Confused about VMware

brad-

Im just getting into the VM world and am t-totally overwhelmed by all the products, so i have no idea even where to start...but assume i'll start with vmware as opposed to the other vendors. The last time i looked into this BESR baremetal restore was a hot technology...but i assume vmware has something better or at least similar.

That said, im tasked with coming up with a long term DR plan, and I think I can use virtualization to do it most effeciently. Ive got 10 2k3/2k8 servers with SQL, Exchange, Sharepoint, web...anywho, my thought was two things.

One: From the primary site, do log shipping or mirroring for SQL, and schedule a P2V weekly to make sure i have fresh images to bring up (is that even a correct way of thinking?) at the secondary site.

Two: Virtualize my 10 servers into 1 box, and copy that off to one other box.

The couple of quotes ive gotten from contractors typically include a SAN at each site as well.

Im not sure what product line i should be looking into or anything. All advice and criticism is welcome. Im not concerned about budget yet - that will be there, but i am concerned about correct planning, simplicity, ease of use, reliability, and testability.

azjag

I guess this will come down to how much of a budget you have and how much downtime your company can handle while you bring the warm site online and up to date.

brad-

budget is around 125, but we should be able to do it for much less. 2 beast machines and licensing probably the bulk of the costs, that would probably get us in under 50 i would think.

downtime we are willing to handle, 1 day.

blargoe

If you have that much budget, you should get two servers for your primary site and get enough VMware licensing to support high availability and vMotion. Also think about getting a proper VM backup solution, if you do not already have something that supports it correctly. You should still get in way under budget.