Planning for virtualization will require a solid, written plan to help keep you on track. Now that you have evaluated your current environment, you can begin pre-planning or scoping the project. To begin, you should consider how you will role out virtualization and which systems are optimized for virtualization technologies.
Select Virtualization Hypervisor Platform
The next step is selecting which virtualization hypervisor platform you wish to use for virtualization. Virtualization Hypervisor is the software that runs the virtualizations platform. The top four brands are VMware, Citrix, Microsoft and Oracle.
Determine Server Environment Needs
Now determine which servers are designed or optimized for virtualization. Some servers come pre-built with virtualization tools or optimizations. There are also servers that run single functions that can be consolidated.
Identify Reasons for Virtualizing
Are you looking for high availability, resiliency, or just to declutter and optimize? Knowing why you are virtualizing is important. You may need to purchase new equipment, or you may be able to reuse some existing equipment. For example, you might be able to rework your six-server environment to only use two servers. Remain focused on the main objectives to make sure you make the best choices for your environment.
Map Out and Create a Project Timeline
When creating a project timeline, you will want to keep it agile and continually update it as roadblocks or other issues arise. Be sure to include any vacations or times when work won’t be getting done. Determine what your contingency plans could be for potential problems, such as a server that fails to migrate, a server crash, or other issues. Each migration type for each server should be determined in the project plan, whether it’s a P2V (Physical-to-Virtual) conversion, stand alone set up and tear down (installing new servers and removing old servers), or a migration and consolidation (combining multiple single-purpose servers into one VM).