Server Virtualization for Web Hosts – The Basics
A few comments to start the post:
- Virtualization is here to stay, end of discussion
- Web server virtualization is just as efficient as physical hosting
- Microsoft’s Virtual PC Virtualization is WORTHLESS. End of discussion (The Server 2008 edition rocks, more on that in another post!)
- VMware is the industry leader, but there are a lot of other platforms on which to run your VM web hosts
Now that we have the debate topics out of the way, let’s delve into what virtualization is and what virtualization isn’t.
What Is Virtualization?
Virtualization is running multiple operating systems on a single hardware platform. 4 instances of Windows 2003 Server and 2 instances of Red Hat Enterprise Linux all running on one physical server. Sound impossible? It’s not. It’s the latest trend in datacenter consolidation. Why buy 6 physical 4U machines when you can buy a single 4-8U machine and run each operating system independent of one another?
What Virtualization Isn’t.
Virtualization isn’t sticking an unlimited number of guest operating systems on a single machine. You still have the constraints of finite memory, storage, and processing ability. The more guest operating systems you bring online, the fewer resources there are to distribute.
Virtualization is also not a replacement for dedicated servers. More on that in another post.
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