[FASherman]

I'm a little frustrated today. I have a customer that I implemented a perfectly simple, easily maintained virtual environment for, but they are de-virtualizing and reimpmenenting with dedicated hardware - AND DOUBLING THEIR HARDWARE COSTS!

Why, you might ask? Because their storage admin - yes, storage, not sysadmin - doesn't understand how to support a virtual environment. More to the point, she got all wrapped around the axle thinking she had to do special configurations on their DB8100 when she didn't have to do anything out of the ordinary.

Virtualization and VIO was a big deal to them, mostly because they didn't understand it. But for those of us that have used VIO (I've done close to 100 virtual environments for various clients) , its really pretty simple. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it is in its infancy. Prior to VIOS 1.2, we didn't have shared optical devices or shared ethernet failover. This is just the beginning of what VIOS will eventually become.

I don't understand clients who are willing to move to partitioned environments - one form of virtualization - but are willing to pay twice the required hardware costs by adding D20 drawers and dedicated adapters. Not to mention the costs in network and SAN switches to support the extra cabling requirements.

VIO is pretty simple stuff once you understand the basics. Don't be afraid. Embrace the virutal world and cut operation costs. Its a good thing.

[polarbear]

Do you know of any medium to large customers using virtualization (all resources) in production environments?

[FASherman]

Several. I can't state who they in a public forum, but if you PM me with a further explanation of your request, maybe I can help.