Virtual Server Solution and OS

[mcr at simtone.net]

There are significant advantages of ESXi over VMWare-server when it
comes to disk I/O.  However, please realize that if you are putting
critical infrastructure into virtual machines that effectively you are
putting many eggs into fewer baskets.   You need to have spares.

ESXi is okay to admin, but they (VMware) really wants you to purchase
Virtual Infrastructure, and wrap that up with a SAN of some kind.
You can't manage ESXi from a Linux desktop, btw.

I thought that LeftHand Networks (now an HP company) would come through
with a virtual SAN, but by the time you put together their license
costs (just got a quote today), it is close to cheaper to buy a hardware
SAN.   Without the SAN, you can't recover from broken hardware.

If you have no local Linux expertise then KVM is right out at this time.
(That could change soon)   XEN is something to think about --- and
CitrixXen may appeal to your management.   

-- 
Michael Richardson <mcr at simtone.net>
Director -- Consumer Desktop Development, Simtone Corporation, Ottawa, Canada
Personal: http://www.sandelman.ca/mcr/ 

SIMtone Corporation fundamentally transforms computing into simple,
secure, and very low-cost network-provisioned services pervasively
accessible by everyone.  Learn more at www.simtone.net and www.SIMtoneVDU.com