VMware, what is your thought on it

protocol167

VMware, what is your thought on both home labs and the real corporate world.
I am poor so I will be using a proliant blader server that I got from work with
plenty of storage space to host all my server such as PDC, Exchange, DNS, IIS, SQL, etc...
via VMware Infranstructure.

I will then be using my two current desktop to host the clients to also to save money and
space on workstations. Creating a virtual corporate enviroment. What do you think of this
enviroment? Do you think by doing this, it will resemble a fake small virtual office
that will really be as if you were supporting a small network infranstructure?

Now, VMware seems to be getting pretty popular. Mine uses it and also I have seen alot of other companies start using VMware to host some of their virtual servers. Do you think that its a good idea, you as a network adminstrator running maybe half of your live servers via virtually? Just curious to see how many people are doing this and why do you think its a good or bad idea?

RTmarc

I'm a big, big fan of virtualization for production and test environments. I'm not going to get into the ins and outs of cost savings but they are definitely there. I'm a big fan of VMware Workstation and I use it predominantly for all testing on workstations and servers. I have a small virtual network setup on my workstation and it makes for a great utility. I absolutely love VMware and it is packed to the hilt with features; especially when you start looking at the Infrastructure solution. That being said, we'll probably be migrating to Citrix XenSource. There are rumors that Microsoft is getting hot and bothered about getting into the virtualization market and they have their eyes set on Citrix; currently, Microsoft will not support any machine running on VMware. Microsoft already has VirtualPC and VirtualServer but they are like a high school sports team when compared to the "big leagues" of VMware and XenSource.

We are currently in the design phase of a major virtualization initiative. The idea is to reduce our physical servers to as small of a number as possible. Our goal is more ambitious than just 50% virtual. We are trying to get to a 75% - 85% virtual environment. Currently we are at a ~5% virtual stage with around 6 production virtual servers.

I have a really good white paper from VMware that I'll send if you'll PM me an email address.

JDMurray

I use VMWare quite a bit for software testing. It's a very stable and handy virtual sandbox for performing experiments. I also use it for running potentially unstable or dangerous programs and for Web browsing to malicious Web sites. If my VMWare host OS gets "0wn3d," I just revert to the previous OS snapshot and no real harm done.

I only caution that VMWare not an absolute 100% emulation of a computer. While testing Windows software, I have found several problems that only occur when running in Windows in VMWare, but not when running in Windows installed directly on to a test computer. These problems are due to slight incompatibilities between software and the VMWare environment. This is not a reason not to use VMWare, but just something to keep in mind if you think programs aren't running in VMWare the way they should.

hypnotoad

I use it in our production network for things like WSUS, Special Applications, Beta testing and evals. It runs great. It allows me take 1 of our old servers and basically break it up into 4-5 different servers. I can bring a server up from our base image in about 10 minutes on VMWare.

We invested $0 in it, since we run it on hardware we already had that wasn't being utilized to its potential.

ajs1976

I'm using it to build a DR environment right now. In the fall I will be virtualizing some production servers.

amitshah2003uk

Is VMWare the same as virtual server ??

Or better?

HeroPsycho

VMWare offers effectively two main server platform virtualization products:

VMWare Server - runs on Windows or Linux and is free

ESX Server - Is in and of itself an operating system with VMWare's kernel, and Linux packages, and is NOT free, and is often sold in the bundle known as VMWare Infrastructure

Microsoft makes Virtual Server 2005, which is free, and very comparable to VMWare Server, aside from that you must run it on Windows, you can't use a Linux host OS like you can with VMWare server. However, you can run linux on virtual machines that run within Virtual Server.

Personally, I prefer VMWare Server far more than Virtual Server 2005. Performs better, and should you want to step up to an enterprise class virtualization product like ESX Server, it's easier to convert your VM's to ESX if they're already in some kind of VMWare format, although it is still possible to convert VM's on any Microsoft virtualization product to VMWare.

Still however haven't played with Hyper-V yet from Microsoft...

RTmarc

Just an update from a conversation I had with VMware and Microsoft over the past week. Microsoft DOES SUPPORT products in a VMware environment. That being said, if they work with an issue for a while and can't seem to make any headway, they will require you to duplicate the issue in a hardware based environment before they will continue support.

CoryS

Thats pretty interesting actually, thanks for filling us in on the RTMarc. Was a bit hazy on their policies regarding third party vendor virtualization products.


That being said, I ONLY use VMWare for my test labs as I like the USB support and the product seems to be a bit more solid at the moment in regards to its resource utilization. For what its worth I got 3 old boxes that I run a 6 server dual site design at work (ML 370s with 3GBs of RAM) and I love the snapshot functionality. The ESX suite looks really cool and I cant wait to get my hands on it.

SnafuRacer

I was aware about VMware but was apprehensive of taking the plunge to play with it. Yesterday, following this thread, I decided to try it and I already love the functionality and ease of use. I already "installed" a couple of WinXP/2k VMs just to try and now will have the possibility of installing and playing around with Linux distros on my laptop without having to buy any extra machines (my main concern financially). TrainSignal makes a good training video regarding ESX that was featured on Petri's site.

Lee H

Hi


I have used MS Virtual PC and as this is free i dont see the point in changing over to VMware

What are the benifits of using VMware over MS Virtual PC, are there any?


Lee H

blargoe

LeeH,

The "VMWare Server" product is free, please download that and try it out. I think you will agree that it is superior in every way.

undomiel

I have been using VirtualBox at home the past week as well as VMWare Server and I have actually been enjoying VirtualBox more. It seems to run lighter and it has been easier to setup. Well aside for some fun bridging a connection for it but that was more of a Linux host issue than the VM.