Quick Recap: I installed VMware ESXi on my old desktop (turned server) and deployed the VM file I previously created using VMware Converter standalone.
My web site has been up for 4 days and I am back to my usual average load of 20 hits a day (yeah!!!). The family in Italy is happy that they can see what the kids are up to 😉
Using VMware Infrastructure Client I see that the average CPU utilization is 10-15%.
I did noticed that when I remote-desktop into the server to upload new pictures and configure my web application, the UI is slightly less responsive than it was before I virtualized it.
Now that the system is stable, the next step is to separate the storage from the VM and then shrink the VM size to make it more manageable.