Ok, we are a new partner to VMWare. We are in a remote but developing country and have very little help finding a VMWare Parnter we can trust and provide us with the answers we need. So, since we are a Software Provider, we decided to become a VMWare Parnter to see if we can do this ourselves.
First, I have to say, I do have some experience with VMWare ESXi (unsure of what version) but have seen and used it. But with all the vSphere and whatever packages and bundles that VMWare sells, I have no idea where to start. Unfortunately, we now have a customer that wants to migrate from Physical server to virtual servers and have come to us to complete this. Since we don't exactly trust our partners around here to do what we want to accomplish as they try not to steal our customers I am asking this forum what we need to get.
My Customer has the following
- IBM System x3650 M3 with 16GB of Ram and Xeon Processor (not sure exactly what type).
- This server runs Windows Server 2008R2 and SQL2008 on it. This is all they have for their environment.
This server is 5 years old but still in decent condition.
They are looking to purchase two (2) new servers and migrate to a complete virtual environment.
The primary reason we chose VMWare is because of the fault tolerance and they love that feature.
We need to install VMWare software and then convert their server from Physical to Virtual. Then setup a 2nd VM and move the SQL Database to that VM so the VM's are run entirely. Obviously VM1 would backup to Server2 and VM2 would back up to server 1, incase a server were to go down.
We are setting up a scalable solutions so the customer has room to add more Virtual Machines and has fault tolerance.
And from this page, we find that the exisiting server can use ESXi 5.1. http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php
How can we use this in the server array or should we just discard it.
What is the best solution to use here and what is the best pricing we can provide for them?
I can provide you with more information on this.
I am looking for best software and lowest price and best practices to get this implemented.