Ask Slashdot: What Type of Asset Would You Not Virtualize?

An anonymous reader writes "With IT and Data Center consolidation seemingly happening everywhere our small shop is about to receive a corporate mandate to follow suit and preferably accomplish this via virtualization. I've had success with virtualizing low load web servers and other assets but the larger project does intimidate me a little. So I'm wondering: Are there server types, applications and/or assets that I should be hesitant virtualizing today? Are there drawbacks that get glossed over in the rush to consolidate all assets?"

Comments

First choice

[PPH]

Virtualize management.

Re:First choice

[aaronb1138]

Already done. Most companies have hundreds of managers sharing the processing, memory, and storage facilities of one brain. Too bad the power and wasted space savings don't scale.

Not virtualize

[amicusNYCL]

Assets not to virtualize:

1) Women
2) Beer
3) Profit

Re:Not virtualize

[theshowmecanuck]

This is Slashdot. Your list is actually a priority list of thing to virtualize.

Re:Not virtualize

[LateArthurDent]

Going from zero girlfriends to one imaginary girlfriend could, I suppose, be counted as an improvement. Going from one real girlfriend to one imaginary girlfriend... not so much, although, mathematically speaking, all girlfriends are partially imaginary.

I assume that by "partially imaginary" you mean they are all complex.

You would then be right.

Re:Not virtualize

[hairyfish]

Assets not to virtualize:

1) Women

I've already virtualised all the hot chicks in the office in my head. That's what gets me through those cold lonely nights....

Re:Not virtualize

[stretch0611]

Wrong... This is slashdot... Virtual Women are a necessity.

Re:Busy databases

[houstonbofh]

Also, don't put the VM "control station" on the VM. You would think I wouldn't have to say this, but you would be wrong.

Sure

[FranTaylor]

I would not virtualize the servers that are running the virtual machines.

Re:Busy databases

[spazdor]

'cause if you knock it offline by accident, your easiest tool with which to bring it back online is gone?

Kind of like how it's a bad idea to mess with a host's eth0 settings if you're currently logged in via ssh through eth0.

Sex partner

[kawabago]

Virtual sex is just not the same.

Re:Stone age technology.

[Alex Belits]

Windows is a hostile environment, it has no interfaces for host partitioning, and can not be reduced to anything usable running under any other system. Independed from that, by the virtue of its immense suckage, it belongs under virtualization even if there is nothing else on the same host.

But I am sure, people who run Windows do not care about performance. Or security. Or reliability. Or having usable package management.