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VMWare ESXi Dedicated Server
Quick, Simple, and Scalable VMWare ESXi Dedicated Servers
What is a VMWare ESXi Dedicated Server?
A VMWare ESXi dedicated server from Steadfast Networks allows us to provide our customers with industry-leading scalability and performance in virtualization. A “bare-metal” hypervisor, VMWare ESXi can be installed directly on the server to partition it. This effectively turns the server into several different virtual machines that can run at the same time, all using the resources of the same server. When it was released in 2007, ESXi raised the bar for security, reliability, and overall hypervisor management efficiency. Within minutes, VMWare ESXi users will be able to have their servers virtualized and running applications.
There are a number of reasons that companies choose VMWare ESXi to virtualize their servers:
- Smaller “footprint” than ESX – 150MB compared to 2GB
- Management functionality migrated to remote management tools
- Consolidates applications onto fewer servers using memory and CPU scheduling optimizations that allow you to run twice as many virtual machines on the half as many servers as first-gen hypervisors
- Reduce costs through consolidation (less need for administration, power, cooling, and hardware means bigger savings!)
- The ability to easily back up and recover applications
- Applications critical to your business can be virtualized
- Automatic configurations with a menu-driven startup
- Unlike other hypervisors, ESXi requires no additional operating system
- Technology that runs in almost every kind of customer environment – tens of thousands!
- Helps users eliminate the patching, anti-virus tasks, user access control, and security hardening present in other operating systems
- Run resource-heavy applications such as ERP, databases, and email with ease
- Point-and-click management with VMWare vSphere Client
- Perform basic hardware monitoring
- Monitor how resources are utilized and how this affects system performance
You can also easily upgrade to VMWare vSphere when you are ready, which gives you access to a host of other helpful features. vSphere provides you with the ability to migrate virtual machines live, and offers business continuity, power management, and automatic load balancing, to name just a few benefits.
How Can I Get a VMWare ESXi Dedicated Server from Steadfast Networks?
Steadfast Networks data centers in downtown Chicago house all of our dedicated servers, and customers can lease one with basic management starting at just $79.95/month. We have staff members on-site 24/7, ready to provide you with courteous, knowledgeable support. Base VMWare ESXi can be added to a Steadfast Networks dedicated server completely free of charge by simply letting your representative know at the time you lease the server. In addition to base VMWare ESXi, Steadfast Networks will soon offer a large number of VMWare vSphere options, with vSphere Essentials starting at $80/month for a 3 server cluster, and vSphere Essentials Plus (with High availability and vMotion) starting at $750/month for a 3 server cluster.
What Are the System Requirements for a VMWare ESXi Dedicated Server
All of our Steadfast Networks’ VMWare ESXi dedicated servers meet the minimum system requirements outlined for ESXi 5.0
64-bit Processor
Servers must have with 64-bit x86 CPUs
Host machine must have two+ cores
Supports only LAHF and SAHF CPU instructions
RAM
2GB RAM minimum.
Network Adapters
10Gb Ethernet controllers.
SCSI Adapter, Fibre Channel Adapter or Internal RAID Controller
Installation and Storage
A local, non-network, RAID LUN with space that hasn’t been partitioned or SCSI disk for the virtual machines
For SATA – a disk connected through on-board SATA controllers or SAS controllers that are supported.
Make sure your hardware is compliant by referring to the Hardware Compatibility Guide.
Tips, Tricks, and Documentation for a VMWare ESXi Dedicated Server
The VMware website is full of useful information and helpful hints including documentation, a comprehensive knowledgebase, and forums to answer any questions as they arise.