Need some advice on Virtualizing a server

[Matthew S.]

Hey All,

 

Need some quick advice.

I have a dedicated server provided by OVH that is currently set up as a cPanel/WHM host on CentOS 6.

 

The server is spec'd as follows

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1620v2 @ 3.70GHz

RAM: 64GB
HDD: 2TB

 

I was wondering if it'd be worthwhile switching it to a Virtualization platform such as ESXi and running the cPanel server as a guest OS?

 

Right now since it's just a cPanel box it limits what I can do/install on the server.

 

If I do go the ESXi route how would it affect things like SSL, DNS, and IP management (the current server has about 10 IPv4 IP's assigned and a 64 block of IPv6)?

 

 

[Matthew S.]

No one?

[DaveLegg Developer]

It shouldn't affect those really. You'd want to get an additional IP to manage the host OS, but the other IP addresses could be assigned to the guest (you would bridge the guest network to the network interface on the host, giving it internet access). That way your DNS still points to the same IP addresses as before

[Matthew S.]

Thanks Dave.

 

I'm probably going to be undergoing this transition sometime within February.  Got to actually do a complete backup of all the user accounts and setting on the current server and migrate to a newer OS version at the same time. (because it runs cpanel can't just go from CentOS 6.6 -> CentOS 7 >.<)