Which VMWare does everyone use?

[Nocturnal]

Workstation or server version?

 

[MiniDoom]

Still use VMware-workstation-5.0.0-13124 and MS Virtual Server 2005R2.

 

[Noema]

Server here.

Been toying with Ubuntu 7.0.1 in it.

 

[Nothinman]

Server build 39867. Frankly I can't see anything worth paying for in Workstation right now.

 

[Nocturnal]

Ok, sorry, are you guys using Server ESX or the free Server version?

 

[ColKurtz]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Ok, sorry, are you guys using Server ESX or the free Server version?

If you're a very small shop then VMware Server might be compelling since it's free, but MS Virtual Server might be the better choice if you want "virtualization-light" -- if only for the one-throat-to-choke support argument (so microsoft can't say it's a vmware problem and vice-versa).

It's sort of an apples-to-oranges comparison. ESX is a true Type 1 hypervisor, where VMware Server and MSVS are type 2's, subject to the (in)stability of the host OS. I think of VMware Server as a "competitor" of VMware Workstation, not ESX. Any company that is serious about virtualization should go with ESX IMO. The base offering of ESX3 (no virtualcenter/vmotion/HA etc) is affordable.

On a personal level, I pay for workstation purely for the Snapshot feature... It's the perfect testbed -- a virus-proof sandbox. You can clone your OS into a VM, and test apps/config settings. If you don't like something then you can clear all changes with a single click.

 

[Nothinman]

On a personal level, I pay for workstation purely for the Snapshot feature... It's the perfect testbed -- a virus-proof sandbox. You can clone your OS into a VM, and test apps/config settings. If you don't like something then you can clear all changes with a single click.

Server has snapshots, it's limited to one per-VM at a time but in most cases that's enough.