Question : Problem: Questions RE: VMware & SAN Implementation

Hello,

My current IT infrstructure is relatively small with just two servers (Win2K3 Domain Controller & MS SQL Server) but am anticipating growth & will likely be implementing an Exchange server, Sharepoint server, GIS Server and an Additional domain Controller. I will also be "Rebuilding" the data room and have been considering implmenting a Virtual environment with VMware Infrastructure 3 and possibly an iSCSI SAN solution - as I expect things to continue growing rapidly. With all that said, I am interested in getting feedback from others who have worked with VMware and or implemented it with an iSCSI SAN. I've looked at IBM blade Servers, HP blade servers, EqualLogic(Dell) iSCSI SAN boxes and am also interested in NetApp. Anybody been in this situation? what would you do differently in hindsight? Recommendations?

thanks

Answer : Problem: Questions RE: VMware & SAN Implementation

Performance is fine under VMware. The comment around keeping SQL and Exchange out of a VMware environment had some basis two major releases back (in the ESX 2.5 era) but it simply isn't an issue - and it really only applied to large SQL or Exchange environments - say 1000 users or more. I've implemented Exchange and SQL in a a number of companies, most recently a 250 seat insurance company. I've been heavily involved with a hospital with 4000 users that are using ESX Server extensively and it works great. The reality is that most Exchange servers sit there doing very little, yet the servers are almost always pretty musclebound. That makes them good candidates for virtualisation. SQL Servers also virtualise well - performance largely depends on the application. As always, a poorly written app on a physical server just becomes a poorly written app on a virtual server.

If you're happy with your backup software then stick with it. VMware offers VCB (VMware Consolidated Backup) that takes snapshots of running Virtual Machines and allows you to back up the snapshot - makes for very fast backups with almost no load on the production host. I usually set up a combination of traditional backups and VCB backups, but it really depends on your environment.

NetApp has excellent replication products such as SnapMirror. SnapMirror has integration modules for Exchange and SQL. SnapMirror quiesces the application, takes a snapshot of the disc then runs integrity checks against the database using ESEUTIL or DBCC (depending on the app, obviously). The data is then replicated to a DR array once the integrity check completes so that you always have a 'gold' copy  (or multiple copies if you wish) of your application data. Sweet!

If you've got good comms between sites then replication is easy. It's where you've got a 2Mbps pipe and 500GB to replicate that things get challenging.