VMware Server

[kevnich2]

I'm looking for any feedback on this as I'm looking to install this on one or more of our company servers as none of them ever go above 10% CPU usage but we're needing more servers for more tasks and I'd like to instead use VMware server to consolidate many of our server functions. I'm currently experimenting with it and it looks very promising. Any others using this for this purpose? What is your opinion of it?

 

[brockj]

I have limited expeirence with vmware, but have been using MS vitrual server for very similar things and am very happy with it. I have read good things about the ESX server for more advnaced functions, however there is a cost. I believe the GSX is free, and in many respects performs similar to MS VS.

 

[Nothinman]

VMWare is amazing, but you need to make sure you have enough memory for all of the VMs plus the host OS.

 

[azev]

vmware esx server has one of the best memory management process, imho.

 

[cmetz]

kevnich2, VMware server works very well, as long as you have enough RAM. The only problem with it is that you'll get totally spoiled by it and decide to spend lots of money on the higher-end ESX/Infrastructure product.

 

[kt]

VMware is a great product. We use the free version for our test environment... beats having to spend money on multiple machines.

 

[kevnich2]

I'm using the free version (GSX) also and currently it's in a test environment on my work PC. I'm not too concerned about memory usage at this point. My machine is a dual Xeon 2.8ghz with 4gb of memory (Dell Precision Workstation). I'll be moving the VM's to a test server of mine (Dell Poweredge 2800 with similar specs) However, after more than 5 VM's I could see that becoming an issue. Does the ESX version have any better way of using the memory than the free version?

 

[Nothinman]

Another thing to consider is that IME VMWare performs a lot better when run on a Linux host.

 

[ktwebb]

ESX is a superior product however VMWare Server (which is just a revamped GSX server) has made some strides. There was a time when GSX sucked donkey ballz but it's useable now, and at least on par with MS's virtual server product.

ESX is the choice if money is no object however for small and even some medium size businesses it is cost prohibitive. Server, especially on windows, is not nearly as RAM friendly. For a 6-8 guest ESX server you really only need 192 MB's of memory. For GSX/Server, you obviously need more memory if the host is windows. 512 minimum and I'd probably go 768 or even a gig.

 

[BKLounger]

I am running gsx on an old server and it runs fine for a couple things, but like it was previously said make sure to bump up your ram as much as you can. It really does help.

 

[marks70]

While I definitely understand the cost benefits of going with VMWare in terms of hardware, you still have to fork out the big bucks to Microsoft for the host OS and any other VM that you want to run Windows.

 

[Nothinman]

While I definitely understand the cost benefits of going with VMWare in terms of hardware, you still have to fork out the big bucks to Microsoft for the host OS and any other VM that you want to run Windows.

So don't run Windows.

 

[azev]

Actually this is not true; Microsoft have special licensing for running a virtual server. I believe 1 license can be used to run 4 virtual server.

I am not sure about other microsoft server product such as exchange, sql, but they might have something similar.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: marks70
While I definitely understand the cost benefits of going with VMWare in terms of hardware, you still have to fork out the big bucks to Microsoft for the host OS and any other VM that you want to run Windows.

Absolutely do NOT run VMWare Server on Windows. It is pud to install on CentOS. Just install the rpm and run vmware-config and you are all set to connect from the VMWare client. We started using VMWare Server. We didn't have any beefy hardware to put it on, so we were just running 1 or 2 guests on a server. Why would I run a guest in a vm in I'm only putting 1 on a server? Well, since starting this like 4 months ago, we had one application server that inexplicable started acting funky. Luckily I had made a backup of the virtual machine image, so I just copied that over and we were back up, no problem. Another time we had a hard drive go bad. Same thing, I had backed up the vm files, so I just installed VMWare Server on another machine, copied the image backup to it and booted the virtual machine back up, no problem.

We now have 3 beefy servers running ESX 3 Enterprise.

 

[marks70]

Originally posted by: azev
Actually this is not true; Microsoft have special licensing for running a virtual server. I believe 1 license can be used to run 4 virtual server.

I believe this is the case for Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition. Other versions still require a 1 to 1 ratio.

Originally posted by: Brazen
It is pud to install on CentOS. Just install the rpm and run vmware-config and you are all set to connect from the VMWare client.

Sorry, I'm not understanding what you're saying. Can you elaborate?

 

[InlineFive]

On CentOS all you have to do is make sure the Development Tools package set has been installed, this will give you kernel-devel and gcc. I just unchecked everything else, no need for a GUI.

After that you just follow the VMware server installation guide. Here are the commands.

rpm -Uhv compatdb.rpm (for the libdb.so.3 library, I downloaded this RPM)
rpm -Uhv VMware-server-1.0.1-xxxxx.i386.rpm
vmware-config.pl
#Complete configuration wizard
tar zxf VMware-mui-1.0.1-xxxxx.tar.gz
cd vmware-something-something
./vmware-install.pl
#Complete configuration wizard
reboot

Shazaam! Only problem I have is that SFTP to the server won't go over 15Mbps.

 

[Pabster]

VMWare ESX FTW

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: marks70

Originally posted by: azev
Actually this is not true; Microsoft have special licensing for running a virtual server. I believe 1 license can be used to run 4 virtual server.

I believe this is the case for Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition. Other versions still require a 1 to 1 ratio.

Originally posted by: Brazen
It is pud to install on CentOS. Just install the rpm and run vmware-config and you are all set to connect from the VMWare client.

Sorry, I'm not understanding what you're saying. Can you elaborate?

well, almost the same as what InlineFive said, but:

You don't need the development tools unless you are wanting to do some custom scripting/programming with Virtual Server using the perl api. I've never used it. I just do a minimalist CentOS install. Also, VMWare server does not need the compatdb package anymore. I just do these steps, and my virtual servers run without a hitch:

yum -y update, reboot to use new kernel, if you haven't updated yet

yum localinstall VMware-server-1.0.1-xxxxx.i386.rpm
vmware-config.pl
#Complete configuration wizard, answer "no" when it asks about gcc
tar zxf VMware-mui-1.0.1-xxxxx.tar.gz
cd vmware-something-something
./vmware-install.pl
#Complete configuration wizard

Also, a reboot is unnecessary.

 

[InlineFive]

I was under the impression that the MUI needed libdb.so.3, not VMware Server. If this has changed with 1.0.1 I wasn't aware of it.

And why do you say "No" when it asks you about compiling the Perl API scripts?

 

[cmetz]

kevnich2, ESX has a much better memory manager than Sever/GSX. In particular, ESX has some QoS features for memory and disk, which allow you to prioritize and separate things when your oversubscription is being taxed too much. If you're trying to run a lot of VMs / give each VM a lot of memory, ESX starts to become worth it.

Running Server on a Windows host OS is fine for lab use, but probably not the wisest choice for production use. (Then again, I think that using Windows as a server for anything isn't the wisest choice for production use... but now we're talking about a lot more things that go down at once if Windows is being silly)

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: InlineFive
I was under the impression that the MUI needed libdb.so.3, not VMware Server. If this has changed with 1.0.1 I wasn't aware of it.

And why do you say "No" when it asks you about compiling the Perl API scripts?

I remember at one time I used to install the compatdb package because otherwise it would give an error about the libdb.so.3, but I can't remember what part of the installation gave the error. But at some point, I didn't install the compatdb package and no longer got the error. I had production servers run fine for months and I never installed compatdb on any of them.

I say "no" because I do a "minimal" install and that's it, so I con't have gcc. During the vmware-config, if it doesn't find gcc is will ask you if you want to specify the path to gcc. That is where I say "no," because I don't have gcc. It is not necessary unless you are doing programming with the perl api, which I am not, and I don't know perl, so I doubt I ever will.

 

[WackyDan]

Originally posted by: kevnich2
I'm using the free version (GSX) also and currently it's in a test environment on my work PC. I'm not too concerned about memory usage at this point. My machine is a dual Xeon 2.8ghz with 4gb of memory (Dell Precision Workstation). I'll be moving the VM's to a test server of mine (Dell Poweredge 2800 with similar specs) However, after more than 5 VM's I could see that becoming an issue. Does the ESX version have any better way of using the memory than the free version?

GSX requires a host OS like Windows or Linux. ESX server is it's own OS (Linux kernal), so there is a ton load better memory management and stability, not to mention security. When weighing the cost, keep in mind that you won't be buying hardware, and you will save a bit on power even if your host machine(S) is being utilized far more than it was before.