Anyone running Windows Servers on a Xserve?

[Gerg]

I have a couple of Windows Servers that I need to upgrade & virtualize. I have a bunch of desktops virtualized & running on VMWare's Workstation software, and now I'd like to virtualize the servers, too. After doing some research, I'm wondering if it would be possible to do it on an Xserve.

An Xserve is considerably cheaper than the HP servers I've been pricing, and frankly seem to be much better machines. (Leave it to Apple to build a gorgeous, simple, yet extremely powerful server.) My thought would be to buy an Xserve, then install Fusion on it, then virtualize the servers onto that environment. I'm also looking to upgrade the servers to Server 2008 64-bit to take advantage of the increased RAM access.

I checked with VMWare, and was told that, in theory, it would work. Right now Server 2008 is listed as 'experimental,' but I have it running on my Aluminum MacBook (in Fusion) with no trouble. Granted, it's just there running, it's not in production, so I don't really know if it would work for real.

Is anyone running any virtual machines on a Xserve like this, and what are your thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[TypicalJeff]

I'm in a similar situation. We've successfully migrated quite a few users over to virtualized desktops on Mac machines and were looking at using an XServe for virutalizing servers.

Surely a beefy Xserve could do such a thing? It'd be nice to know if it's possible to do without having to use something like Parallels Server or some nonsense like that. C'mon VMWare.

 

[Consultant]

There is a thread on this, in the xserve section:

VMware.com/products/esxi