The full VSA isn't free. I guess it comes down to what level of redundancy you want.
>From what you're saying it sounds like you run everything right now on a >couple of servers with direct-attached storage? If so, you could almost certainly run the whole lot on a single new server, still using direct attached storage, under ESXi. You wouldn't have all the SAN stuff such as snapshots, nor would you have HA. Install a VSA on that single server and you still don't have HA or any significant resiliency but you do have snapshots at the storage level. Obviously where it gets interesting is when you add a second server as now if you have a pair of VSA's you have redundant storage. Add in something like a vSphere Essentials bundle and all of a sudden you've got redundancy at the storage level, and HA at the vSphere level. Depending on the size of your site, put the boxes apart and you've also got some level of DR built in. You take the point, if you go out right now and buy a $30k SAN you're still screwed if you lose your server room. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
