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Server Consolidation Guide via Virtualization
sunshineluv7 writes to tell us TechTarget is running a good overview of 'why, when, and how to use virtualization technologies to consolidate server workloads.' The summary provides links to several podcasts and other articles relating real world experience with how to utilize virtualization to best meet your needs. From the summary: "Advances in 64-bit computing are just one reason that IT managers are taking a hard look at virtualization technologies outside the confines of the traditional data center, says Jan Stafford, senior editor of SearchServerVirtualization.com."
That submission is what constitutes a "good overview" these days? Maybe it is, if you are the person trying to drive traffic to TechTarget.com sites....
Disaster Recovery and test environments are the two biggest reason's I can see for using virtualization. Having the ability to pick up your system and plop it on any old box makes things so much easier. In theory HAL's should have made this possible years ago but they never really lived up to their promise. As to virtualization making management easier, bullocks. Some of the tools bundled with good virtualization products like ESX might make management somewhat easier, but you still need additional good tools to make management bareable for large numbers of server/virtual servers.
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If you are suggesting that a critically-stressed virtual machine would somehow detrimentally affect a properly-configured host machine or other properly-configured VMs on the same host to any significant degree...you're demonstrating a lack of knowledge about the fundamental principles and concepts of virtualization.
A VM only gets ahold of the resources you give it. If one VM with 512M RAM eats every last bit of memory in a blaze of glory, that doesn't affect dedicated resources elsewhere. Similarly, a properly-configured host will not allow any VM to grab 100% of the host CPU either.
Place the server in undo mode/snap shot mode, and then just backup the vmdk. When its placed into the undo/snap mode, it makes the vmdk readonly, writing the changes to a seperate file. Then all you need to do it copy that vmdk, and when done, commit the undo/snap. When restoring the backup, the system is brought online as if it lost power. On ESX its a snap to do, and Vizioncore makes software that does this for you (ESXRanger), however I leave the VMware Server as an exercise for the reader. As I dont have any need for this, I havent looked into actually scripting it in VMware Server. But the idea is the same, and I bet that its possible.
Doing a quick search on the forums, sounds like vmware-cmd is the tool to use, or write a script to talk to VMware's SDK.
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