Virtual Server configurations

Virtual Server configurations

I understand Microsoft Virtual Server is only supported under Windows Server, so the question is, do I build a 2003 box, install nothing on it besides Virtual Server 2005, then run my servers under it as VMs (virtual machines)? Or should I use the operating system as one of my application servers and run the VMs underneath it for the extra machines? If I can use the host server as an application server, is there a suggested way to run it?

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

    When you register, my team of editors will also send you the latest expert resources covering all areas of server virtualization, such as platforms, architectures and strategies, server hardware, managing virtual environments, application issues and more.

    Margie Semilof, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchServerVirtualization.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchServerVirtualization.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

Both approaches are valid depending on what you're trying to accomplish. It's entirely possible to set up a system running Virtual Server and also have it running something like SQL Server (albeit with a much smaller memory footprint than you might have if it was running in a system where little else was present), and then have the VMs talk to the SQL Server instance on the host.

It would also be possible to set up instances of SQL Server within each VM, but if you only needed one instance to be present, it would be best to have it installed somewhere else (i.e., it doesn't even need to be anywhere on that system at all -- it just needs to be somewhere on the network where the VMs can get to it).

On the whole, I'd recommend dedicating a whole physical server to running nothing but VMs whenever you can manage it, just so you can throw as much physical memory as possible at the problem.

This was first published in March 2007

Back to top