1,000 physical servers (just an example, so we can provide a comparison).
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It may have 2,000 VMs. The number of VMs is higher for multiple reasons: VM sprawl; the physical server tends to run multiple applications or instances whereas VM runs only one; DR is much easier and hence, more VMs are protected.
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Growth is relatively static and predictable, and normally it is just one way (adding more servers).
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The number of VMs can go up and down due to dynamic provisioning.
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Downtime for hardware maintenance or a technology refresh is a common job in a large environment due to component failure.
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Planned downtime is eliminated with vMotion and storage vMotion.
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5 to 10 percent average CPU utilization, especially in the CPU with a high core count.
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50 to 80 percent utilization for both VM and ESXi.
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Racks of physical boxes, often with a top-of-rack access switch and UPS. The data center is a large consumer of power.
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Rack space requirements shrink drastically as servers are consolidated and the infrastructure is converged. There is a drastic reduction in space and power.
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Low complexity. Lots of repetitive work and coordination work, but not a lot of expertise required.
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High complexity. Less quantity, but deep expertise required. A lot less number of people, but each one is an expert.
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Availability and performance monitored by management tools, which normally uses an agent. It is typical for a server to have many agents.
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Availability and performance monitoring happens via vCenter, and it's agentless for the infrastructure. All other management tools get their data from vCenter, not individual ESXi or VM. Application-level monitoring is typically done using agents.
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The word cluster means two servers joined with a heartbeat and shared storage, which is typically SAN.
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The word cluster has a very different meaning. It's a group of ESXi hosts sharing the workload. Normally, 8 to 12 hosts, not 2.
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High Availability (HA) is provided by clusterware, such as MSCS and Veritas. Every cluster pair needs a shared storage, which is typically SAN. Typically one service needs two physical servers with a physical network heartbeat; hence, most servers are not clustered as the cost and complexity is high.
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HA is provided by vSphere HA, including services monitoring via Application HA. All VMs are protected, not just a small percentage. The need for traditional clustering software drops significantly, and a new kind of clustering tool develops. The cluster for VMware integrates with vSphere and uses the vSphere API.
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Fault Tolerance is rarely used due to cost and complexity. You need specialized hardware, such as Stratus ftServer.
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Fault tolerance is an on-demand feature as it is software-based. For example, you can temporarily turn it on during batch jobs run.
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Anti-Virus is installed on every server. Management is harder in a large environment.
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Anti-Virus is at the hypervisor level. It is agentless and hence, is no longer visible by malware.
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