions you do need to have your ESX servers connected to shared SAN storage. For SMB iSCSI SANs are typically the easiest/most flexible solution. Look at iSCSI solutions such as Dell (EqualLogic), HP (LeftHand Networks), NetApp. Also IBM DS3300 which is lower quality and functionality.

In addition you can consider LeftHands Virtual Storage Appliance if your current servers have significant disk space that you'd like to reuse. This method will be somewhat complex for you to setup without previous VMware knowledge though.

jbogardus
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Also for creating a small VMware Cluster configuration look at the VMware MidSize Acceleration Kit bundle which includes the vCenter Server and ESX licenses for 3 ESX hosts.

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azn2kew
Champion
Champion

You should be able to use vSphere 4.0 if your current hardware support x64 bit CPU and if so, upgrade more memory and run vSphere cluster and take advantage of those new FT, Host Profiles, Data Recovery, Storage VMotion, vNetwork Distributed Switches etc...and those features come with different license edition so read through license guide and determine which is best for your environment. Sooner or later you would have to use vSphere anyways, because your ESX 3.5 licenses are automatically qualify you for vSphere license only difference is Enterprise Plus which you have to upgrade righ tnow $229 or double if you wait longer.

Again, concept is straight forward and it very easy to upgrade from ESX 3.5 to vSphere 4.0 with ony 4 phases and you're there.

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!

Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

VMware vExpert 2009

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!! Regards, Stefan Nguyen VMware vExpert 2009 iGeek Systems Inc. VMware vExpert, VCP 3 & 4, VSP, VTSP, CCA, CCEA, CCNA, MCSA, EMCSE, EMCISA
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