[OPLINTECH] Community Library now running VMware ESXi

[Chad Neeper]

I enjoyed Jim's overview:  "What's Old is New"  How true that is...and 
not just related to virtualization. It's (almost) amusing to see a 
company touting their product as a brand-new breakthrough in technology 
when the tech is really a "What's Old is New" and the Old tech has been 
around just long enough to fade from memory/favor or a new generation of 
techies comes forth that isn't aware of the Old technology the New stuff 
is based on.

(That's a particularly crummy sentence, but you get the gist of it! LOL!)

Anyway, to answer Eric's question:  When VMware came out with its New 
virtualization technology, it seemed to be a head and shoulders above 
the competition in its market at the time. In fact, I can't really 
remember much of any major competition at the time VMware Workstation 
first shipped. There were several companies that quickly arrived on the 
scene, but VMware seemed to be more robust, stable, and versatile. I 
used it in-house very heavily for testing; it was incredibly useful. 
After a year or so, I started using VMware to run the company's servers. 
About a year after that, I started using it at my library clients, which 
saved a lot of money in hardware.

Bottom line:  I've been using it for more years than I care to count out 
and it's proven to be very stable and very robust. The company seems to 
be a "best in class" company. It's hugely cost effective. At the level 
of software my libraries need...it's free. And easy to set up. And I 
like it.

Hope this answered your question, Eric.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Chad

-----------------------
Chad Neeper
Senior Systems Engineer

Level 9 Networks
740-548-8070 (voice)
866-214-6607 (fax)

--   Full LAN/WAN consulting services   --
-- Specialized in libraries and schools --



Eric Maynard wrote:
> 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 <mailto: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 
> <mailto: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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