Beyond Migration
Although Virtual Server is well suited for consolidating NT systems on your network to multiple VMs running on one system, VM technology also presents several other ways to manage systems on your network that previously weren't possible. For example, you can
configure virtual SCSI disks to support a virtual server cluster running on one physical system (which is great for performing tests, demos, and training).
configure a VM's hard disks to use the undo drives feature so that the VM discards changes when you power it off—this feature opens up countless testing, training, and e-learning possibilities.
configure VMs to provide a new way to manage select production Windows 2003, Win2K, Linux, and NetWare servers. Keep in mind that running an OS on top of another OS can affect performance. When planning to consolidate VMs onto one physical host, remember to perform thorough load testing so that you aren't surprised when you place the VM into production.
have a means to reliably recover Windows OSs to different hardware in the event of a disaster.
If you've done even one disaster-recovery rebuild of a Win2K server to a new system with different hardware, you know how painful it can be. Because VMs emulate hardware, they essentially eliminate hardware differences as a consideration when you're moving an OS and applications from one virtual host to another. If a VM crashes or if a VM's host system fails, you can restore a backup of the VM's virtual hard disks and configuration files to a different server without any complications. This flexibility also comes in handy when you're working with mail servers. If a mail server VM fails, you can quickly bring up a cloned replica of the original VM, which will at a minimum provide users with access to their mailboxes. If your backup software supports message-level recovery, you could then simply restore backed up email messages in the background while still giving users the ability to send and receive new messages. Total mail server downtime, with the use of VM technology, could be limited to a few minutes, as opposed to hours or days.
Easing the migration of your legacy applications is just the start. Although VMs and Virtual Server come with a learning curve, the advantages of these new technologies will keep them around well into the foreseeable future. Virtual Server is expected to hit the shelves in fourth quarter 2003. Stay tuned as these new technologies continue to develop.
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Reader Comments
Love the article. Very informative. Now we need a comparion to VMWare both desktop and server versions. I current use VMWare in production environments.
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