XP Mode or VMWARE

Hi all
to those using vmware server or vmware esxi -- yes these are free but the downside that you actually need an EXTRA machine on your network in order to congigure and manage the vm's - even if the virtual machines physically reside on the hardware running the vmware server / esxi server. (Doesn't apply of course to vmware workstation as this runs under control of a host OS.

If you have a home desktop and a laptop then this is fine but if you only have one machine then you can't really use this software.

However once you get the vm's installed and powered on you gain a HUGE amount in not having an underlying HOST system consuming vast amounts of resources that yu can give to the vm's.

So if you've got a spare machine this is definitely the way to run vm's IMO.


Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi all
to those using vmware server or vmware esxi -- yes these are free but the downside that you actually need an EXTRA machine on your network in order to configure and manage the vm's

This is not a true statement.

VMware Server 2.0 runs on top of a host OS..so either a Windows Server or a Linux server. You manage it via a webpage...which runs on the host server. So, you don't need a second box in order to manage or run your VM's from vmware server 2.0. I run VMWare Server 2.0 on my work laptop and run about a dozen VM's off an external 2.5" Western Digital USB drive all from one machine, running Vista Enterprise.

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
for vmware esxi you STILL need another machine to manage the vm's - it's called vmware Vsphere client.

The whole idea is really great as the point of the vmware exsi system is to have just a tiny kernel and NOT a host OS - so the whole machine (or at least 90% of it) can be dedicated to the vm's.

vmware esxi doesn't have a gui in any case so configuring and starting vm's is impossible without a piece of "Client" software on another machine.

If you are running vmware server on a HOST OS you are really losing the whole point of using a "server" to run the vm's apart from the fact that the software might be free.

The vmware Vsphere client DOES indeed run from a separate Windows machine as shown by the attached screenshot.

Works really great but you DO need an extra machine to define and start the vm's -- once it's up and running then you don't need the extra machine any more.

vmware exsi is really a tiny tiny linux kernel which has just enough resources allocated so VM's can be launched.

Even a fairly primitive laptop can run maybe 8 or 9 vm's using vmware esxi when under the same conditions running say even 3 vm's under vmware workstation on a host OS would cause the entire system to grind to a halt.

Note also that under these "server" conditions the guest vm will not be able to play DVD's or be of much use for gaming although audio apps and streaming should work fine.

Cheers
jimbo

Jimbo,

I'm extremely familiar with ESX and ESXi as I use them extensively at work. I've got 5 ESXi servers running in one of our development data centers and I have a whitebox ESXi box at my desk connected via iSCSI to an OpenFiler box to offload the disk subsystem and take advantage of some of the fancier tools that are possible with SANS.

As far as using ESXi on a laptop...best of luck. ESXi is very particular about the type of hardware that it can install upon. Only certain NIC's and storage controllers are going to work. Check out this site for information on motherboards and such which are "known" to work or notes on how to make them work. ESX / ESXi 4.0 Whitebox HCL

Using VMWare Server 2.0 on a host based OS is not a bad idea at all.....depending upon the environment and what you are trying to accomplish. It's exactly what I do on my work laptop. I don't think the majority of people on this forum site are trying to run multiple concurrent VM's and thus really need the benefits associated with running a bare metal hypervisor product like ESX or ESXi. On my laptop, i just like being able to bring a few of my test boxes around with me for screwing around with at opportune times.

jimbo45 said:

vmware exsi is really a tiny tiny linux kernel which has just enough resources allocated so VM's can be launched.

Hello

VMware ESX and ESXi ARE NOT A LINUX tiny or not!

VMware has a kernel that boots the server and that kernel is not a Linux kernel. What ESX have is a console that is a RH distro very customized, that console has direct hooks into VMware and makes feal the uninformed that he administiring a Linux server.

Just my 10 cents.

PAMF

Hi there

RH = Red Hat. Is this Linux or not. Ok if its a hook into vmware kernel so be it. Conceptually it can be considered as a Linux type of kernel --I'm sure it's likely to have some "Unix" type of structure to it.

In anycase the point was to say that the entire system is very small indeed leaving most of the hardware resources available for the Virtual machines.

Actually vmware server is fine - I should have mentioned that it's the ESX i type of servers that need a remote machine for vm administration. I made an error with vmware server since the browser interface can run from the local machine if you give the port number in the url address.

Note than vmware server V2 MUST use a WEB / Browser interface which some people might not like -- I suppose the advantage of this is that it doesn't need the vmware server to have its own GUI.

I still preferred a console interface but never mind.

Getting back to the point of the thread -- if you want performance forget XP mode -- if you want simplicity and integration for possibly only one or 2 legacy apps then go for XP mode.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Note than vmware server V2 MUST use a WEB / Browser interface which some people might not like -- I suppose the advantage of this is that it doesn't need the vmware server to have its own GUI.

I still preferred a console interface but never mind.

I completely agree with you there. That's the #1 aggravation for VMWare Server 2.0 for me. I hate not having an executable console application.