RE: New HA server and business server strategy?

["Craig" <craigc.lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Could I use VM ware or something similar on one or two really
> powerful boxes? Does this work OK and are there any
> down-sides to doing this?

I don't think VMs will buy you much, unless you want to run a different OS
VM, eg linux on windows.

Some downsides to think about:

Antivirus & spyware - you will probably need to run this in each VM +
the
host OS, that will be an overhead.
Licensing issues - any software that requires a licence, will require one
for each VM + host, eg backup, antivirus, etc
OS updates - you will need to apply the updates to all VMs and host.
Device drivers - USB, Sound, Video drivers will not work as well in a VM as
they would in the native host OS
Performance - there will always be a performance overhead running VMs

> Any other thoughts?

Vmware/VPC are great for testing new software, new configs & demos. The
'snapshot' feature is very useful as it allows you to take a snapshot of
the
machine before you install you new beta 'plugin'.

However, I personally don't see much value (apart from the education/fun
aspect) in running separate VMs for a HA assuming you always test new
configs first, and don't make the mistake of downloading all the latest
beta
plugins for your HA software.

I would actually like to 'virtualise' the other way, ie multiple small
'cheap' low power machines into 1 'virtual' machine.

Cheers,

Craig