Best VMWare Application

[Dinesh]

Hi, I see that VMWare offers various products to run Virtual PC like VMWare view, VMWare workstation, VMWare player, VMWare server, etc. For home users, which is a good product? I have used Sun Virtualbox and like its features. I want to try VMWare.

Regards,
Dinesh.

 

[aem]

Do the vendor site detail the differences. I have only used VMWare server

 

[pparks1]

I use VMWare Server as that is the only "free" version from VMWare that you can run at home on your PC and "create" virtual machines. VMWare Server will run on XP, Vista and 7. You don't need to be on a server OS.

VMWare Player just runs already created VM's. VMware Workstation isn't free.

 

[scubasteve]

I have always used Server at home since it is free. We use ESX at work, but that's a different story.

I have always heard that Workstation and Player were better for desktop apps in terms of performance, but Server has always worked well for me. As another poster said, Workstation is not free. Player is however...and as of version 3.0, it can also create VMs...so my advice is try Player.

 

[Dinesh]

Thanks. I will try VMWare server as well as player.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

a HUGE advantage of using vmware server is that the VM's that run on it can be run as SYSTEM SERVICES and run in the background.

This is especially useful if you want to run something like a server OS- say Windows 2003 server as a virtual machine since your users of applications running on the virtual machine can run applications directly on the VM whether you are logged on to the HOST or not.

If you use say vmware workstation then of course any virtual machine will be "stopped" when you log off because the application its running under (your user session) will of course end when you are logged off. The same is true with vmplayer.

vmware workstation is better for actually installing / manipulating / testing virtual machines whilst virtual server is better for deploying them and actually running applications with "real" users.

Note when you use virtual server you can get virtual machines to start and stop automatically at system boot and shutdown.

The main drawback with vmware server is that the virtual machine's console is done via a web interface - although this means you can control the vm's from a remote machine (either on a LAN or the general internet) .

I'm not sure I like the modern trend of controlling more and more applications via browsers but I suppose its something we'll just have to get used to.

Both IE8 and FF work with vmware server - haven't tried other browsers.

Note that you could always create vm's with vmware player -- you just create the virtual disks with good old QEMU (yes its still around both in Linux and Windows versions) and edit the vmx file. It's just easier now with vmplayer version 3.

For free vm software I'd go for vmware server - it doesn't have a huge overhead either.

I'd like to try MS virtualisation later but at the moment vmware seems better.

cheers
jimbo

 

[Dinesh]

I liked Sun Virtualbox as compared to vmware products.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there.

problem with Virtual Box is (same as vmware workstation) that you (or someone) need to be logged on to your HOST for the virtual machines to be useable.

The real advantage of using vmware server is that the virtual machines are started and stopped as SYSTEM SERVICES - henece users can log on to them etc without any problem of a USER having s Virtual box session open.

If you are testing something like W2K3 or W2K8 server as a VM and you want several users to try apps on the VM you don't want to fire up VBOX sessions yourself (and of course if you log off the host then all your VBOX sessions are shut down).

With vmware server unless the operator (you can run remotely via a browser) shuts down the VM's users can still access these even with nobody actually logged on to the HOST OS.

(vmware also runs partially as a 64 bit app -- the UI is 32 bit but on a 64 bit machine the drivers and vm interface are 64 bit. Vmware server supports guest OS'es up to 8GB each, vmware workstation supports a guest OS of up to 64GB).

(I think I posted something almost identical but it seems to have disappeared).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[pparks1]

I think most average users can deal with products like Sun Virtualbox being a user application that requires a user logged on. I think most people here are only running the VM's when they are sitting in their chair and actually using their computers. I think many run VM's simply as a sandbox and learning experience and aren't actually attempting to run services and such which they depend upon 24x7.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
True - but once you get used to the idea it's quite easy for home users to use things like vmware server.

I for example have a desktop type machine running a lot of the time just running Video / Audio streaming as a server. No users logged on and there's not even a Monitor plugged in.

Now it's nice being able to logon to applications running on VM's on this desktop from a remote laptop. I don't have to logon to the remote machine with RDP or things like that to use the VM's on it or even have to logon to the guest VM as a user - but can just access my application running on the VM itself.

When I'm home I will sit in the conservatory with a Laptop (and some drinks) and connect wirelessly to apps running on my VM's on the remote desktop.

This is by no means an unusual situation. Many people have a desktop and a laptop. This is probably the best way to run VM's in that type of environment.

Cheers
jimbo.