[gtaSAGE-members] VMware ESX server

[Robert Brockway]

On Thu, 21 Jul 2005, Fraser Campbell wrote:

> We have had less than heart-warming experiences, some issues:
> 
> - crashes, poof VM gone ... logs, what logs???
> - network outages (removed a secondary IP from NIC and whole interface
>   stopped responding)
> - unstable clock, usually slow, sometimes fast ... too eratic for ntp
>   to solve
> - awful performance/overhead

Wow that does not paint a good picture.
 
> We have less than 20 Linux virtual machines at the moment but the push
> is on to virtualize for new projects so the number will grow
> substantially.  My feeling is that VMware is definitely not the way to
> go but it's hard to combat the marketing machine.

All you can do in this case is put your objections in writing backed up 
with examples of failures in your environment (including dates, impact, 
etc) and submit a report indicating that in your professional opinion the 
use of ESX may have serious business impact in the future.
 
> I have been benchmarking Xen versus ESX and all I can say is that Xen
> makes ESX look silly in all tests to date.

You could suggest it as an alternative.

I guess what I'm saying is that we as techs sometimes get upset when we 
see companies do things we consider to be mistakes waiting to happen.  

IMHO ethically we need to clearly state our concerns as IT professionals.

After this it is up to the company leadership to decide how to proceed.  
If they ignore the advice of their techs in favour of marketting well it's 
their decision.

Oh, keep a copy of the letter at home to present later when it all blows 
up and management are looking for someone to blame.

Cheers,

Rob

-- 
Robert Brockway B.Sc.		Phone:	+1-416-669-3073
Senior Technical Consultant	Email:	support at opentrend.net
OpenTrend Solutions Ltd.	Web:	www.opentrend.net
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