[NTLUG:Discuss] VMware Server Questions

[David Stanaway]

With VMWare server (Which is free at the moment, but I am not sure how
free) you can install in one, and there is an inetd service which runs
with optional ssl encryption that lets you connect to the console of the
 VMs.  Another difference with that and the VMWare workstation is that
it lets you have the VM launch at boot and doesn't need to have a GUI
login   on the host system to start.

I am not sure how new your workstations are, but if they are very new,
you might have virtualization support on the CPU which will let you use
xen which is free, and there is a beta that lets you run windows, but I
am not sure if w2k is supported, maybe just XP and w2k3.

SLES 10 comes with xen out of the box, but that only lets you run
modified guest kernels which requires open source.

I have run an existing windows system from VMware in the past using raw
disk support. It works, but is not the most recommended option. You may
be able to make a virtual disk image from the real disk, but I have not
done anything with that. Might work for you.

Robert Pearson wrote:
> Wayne Walker wrote:
>> I could talk about VMware Workstation and Server if anyone's interested.
>> My trip to the Ruby conference got cancelled, so I should make
>> tomorrow's meeting.
> 
> I could use some feedback on VMware server. I downloaded a copy of it
> but have been stuck without inspiration since then.
> First, in my Security ignorance, I don't like servers running on my
> workstations. I have wanted a mainstream Wiki locally for development
> but none of the stand-a-lones are mainstream, except the Windows
> versions. I may have to retract this but the last time I looked all the rest
> require Apache or some Web server to generate the pages for them.
> 
> I really wanted VMware Workstation but I can't afford one copy let alone
> the two I want. I have two workstations I try to keep functionally equal.
> How safe is VMware server? Since it is not a Web server?
> I assumed that Vmware Server was designed to be installed on one
> machine and "served" to others. I don't want to do this.
> Can I just install VMware server on two of my workstations? I have two
> licenses?
> This is really to enable existing Windows 2000 installations on my two
> main workstations. If I can't bring existing Windows 2000 installations
> under VMware then I have another problem. I just finished rebuilding
> both the Windows 2000 installations because they had been running
> for years and they started having problems with the FAT file system on
> the external USB disks. Linux had and has no problems with the FAT
> external USB disks.
> 
> Anybody got any suggestions?
> 
> Thanks,  Robert
> 
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