VMware ESX 3.5 with Thin Client

Lizardo,

An R900 server should work for hosting virtual desktops for your wyse thin clients. VMware ESX Server has the capability to host many virtual machines each with their own OS, apps, etc. The R900 is validated with ESX 3.5.

With 45 clients, each with 2 GB memory usage on the server you would need apr 90 GB plus a couple of GB for ESX. It might make sense to go ahead and get 128 GB of RAM to have room for expansion.

Are you using the VMware Virtual Desktop Manager? When you reference 2 GB each, do you mean the RAM on the thin client or RAM usage on the server? What apps are going to run in the VMs? How much RAM do you plan to assign to each VM?

Thanks,
Todd

"Lizardo,

An R900 server should work for hosting virtual desktops for your wyse thin clients. VMware ESX Server has the capability to host many virtual machines each with their own OS, apps, etc. The R900 is validated with ESX 3.5.

With 45 clients, each with 2 GB memory usage on the server you would need apr 90 GB plus a couple of GB for ESX. It might make sense to go ahead and get 128 GB of RAM to have room for expansion.

Are you using the VMware Virtual Desktop Manager? When you reference 2 GB each, do you mean the RAM on the thin client or RAM usage on the server? What apps are going to run in the VMs? How much RAM do you plan to assign to each VM?

Thanks,
Todd"

Hi Todd, thanks for your reply, pls see answers below.
Are you using the VMware Virtual Desktop Manager? Yes
When you reference 2 GB each, do you mean the RAM on the thin client or RAM usage on the server? RAM usage on the server to be allocated per thin client.
How much RAM do you plan to assign to each VM? 2GB each VM's.
What apps are going to run in the VMs? e-Learning (online exam systems), OS (Win2K Server, XP, Win98, Win2K, linux-mySQL).

Sorry for butting in, but I have a question about this.

If each client needs 2GB (the VM "thinks" it is running on a 2GB box), then don't you need a lot less that 2GB per client on the server? I thought that physical RAM is shared between VM's if they share code, such as OS code, etc.

Dave,

You are welcome to join the conversation - you are supposed to jump in when you have a question or different perspective. So thanks for the question.

You are right about ESX memory sharing. It depends on how simliar the VMs are going to be. Without knowing very much about what these VMs are - I recommended enough RAM for each to have their own dedicated amount. From Lizardo's reply it looks like he has at least 5 different operating systems. It also appears that some of them are going to be server VMs (the linux-mySQL and Win2K Server) which may truly need and use all 2 GB.

So you might be able to do very well with less than 90 GB, but the available options jump from 96GB down to 64 GB - which might not be enough.

I would recommend going with the 4xquad core processors in the R900 and 128 GB or RAM. The reason is that the price difference for 96 GB or 128 GB is not that big, but it gives room to add more VMs in the future.

Thanks,
Todd