[H-GEN] VMware question...

[Edwards_Ewan_B at cat.com]

On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 02:41 pm, Raymond Smith wrote:
>
> I am obviously going for a workstation license, but am
> confused about which one I should buy: the Linux or Windows
> versions. This seems to come down to whether or not I have
> Windows -> Linux -> Hardware versus Linux -> Windows ->
> Hardware.
>
> Does anyone here have experience in running VMware? Any
> preferences for models above?

In my experience, the most stable and reliable combination to 
run, is Windows as the guest on a Linux host.  Or, multiple 
Windows guests on a Linux host.

I've tried Linux as the guest VM on Linux, w2k, and winxp hosts 
with good, but not great, success.  There seems to be just a 
little too much fiddling needed to get X to play nice inside 
VMware.  A few recent distros also have a problem (fixable) with 
the dhcp client in a VM.

A Windows guest on w2k server host seems pretty good.  I've run 3 
Windows guests on a w2k server host for about the last 2 years 
on a 24x7 basis[1] quite reliably.  The host is a Dell PE2650, 
dual 2.4G Xeon with 2Gb RAM.  

I should say the host 'was' ..., because I've recently moved the 
VMs onto a Linux (FC2) host.  I was getting sick of having to 
shut down and start up all the VMs every time a patch or bug fix 
was applied to the host.  

The VMs are now running quite happily inside a VNC session on the 
Linux box in the computer room[2].  That way I can get to any of 
the VMs through VNCviewer or rdesktop whenever needed.

My desktop Fedora Core 2 box also runs w2k pro and winxp guests 
regularly - often 2 or 3 at a time.  Now that its got 2Gb 
instead of 1Gb RAM, it really sings with 3 VMs running at the 
same time. :-)

So, to address your confusion as to which to buy; I recommend 
buying the Linux version and run any Windows system you need as 
a guest on the Linux host.


[1] These are all production systems, so they have to run 24x7.
[2] Will be looking at getting VMware GSX Server next time.