[OPLINTECH] Community Library now running VMware ESXi

[JKENZIG]

I've been involved and on the cusp of this Virtualization hoopla now for
over 15 years.  If you are old enough to remember VMS it to had virtual
disks and memory much of what VMware is based on now.  

 

The industry has come a long way. Sort of. Virtual machines run on what
is called a Hypervisor software layer  on the server. The hypervisor
software could be linux, unix, windows, or some other special code. Its
purpose is to allow multiple virtual servers to run on one single
server.

 

Now they are offering hardware hypervisors on the servers to run virtual
machines.  Very soon and actually going on now you will see something
called a Client Hypervisor. Basically you will be able to select
different virtual environments and run them on your local computer which
will have a hypervisor on them.  Citrix just announced the release of
XenClient (free to test out if you have a computer capable of running
it) (check out http://www.citrix.com/xenclient ) Vendors are already
commiting to add it to the bios of their machines.

 

There are so many virtualization solutions and hypervisors out there it
is getting mind boggling.  Microsoft has Hyper-V, Citrix has Xen,
VMWare, etc.  

 

The decision as to which to go with,  in my mind, is a cost, versus
need, versus ability to comprehend, versus compatibility with your
current environment. 

 

We went with VMWare about 8 years ago because it was the most robust,
feature packs and trusted in the industry. Time has changed all that.
Now with everyone pushing the cloud there are going to be virtual,
virtual servers virtually everywhere!  It won't matter where your apps
come from, as long as they work and run for you. 

 

All you will need is a dumb terminal  that can connect to the
network/internet.  Just like in the days of the VMS Vax..  Everything
old is new again, the 70's/80's are back.  The names may change and the
products may get more convoluted but they are basically doing the same
thing they have been for a very long time and that is using one server
to run multiple server hardware/OS virtually off its  disk array. Now
imagine that at the client level and that is where the paradigm starts
to shift and differ. 

 

Regards,

Jim Kenzig

Software Applications Engineer

Cuyahoga County Public Library

www.cuyahogalibrary.org

 

From: oplintech-bounces at oplin.org [mailto:oplintech-bounces at oplin.org]
On Behalf Of Eric Maynard
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 9:28 AM
To: Oplintech at Oplin.Org
Subject: Re: [OPLINTECH] Community Library now running VMware ESXi

 

Bob/Chad,

 

I'm probably not as knowledgeable on this as I could(should) be, so
please forgive if I am asking the obvious to someone who is, but I was
curious why you chose VMWare over say something like Ubunutu Server's
visualization capability?

 

http://www.ubuntu.com/server/features/virtualisation

 

 


Eric Maynard
Head of Information Technology,
Holmes County District Public Library
Millersburg, OH  44654
Email [emaynard at holmeslib.org]
Phone [330.674.5972 x.224]
Fax   [330.674.1938] 

"Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently"





On Fri, May 28, 2010 at 9:07 AM, Bob Neeper <neeperro at oplin.org> wrote:

REF:   http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/

System was a beefed up Windows 64bit server running  VMware to manage 7
to 9 virtual servers.
As part of an upgrade, Windows was to be replaced by ESXi (free version)

Last weekend Chad  (Level 9 Networks) began the server upgrade.
Short version:
 Backed up everything
 Broke the existing raid into 2 pairs of mirrored drives
 Added a 2TB drive (1 more still to add)
 Reformatted main drives, installed ESXi
 Restored the virtual servers

System performance has noticeably improved !!
Some examples:
 Backup to tape shaved 30 minutes of the circulation server backup
 openSUSE Education (children's dept.) thin clients response greatly
improved
 External response from our websites and PAC greatly improved. Internal
too, of course.
 vSphere client to manage the virtual machines has some nicer features

Probably the main reason for improvement was removing the Windows
overhead.
ESXi is dedicated to run virtual machines, Windows is not.
Changing the raid may have contributed also

There are just a few items left to complete in this phase before we
continue to the next.

--
R. W. (Bob) Neeper     Cell: (740)-407-3572
Community Library
44 Burrer Dr.
Sunbury, Oh 43074
Tel:  (740)-965-3901

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