Hello everyone. I'm new to virtualization, and would appreciate help. Premise:
1. We have limited budget, hence, we welcome free software like VMware ESXi
2. Since limited budget, we only want to buy 1 server (dual Xeon processor, E5130, 1.6 GHz, 4 hot swap bays, with 4 x 1 TB SATA HDD, server has RAID 5 functionality built-in, redundant power supply)
3. I want to setup the hdds as RAID 5, with a total space of 3 TB after using one of the HDDs as parity
4. I want to setup 4 VMs, with 4 GB memory each VM
Question:
1. I was told that if I have the VMs on this same machine, if any of the hardware fails, I can't just copy the VMs to a new server (with different specs) and have it up and running in no time. Is this true? It has to be machine with the same specs?
2. If answer to question 1 is true, what's the cheapest way to have VMs up and running in no time? I was told to use SAS, and have VMs on a SAS. That way, if server bogs down, I can replace server (any specs) easily, and still point to the VMs on the SAS. Is this correct?
3. If question #2 is correct, any cheap SAS solution? If not SAS, any other solution available?