Vista - Virtualization and disaster recovery has me confussed...

Hi,

I have reviewd MS virtualization demo twice. I'm confussed.

I want to use virtualization as part of disaster recovery.

I have 7 servers. 2xDC's, 2xApp servers, SQL server, Web Server, Exchange
Server.

I don't ever what to have to rebuild any machine and configure them from
scratch again.

I'm thinking that if I had 2 of my 7 servers setup as virtual hosts, and all
my existing servers were virtualized, that if I had a server fail, I could
move the virtual server file (or a copy of it) to one of the 2 hosts, and be
up and running again quickly.

I somehow think I'm dreaming.

I could never take my SQL box with its mega RAID and move it onto a box
without even a RAID Controller in it, right?

I read that Virtualization is really not for Database servers, but still,
what about my other servers? What if the host has less physical disk space
or a different number of drives?

Can I make a COPY of a virtual machine as part of a backup plan and then
restore it to another server if I had a server fail?

Would the virtual machine run without a lot of config changes?

I'm just not getting it.

Maybe I'm after more of an disk imaging solution for this, like Acronis?

I see virtualization as very similar to disk imaging as there is simply a
FILE that can be moved around. It this not correct?

My objective it to have good "snapshots" of my servers so that in the event
of failure, I can move the server intact to similar or NEW hardware, and
quickly get things back up and running from my users.

Can virtualization accomplish this or am I way off?

Thanks much,

Mark

Sure you could, you'd just need to use something like iSCSI to make the
connection to the mega Raid
True, I've also read that for big production databases that virtual machines
aren't a good idea, however for smaller databases they work just fine. You
have to test and make a determination based upon your results. The number of
drives and amount of drive space on the host server really doesn't matter
that much to the VMs, after all using iSCSI your not necessarily using the
Host Machine's local storage anyway. Each VM has it's own drives, the Host
machine may have a C and D drive, yet host a VM that has C thru Z without
issue. (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating the number slightly)
Yes you can, you can also store the hard drives on shared storage that is
reachable by both hosts and have the backup/DR host configured to use those
drives for pre installed VMs should the other host crash.
Yes it would.

The VHDs are just files, and they can be copied around, the iSCSI options
connect to real/virtual storage and it's more then just a file. The VMC and
VSVs are also files, but moving them to different machines may require some
action on your part to get them up and running.
Yes virtualization can do this, with the proper up front work when you set
them, the VMs up initially