Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Networking

    VMware Server 1.0: Why Wouldnt You Use It?

    By
    Jason Brooks
    -
    July 25, 2006
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Based on functionality alone, VMwares VMware Server 1.0 would merit serious consideration for inclusion in any developer or system administrators tool kit. However, its VMware Servers price—free—that propels this product from merely worth having to practically must-have.

      Click here to read the full review of VMware Server 1.0.

      2


      Based on functionality alone, VMwares VMware Server 1.0 would merit serious consideration for inclusion in any developer or system administrators tool kit. However, its VMware Servers price—free—that propels this product from merely worth having to practically must-have.

      VMware Server 1.0, which replaces VMware GSX Server, enables computers running Windows or Linux to host multiple virtualized machines, complete with support for x86 or x86-64 operating systems, dual virtualized processors and a network-accessible management interface.

      During tests, eWEEK Labs found VMware Server 1.0, which was released July 12, to be extremely useful for development, testing and deployment of applications—be they stand-alone or part of a complete operating-system-to-application stack.

      While companies could previously create and run VMs (virtual machines) for a low cost using VMwares $200 VMware Workstation, that product was ill-suited for deploying VMs, as it offered no support for headless configurations and no network-based management interface. For these features, users had to step up to VMwares GSX Server, a product for which VMware charged between $1,400 and $2,800 per server.

      Fortunately for IT shops, the hardware virtualization landscape has changed quickly, and, in addition to the free VMware Server, administrators can also opt for Microsofts Virtual Server R2. Virtual Server is newly free and does about the same thing as VMware Server, although its limited, naturally, to Windows host machines.

      /zimages/3/141829.jpg

      While VMware isnt charging for VMware Server, the firm does offer paid support contracts for the product, as detailed here. VMware Server 1.0 can be downloaded here.

      VMware seems to hope that companies that have gotten a taste of virtualizations benefits through VMware Server will opt to trade up to ESX Server and VMwares suite of Infrastructure add-ons, bolstering virtual machine deployments with additional migration, high-availability, management and other functionality.

      We tested VMware Server on a white-box system outfitted with an Advanced Micro Devices 2.2GHz Athlon 64 processor, 1GB of RAM and Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition. We also tested the product on a dual-AMD Opteron server with 2GB of RAM running CentOS 4.3. VMware Server will run on basically any x86 or x86-64 hardware, but the most important hardware requirement for VMware Server is RAM. You need enough RAM for each concurrently running machine instance, so the more RAM available, the better.

      VMware offers the Windows version of VMware Server packaged up with a standard Windows installer. The Linux version is available as either an RPM (Red Hat Package Manager)—the format used by Red Hat, SUSE and other Linux distributions—or as a tarball, which may be installed on any Linux distribution, albeit outside of the distributions package management system. Wed like to see VMware add the DEB package format used by Debian GNU/Linux and Ubuntu Linux, particularly since Ubuntu is listed among VMware Servers supported host operating systems.

      /zimages/3/28571.gifVMware server is free, but not open source. Click here to read more.

      Wed also like to see VMware add a software updates repository for supported host operating systems. This would not only provide access to bug and security fix updates, but would also provide updated kernel drivers to match kernel updates in the products supported distributions. As things stand now with VMware Server on Linux, kernel updates require recompiling the applications drivers—a relatively trivial process, but an added management task that also necessitates the presence of a compiler and kernel header files, either on the VMware Server host or a separate machine set up for the task.

      We could interact with VMware Server either through a Web administration interface or with a richer, thick-client application called VMware Console (for which theres a handy download link on the Web administration page).

      We could use the Web interface to start, stop and pause our virtual machines; check on processor and memory load; and adjust configuration parameters (on stopped machines), such as memory size and MAC (media access control) address for our virtual network adapters.

      However, unlike with the Web interface of Microsofts Virtual Server, we couldnt remotely control our virtual machines through VMware Servers Web interface, nor could we create new machines. We instead turned to the Console application, which we found well-suited to these control and creation jobs.

      Still better suited to the task of virtual machine creation is VMware Workstation, whose snapshot management capabilities we missed while working with VMwares Console and Web interface. We couldnt make snapshots of our running VMs at all from VMware Servers Web interface, and from the Console we could only maintain one snapshot at a time.

      VMware Server also didnt offer us any options—from either the Web interface or the Console—for allocating CPU resources among our VMs, another operation that Microsofts Virtual Server Web interface does provide.

      Next page: Evaluation Shortlist: Related Products.

      Page 3

      Microsofts Virtual Server 2005 R2
      Competes directly with VMware Server, offering similar functionality and price but limited to running on Windows (www.microsoft.com)

      VMwares ESX Server and VMware Infrastructure
      Both of these products represent a step up from VMware Server, with bolstered management and performance, along with a fatter price tag (www.vmware.com)

      Xen hypervisor project
      Productized by XenSource and set to ship with a handful of Linux distributions, Xen hypervisor is an emerging alternative to the offerings of VMware and Microsoft (www.xensource.com)

      Senior Analyst Jason Brooks can be reached at jason_brooks@ziffdavis.com.

      Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, views and analysis on servers, switches and networking protocols for the enterprise and small businesses.

      Jason Brooks
      As Editor in Chief of eWEEK Labs, Jason Brooks manages the Labs team and is responsible for eWEEK's print edition. Brooks joined eWEEK in 1999, and has covered wireless networking, office productivity suites, mobile devices, Windows, virtualization, and desktops and notebooks. Jason's coverage is currently focused on Linux and Unix operating systems, open-source software and licensing, cloud computing and Software as a Service. Follow Jason on Twitter at jasonbrooks, or reach him by email at jbrooks@eweek.com.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Big Data and Analytics

      Alteryx’s Suresh Vittal on the Democratization of...

      James Maguire - May 31, 2022 0
      I spoke with Suresh Vittal, Chief Product Officer at Alteryx, about the industry mega-shift toward making data analytics tools accessible to a company’s complete...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×