Topics:
Virtualization
V to V’ing With Parallels
I’ve fired up a 60-day demo on a VT-x, 8-way, 32GB, 3x15k SAS Raid xServe. Yes, Apple makes such a 1u beast. I won’t get into why we have an 8-way, 32GB, 3x15k SAS Raid xServe. Know that we do, and that it is connected to an FC SAN. We also have a smaller xServe in the wings waiting to be a secondary VM host. Painless install of the not bare metal version Parallels Server. Retail price, $1248.75 - a nice round number. We’ve been waiting for a production bare metal hypervisor for Apple hardware from Parallels. They tell me it’s coming. My production shop couldn’t wait, so we’ve moved ahead with a demo install to test production performance of a mix of W2K3, Linux and, ta-da, Apple Leopard Server VMs. The first test of the new setup involved Parallels Transporter, the company’s P2V and V2V converter. We have a handful of mixed VMs hosted on two older VMware Servers that need to migrate. I paused one of my VMware W2K3 guests, pointed Parallels Transporter at the image, and let it crank for about 45 minutes, converting the 8GB bundle, and fired up the new V2V’d guest on the Mac. It mostly worked. After tinkering with network settings I had a mostly-happy anti-virus patch server back up, serving patches to 500+ production users. Our InterMapper netmon and other tools found the migrated guest server, and users were none the wiser. I was not successful installing the “one-click” Parallels Tools add-on for the W2K3 guest. I need to dig a bit to see why, but I’m guessing a conflict with the existing VMware tools resident in the guest. All in all a pretty painless platform migration. So how’s it running? Just fine so far. Next up, P2V of a legacy W2K facilities management system, a couple of light-use Leopard servers, and a Debian postgreSQl box. This is not ESX. But Parallels Server might just address the production small-scale VM needs for our Mac shop. Good: Migration tools, GUI and CLI management for local and remote admin via the 44MB Parallels Management Console. Not so good: No live migration. Not free, but not expensive. It also happens to be the only production solution for Apple Server HW or server SW. If performance, stability and management hold up, we’ll close the deal well before our trial is up. Now if only they’d release the bare metal version... « Google Competitor Uses Google Tech To Take E-Mail Offline | Main | The Next Windows Has An Official Name » |
| Sign Up Now For InformationWeek News Alerts |
This is a public forum. United Business Media and its affiliates are not responsible for and do not control what is posted herein. United Business Media makes no warranties or guarantees concerning any advice dispensed by its staff members or readers.
Community standards in this comment area do not permit hate language, excessive profanity, or other patently offensive language. Please be aware that all information posted to this comment area becomes the property of United Business Media LLC and may be edited and republished in print or electronic format as outlined in United Business Media's Terms of Service.
Important Note: This comment area is NOT intended for commercial messages or solicitations of business.
