Can’t buy SCVMM 2012 on its own

[walnuts]

Was wondering what people thoughts are on this subject. Was looking forward to new release of Hyper-V and SCVMM 2012 but found out you can no longer buy SCVMM 2012 on its own.

It's now part System Center 2012 suite and has to be licensed for each host. It’s now going to cost a lot more (previously it cost around £1000 for unlimited no. hosts).

Has this affected anyone’s plans?

 

[MasterPlan1]

I currently don't use Hyp-V & SCVMM in a production environment, I was planning of pitching the idea of buying in a new cluster of machines and having a dedicated Hyp-V env for the windows servers, but this might put a downer on the subject.

 

[adencool]

We are just in the process of building another set of servers for a backup dc.

And as due course we compaired the price of hyper v to vmware
Hyperv came out at around £2300 per host (system center suite cost per host)
And vmware is around (i think) around £6500 per host.

And yes you do get a lot more with sys cent, like backup, montoiring, backup, av. But to make you buy the whole package is a bit harsh (2008 scvmm was around £800 per host) and this is just as hyper v v3 is about to get to a level playing feild with vmware

 

[walnuts]

This is only thing I've found that may reduce cost of going with Hyper-V 3 + SCVMM:

http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=12185

You'll still end up paying more than before and get additional software you may not need or have resources to setup/manage.

Only other option I'm going to look at is VMware Essentials bundles.

 

[PAz]

Just think of the big picture and what System Center can provide you as a suite rather than each product on its own

All that unification...beautiful.

 

[MasterPlan1]

I really can't wait till I move on to another place and hopefully it'll be a pure MS shop and I get to play with all the SC stuff.

 

[paradigm]

We're just in the process of building our new Hyper-v cluster and SCVMM 2012 environment. All I can say is enterprise agreement

 

[SoundsGood]

I've been trying to create a failover cluster using SCVMM 2012 recently. Am I right in thinking I need to use the same SAN for storage on both servers to get this to work? I can't find any decent documentation on this

 

[PieMaster]

I've been trying to create a failover cluster using SCVMM 2012 recently. Am I right in thinking I need to use the same SAN for storage on both servers to get this to work? I can't find any decent documentation on this

Yep, a failover cluster needs shared storage between all nodes. HyperV uses a cluster shared volume which will be accessible by all nodes at the same time - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_Shared_Volumes

To migrate machines in/out of the cluster it doesn't need to be on the same SAN though.

 

[NiCkNaMe]

Alternatively have a look at Server 2012 RC (bare in mind this is a release candidate) and look at hosting it on an SMB share

 

[SoundsGood]

That's a shame.. I don't think I could get 15 grand+ signed off for a SAN so I'll give it a miss.. Just playing with the templates on SCVMM now, it's pretty good

 

[NiCkNaMe]

That's a shame.. I don't think I could get 15 grand+ signed off for a SAN so I'll give it a miss.. Just playing with the templates on SCVMM now, it's pretty good

If you can wait a few months then Server 2012 should be released. You can host VMs on a scale-out file share which will ultimately give you HA and Shared-Nothing Migration, etc Server 2012 has got LOTS of new options for SMBs to look at deploying Hyper-V with HA and DR potential

...and as I mentioned above, you can evaluate this now by downloading Server 2012 RC and giving it a whirl

PS, you don't need an enterprise class SAN either. You could potentially look at using Storage Server or something equivalent and present some iSCSI storage to your hosts to act as your shared storage

 

[SoundsGood]

At the moment I'm happy using the offline migration tool. I'm using this for semi-essential VMs so I'm not keen on using a brand new OS to host them.. maybe when SP1 comes out

 

[NiCkNaMe]

At the moment I'm happy using the offline migration tool. I'm using this for semi-essential VMs so I'm not keen on using a brand new OS to host them.. maybe when SP1 comes out

No need to wait for SP1, Server 2012 is the most tested Operating System ever released. LOTS of large enterprises have it deployed in production at the moment. The 'wait for SP1' joke has passed So many new features that will make your life easy, and cheaper!

 

[NDJ88]

No need to wait for SP1, Server 2012 is the most tested Operating System ever released.

What makes you say this? Got any links?

LOTS of large enterprises have it deployed in production at the moment.

Like who? Got any links?

The 'wait for SP1' joke has passed So many new features that will make your life easy, and cheaper!

I guess we will have to wait and see if that's the case.

 

[paradigm]

If you are happy using local storage, you could set up something like starwind's software "SAN", essentially making yourself a disk image into a (persistant reservation compatible) iSCSI target.

I'd never put it into production, but it would be a fine little testbed/proof of concept. I use it myself to host a completely virtual virtualization lab (virtualized hypervisors, storage and networks).

 

[Worthy]

No need to wait for SP1, Server 2012 is the most tested Operating System ever released. LOTS of large enterprises have it deployed in production at the moment. The 'wait for SP1' joke has passed So many new features that will make your life easy, and cheaper!

Most of the above post is BS. No large enterprises will be running a beta OS in a production environment.

On the SC2012 side, yes the licensing does seem a bit strange this time. They were trying to explain the two suites and the costs to us at a Tech Day last month but it made us all drowsy and switch off. We have an enterprise agreement and we're currently rolling out SC2012. Half of our DPM servers have been upgraded to 2012, the other stuff is taking a bit longer. SCCM will take the longest as we almost had a disaster last month where one of the helpdesk guys was given access, and he was a keystroke away from wiping every single server we have.

 

[NiCkNaMe]

Most of the above post is BS. No large enterprises will be running a beta OS in a production environment.

- I guess you've never had the fun of running on a TAP or RDP program before. Majority of TAP programs require some element of production deployment with immediate support provided via a direct line to the product teams. Microsoft have used TAP and RDP programs for ages to get early feedback on products in beta, preview, and release candidate phases.

The TAP program has had massive adoption for Server 2012 (given the huge number of features in the release!) - hence my comments that a large number of enterprises have it deployed - with great feedback.

Any TAP/RDP programs has relevant NDA's in place, so no public case studies can really be expected until release.

RE: licensing... to get the most benefit out of System Center 2012 you need to deploy the Suite - which is exactly what MS want - it's driving their cloud strategy forward and Windows Server 2012 + System Center 2012 gives you the platform to start moving your organisation to a cloud-computing model.

 

[walnuts]

- I guess you've never had the fun of running on a TAP or RDP program before. Majority of TAP programs require some element of production deployment with immediate support provided via a direct line to the product teams. Microsoft have used TAP and RDP programs for ages to get early feedback on products in beta, preview, and release candidate phases.

The TAP program has had massive adoption for Server 2012 (given the huge number of features in the release!) - hence my comments that a large number of enterprises have it deployed - with great feedback.

Any TAP/RDP programs has relevant NDA's in place, so no public case studies can really be expected until release.

RE: licensing... to get the most benefit out of System Center 2012 you need to deploy the Suite - which is exactly what MS want - it's driving their cloud strategy forward and Windows Server 2012 + System Center 2012 gives you the platform to start moving your organisation to a cloud-computing model.

Do you think it's worth deploying whole suite for small/medium size business? I'm looking after 150 desktops and about 15 servers.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

What makes you say this? Got any links?



Like who? Got any links?



I guess we will have to wait and see if that's the case.

Have you got any links for this?