Virtualization Engines for SMB Storage

When it comes to server virtualization the first thoughts that come to mind might be choosing between Hyper-V, Xen or vSphere. This Storage Virtualization for the SMB article on Datamation says that when it comes to actually taking the server infrastructure of the typical SMB and going virtual across the board, a slew of issues arise that are at times more difficult to address on the smaller scale.

"Regardless of the virtualization engine in use, the storage decisions are very important for the SMB. The migration to storage virtualization is further complicated for the SMB as there may not be an existing shared storage infrastructure. Shared storage is the one of the most critical design elements of virtualization environments, big or small. Storage is one of the 'core four' resource categories alongside processor, network and memory.

"For the SMB, what options are available for shared storage that can be used to virtualize servers? In short, there are plenty storage choices available.

"One of the core goals of virtualization is to abstract operating systems (or servers) from hardware. If a vSphere, Hyper-V or XenServer host is providing virtual machines on a single DAS array, we have only partially abstracted the operating system from the hardware. Shared storage via some form of storage area network (SAN) or network attached storage (NAS) device can entirely abstract the operating system from the underlying hardware."

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