A virtual server does not fit into the traditional definition of a dedicated server.

A virtual server is purpose built for the client within our High Availability ESX VMWare Farm. The Virtual Machine Farm consists of an array of VM Host servers connected to the high speed EVA SAN via fibre channel. Effectively, the server consists of a number of files which construct the disk and server infrastructure for the virtual server. As far as the virtual server is concerned it is a stand alone server with a dedicated disk, IO, memory and network interface which is connected into a dedicated network. There is no cross connection to any other servers or networks within the VM Farm. The High Availability (HA) occurs from the servers files being on a centralised SAN, which means the running virtual server is non hardware specific and can move without interruption between physical servers. In the event of a hardware failure or other event, the HA system migrates the virtual server to another physical server. This can occur seamlessly and without interruption to the running VM server, or with a brief outage in the event of a complete physical server failure.

The use of VM Server on an existing Windows server is not recommended in a production system and will cause both IO and network conflicts from the running windows server.

Virtual Machines provide a great cost point situation in an environment as they provide cost effective solutions where intensive IO is not required. That means they are ideally suitable for web, infrastructure, applications, file storage, and testing. This is because they maximise and share resources to provide a reliable and secure server, while providing a level of redundancy which is not possible in a physical server.

To get more information on how we can virtualise your environment contact a member of our sales team