Dugie’s Pensieve

Recently I’ve been having a lot of interesting (but strong) discussions around a day in the life of a Windows Server.

Anyway, I have the [personal] opinion that your production Windows Servers should end their life as virtual machines.  Yes, even if you [for what ever crazy reason] build a Windows Server on a physical box, there will be an inevitable moment, where it is time for the physical hardware to go away.

My belief behind this is, most windows servers (and the server app that they run) will typically have a life of “about 5-8 years”, and most go through a couple of software upgrades during that time.  A lot can happen in the hardware world in that 5-8 years.  But all of that is a discussion for another time.  For the moment let’s just agree, that we have decided it is time for the physical hardware to go away.   …and it’s time to convert the Physical Server into a Virtual Machine.

Now, when it comes to P2V, every man and his dog have a P2V tool – some are free, some are not.  (Yes, VMware Converter is free).  This isn’t a “my P2V is free-er than your P2V” post – but rather a question of:  if you commit to releasing a hypervisor for free, are you obliged include P2V [and maybe framework] as part of that commitment as well?

Now I don’t have all the answers, or even the right questions – but it makes a very interesting discussion.  So I thought I’d throw the idea out there for discussion.  Thoughts anyone?

I’m well into the process of migrating my Windows Home Server from "commodity whitebox hardware" over onto a laptop.   Primarily to reduce the about of [active] power I’m burning, and secondly reduce the noise.

I’ve a little more testing to do around storage; Do I persist with USB2 harddisks, or look at eSata — eventually I might move to a laptop with the new super sexy atom chipset.

Then again I might not.

Eventually, I’m looking at moving my Home Server into a virtual machine; perhaps along with my media center, maybe even on the same host - but that will require USB TV tuners, and usb support.  =)

But right now, I needs a home server up and running again, and ghastly old whiteboxes are so 1990’s =)

TTFN

I’ve been experimenting with Virtual Machines and replication – and having a fair degree of fun (and success).

I’m replicating a VM between two locations.  Actually I’m only replicating a portion of a VM, because replicating an entire VM just isn’t possible with the bandwidth available to me here in Australia =)

So what I’ve done is created a linked clone of an OS+APPS, writing most of the temp files of to a Scratch disk.  …and it’s working pretty well.  The “replication” chunk is usually about 50 meg (I should be able to get it leaner), and the changes are about 7 meg.  Given that I’m replicating just the delta’s it’s quite manageable at the moment.

Here’s a quick sketch of how it’s working:

Now if there was I could access a copy “whilst it is in the cloud” that would be cool.  I’ll post more updates as I tinker a little more.