Vm Software?

philz1982

I've been using oracle virtualbox and it works ok. I am curious if it is worth the investment to move to VMware workstation or Fusion?

I use virtualbox to create linux and xp labs for my CEH studies and SQL studies.

Thoughts?

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DoubleNNs

If it works, why fix it?

Personally, I like Virtualbox better than Fusion.

I used Virtualbox while studying Linux and will soon when I start labbing for Win Server 2008.

philz1982

Ok thanks,

I didn't know if there was any major difference that I should care about.

tstrip007

Not sure if virtualbox has this but in Workstation I like the linked clones feature. After creating the base image template. Provisioning new vms for testing purposes is very very fast.

DoubleNNs

If I recall correctly, it was a lot easier and faster to get systems installed in Fusion. But once they were up and running, I preferred using Virtualbox.

Other than personal preference, for the purposes I was using them for, I didn't really notice much difference. I was much more focused on learning the operating systems themselves.

MentholMoose

tstrip007 wrote: »

Not sure if virtualbox has this but in Workstation I like the linked clones feature. After creating the base image template. Provisioning new vms for testing purposes is very very fast.

VirtualBox supports linked clones. It is a useful feature.

ITMonkey

The feature I like most about Workstation is the ability to nest hypervisors ... as in having two ESXi hosts running as VMs under it. Use it for labbing failover, etc.

Hondabuff

I have been using Virtual Box for a long time and love it. I even have our WDS server at work running off of it. Once I started on the CCNA Voice tracked, I kinda got hooked on VM Ware Desktop. I really like the option to PXE boot with VM compared to VB. VB is so easy to setup and switch NICs anytime you want compared to using the Virtual Network Editor on VM.

Ecio

MentholMoose wrote: »

VirtualBox supports linked clones. It is a useful feature.

I think it's worth a check also Vagrant, that is actually based on Virtualbox (but they've added VMware too through an external provider):
Vagrant
It is typically more oriented to developers because it enables you to create reproducible environments (deploy settings automatically also to different machines etc.) so it's a sort of upper layer that manages virtualbox/vmware.

Why Vagrant? - Vagrant Documentation
Why should I use Vagrant instead of just Virtualbox? - Super User

It should have a mechanism for fast cloning the base boxes (i think it will leverage the existing virtualization technology)

NB I think it just works with linux virtual machines

Verities

You can always test out workstation with a free 30 day trial: Try VMware Workstation, Run Linux and Windows in a Virtual Machine - United States

In my opinion you get what you pay for with VMware and usually it's a more polished product, but I'm probably a little bit biased. In any case here are links to both products features:

VMware Workstation Features, Multiple OS, Run Linux on Windows - United States

https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch01.html#features-overview

Note: You'll find the majority of features for VB under section 1.3 in the link