new to vmware

[aquinox]

Hi,

Just wonder if i could get some help here. I'm new to VMware. From my understanding, it allows multiple OS on a single machine. I guess my question here is the other day, i was trying to download it (thought it's an open source) but had to purchase it. Is that right? how do i install it from scratch? do i have to re-format my hard disk and install it first prior to windows or linux?

Thank you in advance

 

[SjrH]

Vmware server is a free downloadable version, you dont need to purchase it, just register in order to get your serial numbers.

No need to reformat your computer, vmware server is not an operating system. Vmware runs much like any other application, you simply configure a virtual machine and install whichever o/s to it as if it were a real system.

Checkout the server data sheet -

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/server_datasheet.pdf

[small]have you turned it off and on again?[/small]

 

[Arisap]

VMware makes several products and people tend to get confused about which product is which. VMWare VI3 (also known as ESX) is an operating system on its own. It requires licences that have costs. It is an enterprise product that has high-availability features. VMware Server is formerly known as GSX is a free product that runs as an application on Windows Server 2003. VMware workstation costs money and is also an appication that runs on Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP or Linux. Each product has its own features. You need to decide which is best. With the free product, you get what you pay for.

 

[nooop]

Does ESX server work far better than GSX? I have 2 servers running GSX and I am not happy at all with the performance. I would consider formatting the host, and installing ESX if it is going to improve performance.

Thanks

 

[Yardyy]

nooop, out of curiosity what are the specs of the servers that you are hosting on, and what the guest os`s. I am in the process of moving a windows2000 server with exhange5.5 on it, to a virtual host.. i just want to ensure that i am doing the right thing ...



Many Thanks
Yurov Ardyy

 

[nooop]

I have 2 host machines. 1 has 24gb ram, 2 quad core xeon processors. It has 4 2003 windows servers. 1 DC, 1 SQL, 1 EXCH, 1 File.

2nd host machine has 16gb ram, 2 Quad core xeon with 3 bit 2003 windows servers. 1 DC, 1 Blackberry Server, 1 terminal server.

I have some 64 bit, but most 32. both hosts are 64bit enterprise edition server.

I am not too happy, 4 of these were ptov using symantec recovery server. I build fresh the Exchange box, and a DC to try to speed it up. I have people complaining all day long about speed since the day we virtualized.

I have 5 nics in each machine, all bridged to the LAN. But I recently found a rogue DHCP server that was caused by one of the vmware machines. I just wonder if I made a huge mistake, or if there is still hope to speed it up, I would like to be back to all physical on the important machines and use VMWARE for blackberry. Also, I do think sql runs awesome on vmware, but terminal server sucks, and so does the DC.

I must emphasize i am not an expert at all on vmware. I wish I would have used Microsoft, or waited until 2008 for the new longhorn server.

 

[Yardyy]

That sounds like a mighty beefy server, I`m surprised that you are getting performance issues with that, is there any docs available for tweaking vmserver. I wonder if the issues with performance are still there if you use microsoft virtual server.

I may have test the waters with microsoft virtual server.. The thing that i really like about vmserver was the p2v conversion, the ease of which you can do this.

more testing i thinks...

Many Thanks
Yurov Ardyy

 

[skialta]

The specs on your systems seem reasonable for ESX, not sure about GSX. I'm running 11 total ESX 3.0.2 systems hosting about 200 guests and have gone so far as to have 52 Windows 2003 systems running on 1 ESX box for a short period of time. That host was a Dell PowerEdge 6850 with 32GB of RAM. Based on this, I think either you have a GSX problem or disk problem. Post some more info on your setup so we can get a better feel for the environemnt. However, I can tell you that ESX is rock solid, it just has to be setup properly.