VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘calculator’

VMware has announced a new online calculator that specifically compares the total cost of implementing VI 3.X and Microsoft Hyper-V. An online tool similar to Microsoft’s competitive calculator introduced last year, the VMware Virtualization Cost-Per-Application Calculator is designed to emphasize that the cost of implementing virtual infrastructure is more than the expense of licenses. In the past many have criticized the cost of VMware’s flagship suite of VI 3.X Enterprise products as too expensive, and with both Citrix and Microsoft now claiming to offer free hypervisors, VMware’s new calculator helps illustrate the message that VM density at equal performance matters to the cost analysis bottom line.

“Following the lead of analysts and customers, VMware has adopted “cost per application” as a more accurate metric to compare costs between virtualization solutions. Going beyond a simplistic license price comparison, evaluating cost per application takes into consideration the number of virtual machines that can be run on a single server, or the ”virtual machine density” enabled by a specific virtualization solution. The higher the virtual machine density enabled, the higher the server consolidation ratio. The higher the consolidation ratio, the more an organization can reduce its infrastructure costs (including costs for servers, networking. storage, power and datacenter space), and software costs, (including guest operating system and virtualization software licenses). Following this logic, the solution that can provide the higher consolidation of servers – without an impact to performance – also provides the most value to customers.”

I decided to test the calculator with a 50 VM / application example. Read the rest of this entry »

I was surprised to discover that the ability to estimate the size needed for the VMware VirtualCenter (VC) database was built in to the VirtualCenter Management Server Configuration options in VC 2.5. This means that the next time you are asked by your DBA “How big a database does VC need?” you can answer that question from the convenience of your VI Client.

Just point the VI Client at your VC 2.5 server and then use the Administration MENU (not the administration button). Select VirtualCenter Management Server Configuration. Then click on Statistics.

Here’s a screen shot from a VI Client pointed at a VC 2.5 Update 3 server. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week Microsoft made licensing changes that are beneficial for companies running applications in a virtual environment. Many articles and blog posts were published hailing the policy explained in the Microsoft Application Licensing Mobility Brief. However, as I explained in my post New Microsoft Application Mobility Brief does not cover the Windows Operating System, the new policy almost seems incomplete if you do not use Microsoft’s server operating system (OS) to host your virtual machines (VMs). The brief is easy to understand for scenarios where Hyper-V, Microsoft Virtual Server, or VMware Server are running on Server 2008, but to me it’s still confusing when a non Microsoft, bare metal hypervisor is installed instead. So, since it’s safe to say that Windows is by far the most widely used operating system in VMs today how should IT departments license Windows guests if a host is running VMware ESXi/ESX 3.5 or Citrix XenServer for example? The best choice may surprise you. Read the rest of this entry »

I posted a while back about VKernel’s Alex Bakman and his whitepaper on preventing performance bottlenecks on your ESX hosts. This time I am posting about another topic inspired by Alex dealing with how to chargeback for virtualization. More and more companies are beginning to talk about chargeback in virtual data centers, but many struggle with coming up with a formula for actually implementing such a model. VKernel has a great solution for this and provides for download both a free Excel calculator and a complete virtual appliance. I provide a little more information on both of these Vkernel solutions in the rest of this post.
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I wrote a post for the Virtualization Pro blog about my take on Microsoft’s ROI Calculator. I was inspired to check out the calculator by the VMware Virtual Reality post Microsoft’s Virtualization ROI/TCO Calculator: Our Take.

“…it wasn’t how Microsoft calculated the numbers that bothered me most. I struggled to understand why a TCO and ROI calculator included a competitive analysis. After all, VMware’s TCO calculator doesn’t compare the cost of competitor’s products. What does that have to do with return on investment? It just seems out of place to me. Furthermore, if you go back and review VMware’s points they are mostly about the competitive cost comparison, too. It’s easy to forget we are discussing a TCO / ROI calculator.”

Check out the whole post at Virtualization Competitive Analysis in the middle of an ROI Calculator? – Virtualization Pro: A SearchVMware.com blog.

Like all bloggers, I have accumulated a bunch of links in my drafts that are sitting there collecting dust. In an effort to clean some of those drafts out I have combined several online calculators into this post. Each of these calculators can help administrators and IT departments understand and budget for a virtualization project. Enjoy!

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Australian VAC Partner Oriel has created a clever Virtualization Calculator that illustrates how virtualization is good for the planet. Based on the statistic that the average 2 cpu server produces 12.5 tons of CO2 per year, the calculator not only tells you how much money you can save in hardware and power but it also provides comparable environmental benefit examples such as planting trees, reduced car emmissions, and reduced cow emissions.

I entered 200 servers in the calculator and received the following results (click on the screen shot to see a larger image): Read the rest of this entry »