Really it comes
down to the criticality of the systems running on it. Can a
high end workstation run many server VM’s yes. But you have
to account for if/when it would go down and how often that
may occur being a workstation with less redundancy than a
server, and also being a single system rather than a cluster
or multiple systems. If they are unimportant and can be
down for a day or two if something horrible happens, then
absolutely, if not then you may want to consider something
else higher end.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ehren Benson
IT
Services Virtualization Storage & Systems (VSS)
517-884-3088
| [log in to unmask]
Hi everyone,
We are looking to free up space in our
office by getting rid of our big server cabinet. In order to
facilitate this, the plan is to virtualize our critical
servers, Exchange and one domain controller at IT Services. We
will then buy a Workstation level PC with a Zeon processor,
something like the Lenovo P300 to host several less critical
and less performance intensive virtual machines. These will
include a web server, file server for 25 or so users, VPN
server, software license server, etc. For this use case, is
there any real reason to consider a low end server instead of
a higher end workstation like the P300? It would seem the P300
would give us all the expandability and reliability we would
need at a lower price point, and take up significantly less
space than most servers as well.
Thanks for any thoughts,
Al Puzzuoli
Information Technologist
Michigan State University,
Resource Center for Persons with
Disabilities, 120 Bessey Hall East Lansing, MI 48824-1033
517-884-1915
http://www.rcpd.msu.edu