On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 11:54 PM, James B. Byrne <byrnejb at harte-lyne.ca>wrote: > > On Fri, May 27, 2011 14:36, Jack Bailey wrote: > > There are lots of good reasons to virtualize. > > > > http://www.vmware.com/virtualization/why-virtualize.html > > > > Jack > > > > As it turns out, that was one of the net resources I had in mind > when I described what I found as mostly puff and smoke. This is > what this site claims as advantages to VM: > > > Top 5 Reasons to Adopt Virtualization Software > > > 1. Get more out of your existing resources: Pool common > > infrastructure resources and break the legacy “one application > > to one server” model with server consolidation. > > I have difficulty with this statement on so many levels that it is > hard to know where to begin. Perhaps the most egregious is the > mindless equating of server with host. What measurable benefits > accrue to a firm from 'breaking the legacy', whatever that means. > It depends how you do this: Many of our clients run SQL on a differen server than SMTP/IMAP/POP3 and file & print sharing - thus 3 or 4 servers. Now they can deploy 1 large server and run everying on different VM's - they still get the same security and isolation, but save some cost. OR, they can have 2 servers with a shared SAN and have everything running on those 2 servers and have high availability. Something they probably didn't in the past in any case. > > > 2. Reduce data center costs by reducing your physical > > infrastructure and improving your server to admin ratio: > > Fewer servers and related IT hardware means reduced real > > estate and reduced power and cooling requirements. Better > > management tools let you improve your server to admin ratio > > so personnel requirements are reduced as well. > > Personally, my experience is that, if anything, running multiple > systems on a vm host measurably increases the administrative burden > per host. For one thing, you now have multiple instances to update > and to keep secure whereas before you had one OS to worry about. If > we had tens or hundreds or thousands of servers then yes, I can see > the benefits. We, however, do not deal with equipment on that > scale. > Again, this is about saving hardware, power, heat and storage. One could very easily replace a rack full of servers with just 3 or 4, or so and thus be more green - save some space, power and heat. Effectively you still have the same amount of OS / applications to run, but you're using less hardware > > > 3. Increase availability of hardware and applications for > > improved business continuity: Securely backup and migrate > > entire virtual environments with no interruption in service. > > Eliminate planned downtime and recover immediately from > > unplanned issues. > > I suppose that moving VM instances as file systems provides a real > value by eliminating the setup and configuration required to get > bare metal to flash up in a usable fashion. This is in fact the > only area that I see a real advantage to VM over bare metal > installs. > > > 4. Gain operational flexibility: Respond to market changes with > > dynamic resource management, faster server provisioning and > > improved desktop and application deployment. > > I have no idea how deploying VMs to a company's desktop workstations > could possibly benefit the firm., > I can provision a new VM to a client withing minutes. A server takes more like an 30minutes to an hour to get up and running. > > > 5. Improve desktop manageability and security: Deploy, manage > > and monitor secure desktop environments that users can access > > locally or remotely, with or without a network connection, on > > almost any standard desktop, laptop or tablet PC. > > Again, how is this accomplished and what are the advantages over a > single OS install? None of the above claims have anything to do > with VM per se as far as I can see. > Well, each end user desktop could be saved as a VM to make re-installation, or "uprgrades" much easier. > > -- > *** E-Mail is NOT a SECURE channel *** > James B. Byrne mailto:ByrneJB at Harte-Lyne.ca > Harte & Lyne Limited http://www.harte-lyne.ca > 9 Brockley Drive vox: +1 905 561 1241 > Hamilton, Ontario fax: +1 905 561 0757 > Canada L8E 3C3 > > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > -- Kind Regards Rudi Ahlers SoftDux Website: http://www.SoftDux.com Technical Blog: http://Blog.SoftDux.com Office: 087 805 9573 Cell: 082 554 7532 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20110528/557feec0/attachment-0004.html>