Virtual Servers

[task]

So, not entirely sure this in in the correct topic, but here goes...

I currently run the following;

File server - Debian - 1800Athlon, 5x320GB HDD, 1GB RAM
RDP/TS - Server 2K3 - 1.4 P4, couple of HDD and around 300MB RAM
SSH access - FreeBSD - miniITX, 1 HDD, 512MB RAM

Planned VOIP server
planned E-mail server

I also have available a 2.6 Xeon Server (single CPU with provision for 2) 1GB RAM. This could be upgraded with more RAM and possibly an extra CPU.

Now, the reason for this thread, does anyone have experience with virtualised servers? I was pondering the idea of installing a base OS of Debian on the Xeon machine and running VMware server on this, creating each of the above roles as VMs on this one box.

I can see this being a bad idea as regards redundancy issues (hardware failures etc) but it would be quite a vast space/power saving. None of these services have many users and are mostly for experimentation.

Can anyone see major downsides to this, has anyone done the same and any predicted hardware specs?

Cheers

 

[task]

I wasn't convinced about the fileserver and other operations being sat on the same hardware. I might give it a try with all but the fileserver for a start. It'd be nice to have a virtual environment to test stuff in rather than having to install onto a desktop machine each time.