Server Containment and IT Optimization

in Intel Environments

by Britton McGinn

Technical Engineer

Datatrend Technologies

 

 

 

 

In looking at server containment and an increase in IT optimization for Intel servers, VMware ESX Server provides the top results in cutting down administrator management and minimizing downtime.

 

VMware ESX Server supports up to 80 virtual machines on a 16-way IBM x445 Server.  Then, multiple ESX Server hosts and their virtual machines are all managed through one central management tool, VirtualCenter.  By using the one tool, templates, clones, and backups will make deployment of new machines or restore of old machines take a matter of minutes, instead of hours. 

 

Rather than having to shutdown the physical machine for upgrades or repairs, the virtual machines do not encounter any downtime to perform the exact same maintenance.  Using the VMotion function of VirtualCenter, administrators are allowed to migrate virtual machines from one physical host to another without shutting down the virtual machine and interrupting client productivity.

 

VirtualCenter stops wasting valuable employee time in monitoring all the servers in the infrastructure.  Alarms and events can be customized for each host and virtual machines and alert the administrative team via traps, email, etc.  Then on top of that, administrators have the ability to automatically run scripts on triggered events avoiding the need to react on each event or alert.

 

Through a combination of VMware ESX Server, VirtualCenter, and the IBM high performance Intel servers, the technical team can reduce and simplify administrator resource time with deployment and manageability. This, in essence, makes your life simple and organized, by being able to manage, deploy, restore, and view all your virtual machines from one VirtualCenter client onsite and remotely.

---