Waiting…virtually speaking

I’m on the wait list for a VMWare class online. I’m planning to take a vSPHERE 5: Configuration and Management class soon so I can go take the VCP exam. Virtualization has always fascinated me, but especially now that you can do some really powerful things with it. The idea that you can live migrate a virtual machine from one piece of hardware to another is just mind blowing. I’m sure those of you who see this all the time probably don’t think so anymore, but it still amazes me. Maybe someday it won’t, but come on…this is so cool!

This video is a little old now, but still a cool demo none the less. It shows how (in theory) you can switch off servers when load on your VMs is low to save energy but then spin them up in response to demand. From some quick research it looks like it wasn’t very feature complete in VMWare at first but they improved it to add iLO and IPMI wake up as well as scheduled spin up for when know when demand will increase and want to get out ahead of it. Not only does it allow you to save money and be more agile, but you can be greener too. What’s not to like? (yeah yeah, expensive VMWare licenses and support contracts…but still if the ROI is there, fantastic)