Re: [Hampshire] Virtualisation

Rob Malpass wrote:
> I currently run a 6 node cluster - 6 physical machines - all pretty
> low spec (top spec is probably P3-128Mb RAM) connected via a 10/100
> network running Slackware. I can probably buy some sort of machine
> for around 300UKP but for that kind of price - how do I know the 6
> virtual machines will be better than the 6 physical. Obviously even
> without the speed issue, there's are the space and power gains from
> what apparently is known as "p2v". Swings and roundabouts though
> because these machines are so old, only the dump awaits them.
>
> I'm not so much bothered how quick it is - but what I don't want to do
> is lash out on the new box to find it's not capable of the task.
> Running 6 VMs on any box is presumably asking a lot (though I believe
> we can now buy CPUs with virtualisation technology built in).

All depends on what the VMs are doing, and how much grunt and memory you
have to divvy up among them.

We have boxes at work running 15 VMs, but they have 4 CPUs and 16GB of
RAM to go around. Wetting my finger and holding it in the air I'd say
you might struggle if they are doing any real work, but if current
performance is okay and you can get yourself a reasonable amount of RAM
and a decent CPU you may get away with it. What sort of spec do you
expect to get for £300 Rob, and what sort of workload are they likely to
be handling?

Sean