Howdy,

Let's run this idea by the group here.

I am thinking about using VMWare Server in production to host

• a 2008 Domain Controller with DHCP and DNS,
• a 2008 member server with WSUS, some virus software, and other "management" utilities
• a second 2008 member server with SQL, IIS, and File Shares for a medium business of 50-100 desktops.

The reason I am leaning toward Server vs ESXi is for backup purposes.

Using ESXi, if I want to backup the VM's, I would need a second server in the office with enough storage availability to hold a copy of the vmdks.

I am wondering if putting this virtual environment on top of a basic 2008 server install will allow for easier backups to both tape and/or to offsite storage using JungleDisk. Can a snapshot be triggered easily via a scheduled job?

I know this doesn't necessarily handle file level restores, but I want to make sure in a DR situation, we can restore production servers quickly.

Does this concept hold water? Would a very minimum install of the 2008 Host remove too many resources from the actual production machines?

This would be a new Dell 410 server with 12 GB ram and (6) 600 GB 15K in a RAID 6, Dual Intel Xeon 2.26GHz procs.