Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Hosting Software and Control Panels : vmware

[pblack0]

Anyone using vmware GSX / ESX for dedicated or vps hosting?

peter

[rghf]

We tried it. Its not bad, can be a little bit slow and is a bit expensive.

Rus

[vlucas]

altaway.com and jaxhosting

-lucas

[greatdealhos]

unless you are planning to put it on high end machine dual cpu, lots of memory, it is going to be very very very slow.

otherwise, it is a great product.

[traixanha]

where do dl for demo version?thanks

[whoppe]

Hi,

Altaway charges $75/month for the minimal virtual machine.
Why would anyone want this instead of buying a proper dedicated box for $99??

Beats me.

[vlucas]

different hardware
high-end ibm servers, scsi raid / san vs cheap noname desktop w ide discs

my doubt is: a portion of a high-end reliable system or a full dedicated commodity pc?

[greatdealhos]

depending on what you want to do I think....

but if you are just doing regular hosting.. its a waste of money, better on whitebox plus ide unless you want to do dedicated database for something, but if thats the case, then i guess you should prepare to spend money than to just go to the vps vmware style.

The only thing i am really sure is, it is not really worth your time unless you are going to do really high end stuff on high end machine.

[John[H4Y]]

We were considering using it for VDS hosting, but the recommendation of only 2 - 4 VDSs per CPU turned us away. I did test it for quite a while and loved the virtual hardware emulation. It is very cool to see Windows running inside of Linux or visa versa. Looks like we are going to go with user mode linux, which has been used by a few hosts sucessfully already.

[dawolf]

Originally posted by vlucas
different hardware
high-end ibm servers, scsi raid / san vs cheap noname desktop w ide discs

my doubt is: a portion of a high-end reliable system or a full dedicated commodity pc?

A piece of an ESX Server deployed on a high end machine offers too many advantages over cheap 400-500 ($99.00/mo.) deds. First of all if deployed properly (SAN, Vmotion 4 proc servers etc..) Performance will just blow doors on the others. Having your data on a SAN as opposed to IDE is a no brainer, speed, redundancy and fault tolerance. Also a provider that has the SAN/ESX archetecture, can offer you point in time recoverys, and in case of hardware failure, your server can be brought up on another machine in minutes, if not seconds.
ESX is one hell of a product that is finding its way into almost every world class datacenter, the potential for hosting ESX VMs is awesome too. The only thing is, just because it is a VM does not mean it is cheap.
I for one would much Rather Share 1/16 of a Quad Xeon server for 200/month, than to pay 79.00/month for some crappy IDE server, and then have to pay extras, like backups, service etc....

ESX runs about 2500/per processor, a 1 terabyte compatible SAN will run you 25k minimum, throw in 2 Quads with 8 MB ea. minimum, Virtual Center and Vmotion, 4 HBA's and a Fibre Switch, your at 75k for a 2 server ESX SAN setup. 90% of the hosts here don't bring in that kind of $ in 2 years. But for those that could afford it, and their clients, they have a rock solid, fault tolerant extremely easy to manage system.

Also, if you know of a host with such a set up they are pros, and not some kid hosting sites on a P4 with 1 gig and a lame *** IDE drive he gets for 79/mo.

Just my 2 cents.

Ray

And yes I do own an ESX system.