Server Consolidation: A Step-by-Step Process
Step1: Evaluate VMware Infrastructure 3
The first step is to evaluate VMware Infrastructure 3 so that you can run a proof-of-concept and see for yourself how easy it is to get started with VMware technology. VMware Infrastructure is the most widely deployed software suite for consolidating, managing and automating virtual machines across your IT infrastructure from a single point of control.
Step 2: Assess your IT Environment and Identify Consolidation Opportunities
Before beginning a deployment, it is important to assess the “as-is” organizational and technical readiness through a current state assessment. VMware Professional Services can help you assess your IT environment to identify candidates for server consolidation and calculate the potential cost savings your organization can achieve by virtualizing your IT infrastructure.
You can also quantify the return on investment of using VMware in your IT environment with our free online TCO Calculator.
Step 3: Convert Physical Machines into Virtual Machines
Download the free VMware Converter utility from our Web site and use it to convert physical machines into virtual machines in minutes, without service disruption or system downtime. VMware Converter can be run on a wide variety of hardware and supports most commonly used versions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems.
Step 4: Consolidate Multiple Virtual Machines on a Single Physical Server
Once you have identified your consolidation candidates and converted them into virtual machines, you use VMware ESX to run multiple virtual machines on a single piece of server hardware. You can even run processor-intensive enterprise applications on virtual machines by implementing VMware Virtual SMP, which enables a single virtual machine to use up to four physical processors.
