Why Virtualize?
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@WrCombs said in Why Virtualize?:
@Dashrender said in Why Virtualize?:
@WrCombs said in Why Virtualize?:
@Dashrender said in Why Virtualize?:
@WrCombs said in Why Virtualize?:
@Dashrender said in Why Virtualize?:
@WrCombs said in Why Virtualize?:
@DustinB3403 said in Why Virtualize?:
@WrCombs said in Why Virtualize?:
@DustinB3403 said in Why Virtualize?:
The simple answer is because of consolidation, footprint, energy, cooling, cost savings, administration simplification.
The long answer is paging @scottalanmiller.
okay.. How does it work?
How does virtualization work? Just like running a program on Windows 10, each VM is a separate program that runs on the hypervisor.
and in a regular set up you'd use this to run servers? controllers? back ups? Images?
Those are weird things to list together.
A VM is nothing more than a server running in a container instead of directly on the hardware it's running on.
i.e. You have a physical server - you install a hypervisor (the thing that allows you to have VMs running under it)... then you create VMs under the hypervisor. Each VM acts like it's own piece of physical hardware - in general, the Operating System running in the VM has no idea that it's not running on physical hardware (OK before someone blasts me, most OSes today do know they are running in a VM, but that's beside the point)... now treat each VM as if it was running on it's own hardware.
well, that's why I was asking the question the way I did.
uh - why exactly was that?
Cause I dont know any better obviously.
Awww.. well - good amount of answers here so far - just be prepared for Scott's answer when he gets around to ya
Yeah.. and the Conversations that stem from it
Go to the Youtube vids or Udemy course if you want focused material on it. Then the sidebar conversations will make more sense.
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The simple answer to "why virtualize" is that if you don't, everyone here will make fun of you (ask me how I know).
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@RojoLoco said in Why Virtualize?:
The simple answer to "why virtualize" is that if you don't, everyone here will make fun of you (ask me how I know).
It is difficult to have a valid reason to run a physical server anymore.
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@IRJ said in Why Virtualize?:
@RojoLoco said in Why Virtualize?:
The simple answer to "why virtualize" is that if you don't, everyone here will make fun of you (ask me how I know).
It is difficult to have a valid reason to run a physical server anymore.
There's always a snowflake reason, but you should always virtualize unless you have super specific reasons not to.
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@Obsolesce said in Why Virtualize?:
@IRJ said in Why Virtualize?:
@RojoLoco said in Why Virtualize?:
The simple answer to "why virtualize" is that if you don't, everyone here will make fun of you (ask me how I know).
It is difficult to have a valid reason to run a physical server anymore.
There's always a snowflake reason, but you should always virtualize unless you have super specific reasons not to.
When I first got my current job, those reasons were mostly "the boss says 1:1 physical systems". I later found out that like 10+ years ago they got SCREWED by a poorly implemented VM Ware setup for production systems. Cost them some customers and a bunch of money, so it kinda made sense. I've been working really hard to break them out of their late 90s mindset.
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@RojoLoco said in Why Virtualize?:
@Obsolesce said in Why Virtualize?:
@IRJ said in Why Virtualize?:
@RojoLoco said in Why Virtualize?:
The simple answer to "why virtualize" is that if you don't, everyone here will make fun of you (ask me how I know).
It is difficult to have a valid reason to run a physical server anymore.
There's always a snowflake reason, but you should always virtualize unless you have super specific reasons not to.
When I first got my current job, those reasons were mostly "the boss says 1:1 physical systems". I later found out that like 10+ years ago they got SCREWED by a poorly implemented VM Ware setup for production systems. Cost them some customers and a bunch of money, so it kinda made sense. I've been working really hard to break them out of their late 90s mindset.
Yeah, that's not your fault and totally out of your hands. It's extremely hard to change the mind of older generations no matter how right you are and no matter how grossly wrong they are. There's usually a lot of emotion in their reasoning as well.
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@Obsolesce exactly, plus the IT guy before me sucked, so I had a while before they really listened to my advice. We are about to roll out a physical SQL server, but I'm trying to get them to put hyper-v 1st and then just the 1 VM with all available resources to test the performance.
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@RojoLoco said in Why Virtualize?:
@Obsolesce said in Why Virtualize?:
@IRJ said in Why Virtualize?:
@RojoLoco said in Why Virtualize?:
The simple answer to "why virtualize" is that if you don't, everyone here will make fun of you (ask me how I know).
It is difficult to have a valid reason to run a physical server anymore.
There's always a snowflake reason, but you should always virtualize unless you have super specific reasons not to.
When I first got my current job, those reasons were mostly "the boss says 1:1 physical systems". I later found out that like 10+ years ago they got SCREWED by a poorly implemented VM Ware setup for production systems. Cost them some customers and a bunch of money, so it kinda made sense. I've been working really hard to break them out of their late 90s mindset.
Yeah - that fear is a real thing, definitely hard to get past. Sadly, frequently it takes those people leaving a company before things actually change.
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@RojoLoco said in Why Virtualize?:
@Obsolesce exactly, plus the IT guy before me sucked, so I had a while before they really listened to my advice. We are about to roll out a physical SQL server, but I'm trying to get them to put hyper-v 1st and then just the 1 VM with all available resources to test the performance.
I dont know how you can work with these people lol
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@IRJ said in Why Virtualize?:
@RojoLoco said in Why Virtualize?:
@Obsolesce exactly, plus the IT guy before me sucked, so I had a while before they really listened to my advice. We are about to roll out a physical SQL server, but I'm trying to get them to put hyper-v 1st and then just the 1 VM with all available resources to test the performance.
I dont know how you can work with these people lol
Easy job, good pay, flexible hours, and the bosses are super laid back. The perfect combo to support my music habit (which is the actual important thing in my life, not IT. That just brings the paycheck).
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@WrCombs There are many reasons to virtualize. For servers you want to use your resources efficiently. You can have many "servers" on a single physical machine. Each will be in their own vm.
I virtualize my desktops and laptops too. I always run Fedora or Suse with a Windows vm for when I have to use powershell or write a "how to guide" for a user who needs Windows 10 pictures. There's probably a million reasons to run a vm. Very few reasons not to.
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The real reason for virtualization is to lower cost.
Instead of having 10 real servers, you use 1 real server and put 10 virtual servers on it. Sure that 1 server is a bigger, more expensive server but not 10 times as much.
If it wasn't cheaper, it wouldn't have been used as much.
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@Pete-S said in Why Virtualize?:
The real reason for virtualization is to lower cost.
Instead of having 10 real servers, you use 1 real server and put 10 virtual servers on it. Sure that 1 server is a bigger, more expensive server but not 10 times as much.
If it wasn't cheaper, it wouldn't have been used as much.
Yes, but hardware cost savings isn't all of it. You also save money with management and backup solutions
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@Pete-S said in Why Virtualize?:
The real reason for virtualization is to lower cost.
Instead of having 10 real servers, you use 1 real server and put 10 virtual servers on it. Sure that 1 server is a bigger, more expensive server but not 10 times as much.
If it wasn't cheaper, it wouldn't have been used as much.
This is how I sold it to my boss initially. The other cost savings and benefits have become obvious since then.
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@WrCombs said in Why Virtualize?:
I've been wondering for a while now, but what is the purpose/goal of Virtual Machines?
Abstraction and protection against the unknowns. It's important to ask this in reverse as well.. why not virtualize?
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@WrCombs said in Why Virtualize?:
Is there a certification course?
Oddly, no. But really, virtualization is so basic that it's a few minutes of learning. It's just an abstraction layer.
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@WrCombs said in Why Virtualize?:
why Is it required for most/all IT Jobs That I've seen?
Because no production workload should ever be contemplated to be run any other way... to the point that not doing so could easily qualify as professional negligence in most cases and one could easily define anything not virtualized as not being eligible for production classification.
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@WrCombs said in Why Virtualize?:
okay.. How does it work?
A complete computer is created in software so that your operating system is deployed into a software container rather than to the bare hardware. There are many ways to accomplish this. But at a high level, it's just software that creates a literal "virtual machine" so that software deployed to it thinks that it is running on hardware, but it is actually just software.
This gives you a layer of abstraction so that you can work with the operating system without having to manipulate actual physical hardware. While this might sound complex, it actually reduces overall complexity and protects against lots of really common problems.
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@WrCombs said in Why Virtualize?:
and in a regular set up you'd use this to run servers? controllers? back ups? Images?
Anything that isn't a desktop, and often even those.
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@WrCombs said in Why Virtualize?:
So by Virtualizing you're spreading out the resources to different OS's ?
No, that's a common myth. Virtualization implies nothing like that. It can help to enable that, but that is just one of many, many possible things that it can be used to do.
