confused about virtualization licensing pricing

F

Forealz

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 7, 2007
Messages
253
Hi
I've been looking into the advantages of virtualization, but I am still confused about the pricing. First off, I'm not looking to run a complex virtual mainframe or anything. I'm a one man show helping small business out, whether is watching or administering a sbs server or setting them up with cloud services. I'd like to virtualize their sbs servers for reduced downtime.

I'm confused about whether I can do this with the free version. I'm trying out ESXi (I think that's the one, I'm at home right now). To my understanding, when the trial is up I can continue using the hypervisor, but not vmsphere. If that's the case, how am I supposed to manage the server? Am I just supposed to log into the server and give up the ability to suspend vms?

Would hyper-v or xenserver be a better alternative for my usage?

Thanks
 
If you are looking for high availability, and it sounds like you are, you need at least two servers, shared storage, and at least Essentials plus which will include vcenter among other things to manage.

Hyper-v would require a hyper-v failover cluster and shared storage as well and you can manage from failover cluster manager within your rsat tools.

I'll defer to others pertaining xenserver but I'm fairly certain you still need shared storage.

Of course all this is assuming that you are looking for high availability since you state "reduced downtime.". Personally, I wouldn't virtualize any Prod environment without HA.
 
Last edited:
Vader said:
If you are looking for high availability, and it sounds like you are, you need at least two servers, shared storage, and at least Essentials plus which will include vcenter among other things to manage.

Hyper-v would require a hyper-v failover cluster and shared storage as well and you can manage from failover cluster manager within your rsat tools.

I'll defer to others pertaining xenserver but I'm fairly certain you still need shared storage.

Of course all this is assuming that you are looking for high availability since you state "reduced downtime.". Personally, I wouldn't virtualize any Prod environment without HA.
Click to expand...

In order to run a failover cluster, you have to be using the enterprise version of Server 2008. Read up on the licensing for Enterprise Server2008 if you are going that route, as the host OS license allows you to run a certain number of guest VMs. I believe the price is per physical CPU for the enterprise license.
 
It's a one server setup. By high availability, I mean that if something happens I can just drop one of the backed up virtual images on one of my personal servers for them to work with while I troubleshoot their hardware or RMA it. They probably won't want to pay for 24/7 uptime.
 
Then that's not HA.

Virutalization is typically to maxmize the use of hardware by running multiple servers on a single host. There really isn't a reason to virtualize if you are just going to use the physical hardware to host a single VM.
 
In order to run a failover cluster, you have to be using the enterprise version of Server 2008. Read up on the licensing for Enterprise Server2008 if you are going that route, as the host OS license allows you to run a certain number of guest VMs. I believe the price is per physical CPU for the enterprise license.
Click to expand...

I suggest you read up on this yourself. Hyper-v server 2008 r2 free IS cluster capable.
 
Biznatch said:
Then that's not HA.

Virutalization is typically to maxmize the use of hardware by running multiple servers on a single host. There really isn't a reason to virtualize if you are just going to use the physical hardware to host a single VM.
Click to expand...

I virtualized a single host for simplicity and ability to backup. It also allows me expansion and growth room
 
Vader said:
I suggest you read up on this yourself. Hyper-v server 2008 r2 free IS cluster capable.
Click to expand...

You're right, I take that back. I wasn't even considering the free version of HyperV server. I was basing this off useing a full server core install with hyperV as a role. We just had to purchase licenses for our Servers at work, and had to get enterprise for our SQL 2008 host OS because it's in a cluster.
 
Another company in my area virtualizes their sbs servers to do pretty much the exact same thing. Should software get screwed up or hardware fail, they come over with a temporary server and pop your image on it. I looked through their price sheets and they never charged for Vmware, so I'm looking to do something similar.
 
Another plus is that I don't have to spend a weekend making a new build, I can make the image then just drop it on a server literally on my way home ;P
 
f1y said:
I virtualized a single host for simplicity and ability to backup. It also allows me expansion and growth room
Click to expand...

Is to give you fail-safe upgrades/updates to the virtualized server. Take an ESXi snapshot, and do the upgrade/update. If something gets borked, just roll back. When you are satisfied it is okay, delete the snapshot. This has saved me more than once...
 
That's exactly what I want. So I can use esxi free, but then how am I supposed to manage it if the vcenter license expires?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top