Just wanted to know how prevalent VS 2005 is now. We are basically virtualizing everything that moves as it is easier to upgrade to a new server and move the VPS around. Also we get to control the reboots etc.

Anyone else found this a god send?

Cheers,

Mark

Absolutely, VS2005 has been my platform of choice for all development and production works for some time now. Just a little (or a lot) more ram per server and you can easily seperate out all your services for portability. This is where W2K3 Enterprise edition shines.

VS2005 still causes some slowdowns. VMWare is the better solution (still). But either way there will be performance degration.

VS2005 still causes some slowdowns. VMWare is the better solution (still). But either way there will be performance degration.
If it does I have never seen them. I also have not used VMWare lately though. VS2005 is simplicity at its best for the intended purpose, IMHO.

Yep, Virtuozzo is supposedly the best for virtualization because it doesn't use emulated drivers like VMWare and VS2005.

Virtuozzo is very nice, especially when it comes to Windows licensing. I still can't figure out how they get away with that. Virtuozzo is also quite expensive but is offset by the Windows license costs depending on how many VS you are setting up.

What is the deal with Windows Licensing and Virtuozzo?

I know with Win2k3 EE you get four instances of the license for use with VPS.

It seems the VPSs do not need seperate licenses. Not sure exactly why but I was told it had something to do with the way it spawns instances of the OS. Sounds like *BEEEP* to me.

If I'm not wrong, Windows DataCenter Edition allows unlimited copies of Windows to run on a single server.

Thats what I heard, that is.

You can run as many copies of Windows as you like under the Standard, EE and DC edition. Its just a matter of find the best price model dependant upon the server configs and number of VPS:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/howtobuy/licensing/calculator.mspx

I believe that under SPLA you can run up to 5 virtual machines on 1 machine with 1 license.

With Win2k3 EE R2 you can run up to four instances of the license including the host OS - the host has to be dedicated to running the virtualization software. If you want to run 8 instances all you need is two license :) If you want to run 16 etc then its better to go for the DC edition.

I'm curious about the different ways that you folks using VS 2005 go about the OS to the actual virtual machines? Specially if the server is remote.