Back to early 2008, company request to revamp existing infrastructure due to EOL/EOS hardware and software.
Previously, lots of SG-IRIX, Solaris, IBM-AIX, HP-UX, RedHat Linux, and some Windows2000 servers with storage EMC and network .... can't imagine how it has done.
Currently, no more SG-IRIX, no more Solaris, no more HP-UX, no more RHLE and no more Win2000. But, IBM-AIX still left.
I test free VM (vmware 3.x still new in the market), Virtual Desktop (Hyper-V not yet released) and other freeware. Interesting!
But, I am still not sure how to consolidate all my infra into these technologies.
Then, I split my implementation plan into stages.
Looking Blade Server just to reduce xx units of servers into single one. But, the plan overided by this vmWare after I went for the training.
Generally, I know that all my servers no longer manage physically, except the bare metal chassis. I know how to centralize the local disk, storage pools etc.
But, not yet tested!
5 years has passed away, now I have 3 esx5.0, 1 esxi5.1, <40TB SAS SAN and <50vm inside the virtual infrastructure. And, all handover to my subordinate already.