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Ali
User
Karma: 0

virtual server as backup? - 2008/07/26 19:12 Hey guys,

I was thinking to have a virtual server as backup server at work. was talking about it with manager and just wanted to ask more information about it from you guys..

hope i get replies this time.

we have 4 servers. server 2000, server 2003 and 2 linux servers and users around 100. main server is 2000 so just want a virtual server as backup incase we need to work on actual server so virtual server can do the job for a while.

thanks in advance

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Nicky Curtis Admin Karma: 20	Re:virtual server as backup? - 2008/07/27 09:04 Hi Virtual servers can be used for many disaster recovery or high availability solutions. Check out System Center Virtual Machine Manager for some great features. Virtual servers are pretty much the same as the physical servers all that you need to be aware of is the performance and resources of the virtual environment. Cheers, Nicky
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Ali User Karma: 0	Re:virtual server as backup? - 2008/07/28 16:11 thanks nicky, i am looking into it.. ive also found converter from vmware to convert physical machines to virtual.. have you or anyone tried? i will try things and keep you guys upto date.. ciao
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Nicky Curtis Admin Karma: 20	Re:virtual server as backup? - 2008/07/30 18:18 Hi there, I don't have much opportunity to get hands on with VMWare server, however the VMWare consultants at my company use PtoV stuff all the time, very sucessfully. They also use a product called PlateSpin. Nicky
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Mark Bradley
User
Karma: 2

Re:virtual server as backup? - 2008/07/31 04:18 Hi,

I work with VMware converter, it basically comes in two versions Starter (free) and Enterprise which is included with the Enterprise license of VirtualCenter.

Here is the link to the version comparisson.

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/get.html

One thing that Enterprise gives you that starter doesn't is the ColdClone CD, this allows you to boot a server up with the CD which then loads WinPE and allows you to convert the machine while it is offline, avoiding any issues of users accessing the server while the conversion is taking place. One thing I will mention is that you may need to load Array Controller drivers to the ColdClone CD so that WinPE can see the disks.

Starter edition of VMware converter would probably suit your needs.

As Nicky has mentioned there are third party products available like PlateSpin that can also do the conversion. PlateSpin is normally licensed per conversion, i.e. you buy a license to convert 10 machines then once 10 are P2V'ed you will need to buy more licenses.

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Mark Bradley
User
Karma: 2

Re:virtual server as backup? - 2008/08/01 02:50 Also ESX 3i has recently been announced as being free now.

May be worth looking at this as well... this will get better performance out of the hardware as it installs on the bare metal rather than in either Windows or Linux as VMware Server does.

To be honest there are plenty of options in the virtualisation space now so you should be able to try out the various products and work out which one will be the best for you with cost not being too high.

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Jason Willey
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Re:virtual server as backup? - 2008/08/07 05:10 Mark Bradley wrote:

One thing that Enterprise gives you that starter doesn't is the ColdClone CD, this allows you to boot a server up with the CD which then loads WinPE and allows you to convert the machine while it is offline, avoiding any issues of users accessing the server while the conversion is taking place. One thing I will mention is that you may need to load Array Controller drivers to the ColdClone CD so that WinPE can see the disks.

I noticed linux servers were mentioned in the list, and the ColdClone CD that Mark Bradley mentions is definitly your best friend if you are P2Ving linux servers. Windows supports the online cloning of the server via an agent, where linux (at this time) does not support live migration using P2V. It's still not an optimal experience - our Linux expert put a single conversion at 6-8 hours of labor. The good news is that there is supposedly a new version of converter that will support live Linux migrations "soon".

Check out my blog at: http://virtuallycrazy.blogspot.com

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