Best Fit Virtualization Criteria Checklist

Finding servers which are the “Best Fit” canadates for virtualization can be tricky. I have put together the following criteria checklist to help determine whether a new server provision or a P2V should use virtualization.

The Best Fit checklist uses my own criteria and weight recommendations but it can be modified with more liberal values.  However, remeber the “Best Fit” for virtualizing a server should always consider the user’s experience, too liberal will produce poor performance and complaining users.

The “Best Fit” file has been attached for you to use it as-is or you can make your own.  Open file: best-fit-virtualization-criteria-checklist-vminstall

Best Fit Virtualization Criteria Checklist

Requestor: ____________________________________________ Date: ___________________

Server Name: __________________________ Server Role: ______________________________

Primary Application: ______________________________ Database: ______________________

Purpose:

The purpose of this checklist is to evaluate new server provisions for server virtualization. The checklist criteria are designed to only allow “Best Fit” usage for virtualization. A weight of 3 or more will waive the server’s provision for virtualization.

Instructions:

Each item has a weight assigned. While going down the checklist place the weight value on the line to the left of the items that apply. Once you are complete, total the weights.

Checklist:

  ____ 1. Is the primary application supported when hosted on a VMware VM? Yes/No (If no add 3 Pt.) Self explanatory.
  ____ 2. If this is a database server will clustering be required? Yes/No (If yes add 3 Pt.) Caveat: If clustering is required, high availability is hindered on the host server.
  ____ 3. Is this server considered a fail-over for a physical server? Yes/No (If yes add 3 Pt.)    Caveat: Fail-over servers should be provisioned on an equivalent platform.
  ____ 4. Can recommended system requirements be scaled back (CPU/Memory)? Yes/No     (If no then use items 5 and 6 to calculate weight.
  ____ 5. Will memory requirement be greater than 2 GB? Yes/No (If yes add 1 and .5 for each additional 512 MB)
  ____ 6. Will disk requirements grow beyond a 20 GB (C: or Root disk) and 50 GB of combined additional disk space. Yes/No   (If yes add 1 and .5 for each additional 50 GB) How much? _____GB
  ____ 7. Will this be a temporary installation/deployment?  Yes/No    How many months? _____ (If yes can Lab Manager be used?) (0 Pt.)
  ____ 8. Will a database be hosted on the server (SQL/MySQL/Oracle)? Yes/No   Other ___________ (If yes add 1 Pt.)
  ____ 9. _______________________________________________________
  ____ 10. ______________________________________________________

(           )  A server with a total 3 and greater should not be virtualized.

Evaluation Summary: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Originally posted 2009-02-21 09:54:36. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

VMware Lab Manager 3.0 Requires VirtualCenter

After spending a week on what should have been an easy project to designing a student lab environment at a well known online university, I am now stumped because of a change in VMware’s Lab Manager 3.0 requirements. Lab Manager 3.0 now requires VirtualCenter which poses a problem because this lab environment is isolated for security reasons away from the administration and production network.

In previous Lab Manager installs, I’ve just setup an ESX host, configured a VM with Windows Server 2003, installed the Lab Manager software and added the host servers for the lab environment. No VirtualCenter was required and it worked perfect on local storage. Now unless businesses are willing to redesign their networks, they will require another VirtualCenter for the  Lab Manager 3.0 environment to remain isolated.

Options are: 1) pay the extra $ for the VirtualCenter or 2) install older version of Lab Manager 2.5 (about $1295 per socket) or 3) $0, do without Lab Manager.

Originally posted 2009-01-21 18:30:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter