RFC: VMWare talk for MerriLUG Nov meeting

[Tom Buskey]

On 10/21/06, Ted Roche <tedroche at tedroche.com> wrote:
> On Oct 19, 2006, at 11:29 PM, Shawn K. O'Shea wrote:
>

> set up and run their demo without permanent disfiguration of my
> machines. Likewise the "sometimes I have to run Windows" issues. I'd
> also be interested in insights on where small and medium businesses
> would benefit from running a couple of virtual machines rather than
> running apps directly on the host OS, if we can think of those cases.

Imagine this:

You have a standard build of FC5, WinXP, Win server, solaris x86 ready
to run just by copying 3 files.

Who doesn't want a test sytem every now & then?  Maybe 3 machines,
each to test a different mail server?

Or, you have several low CPU usage systems that are on thier own
systems: license server, DNS/NIS, AD, DHCP, LDAP?  Instead of 4
systems using 10% cpu, you have 1 using 50% cpu.

Even better, it's time to upgrade.  Your servers are running in VMs.
Get the new hardware, install your hostOS and then vmware server.
Copy your 3 files for each VM to the new system, shut down the old,
and start the new.  Your VM's network, video, etc drivers are the
same.  No so important w/ Linux, but lesser OSes save lots of time.
Just the host needs updating for the new hardware.

Imagine a cluster of the above.  All the files on a  SAN.  Move 'em
off the dying hardware to the new via the SAN.  Repair the hardware
then move 'em back.