Here is some additional guidence:
HOW TO: VMware Server for beginners
http://communitie
VMwar
Virtualization Made Free and Easy:
http://www.vmware.com
Main Topics
Browse All Topics
Loading Advertisement...
Question
New to VMWARE
Hi,
I am a bit new to VMWare and want to find out some more information before I deploy it in our office Environment.
My experience so far is with the Free VMWare Server.
Is this the version that I should be using in our Corporate Environment or should I look at another version?
What is the difference between VMWare Server & ESXi?
Am I better to run VMWare on physical hardware with the VM's on a SAN or should they go local to the server?
Licensing - Am I right in thinking that if I install Win2K3 Enterprise on as the Host OS that I am entitled to install 4 VM's with the same OS for no additional cost?
Is there a forum, board that has steps for begineers?
Sorry for all the questions, but this is an area I need to implement and need to understand it more.
Thanks
Paul
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get
Instant Access to this Solution
- Plus...
- 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
- Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
- Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
- Never be left without tech help again
Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.
- "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
- "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
- "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.
See what Experts Exchange can do for you.
Got a question?
We've got the answer.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
Need individual assistance?
Our experts are ready to help.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Want to learn from the best?
Read articles from industry experts.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Working on a long term project?
Store your work and research.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Trusted by the world's most respected brands.
Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Free Tech Articles
-
WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
-
SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
-
Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
-
Create a Win7 Gadget
This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
-
Outlook continually prompting for username and password
There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
-
Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...
Cloud Class Webinars
- Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
- Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
- IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
- Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
- How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...
Join the Community
Give a Little. Get a Lot.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
Answers
What is the difference between VMware ESXi and VMware Server?
VMware ESXi is an enterprise-class hypervisor that offers a bare-metal architecture for near-native performance, features like memory de-duplication to increase consolidation ratios and a cluster file system for managing VM files on shared storage. VMware ESXi and VMware ESX are the critical foundations for a dynamic and flexible virtual infrastructure.
VMware Server installs as an application on Windows or Linux, relying on the operating system for resource management. This limits the performance and scalability. VMware Server is popular for test and development activities. Virtual machines created using VMware Server can run on VMware ESXi, but they must first be converted using the free VMware Converter.
With respect to your Windows Licensing Queries, please go through this link - http://www.microsoft.com/l
I would suggest that the best documentation set comes from VMware itself -
VMware Server 2.0 Doc - http://www.vmware.com/supp
VMwar
Regarding
Local Storage does not support any of the above mentioned features.
I would go through VMware's documentation and whitepapers. They have excellent sources and a great community.
http://www.vmware.com/supp
http://communities.vmware.
What are you working with in terms of infrastructure? (Number of hosts, storage, switch)
What are your initial plans for VM deployment? (Types of VMs - databse, mail, file serving, web portal, etc; Server consolidation - P2V, Server application migration; R&D; Application development)
Paul,
Save yourself a headach if you are new to VMware ESXi. Its pretty comprehensive and I saved me and my guys a few days of time by just completing the freaking training.
http://store.vmware.com/st
Keep in mind that (arunraju's response) that these licensing schemes are related to Windows 2008 Server and are specific to Enterprise/Datacenter additions. So if you are using Windows 2003 you may be SOL.
You have to decide what you want to put onto that VM. Remember that virtualization is a HOG on memory/CPU resources on a system. Don't even try to put VM's on a server with less than 4-8GB of RAM. VMware Server is great for a desktop system, but VMware ESXi is ideally suitable to servers/high powered workstations like a Dell Dimension T7400 that is beefed up with RAM. I am actually using one as a ESXi server (Exchange, SQL Server, and RHEL Groundwork are the VM's running on the box)/Intel Xeon Dual Core-8GB RAM. I don't recommend it in the datacenter, but you do what you have to do in a pinch and it runs like hot butter.
What type of servers are you using? Is the server Intel VT (Virtualization Technology) enabled in the BIOS as an option?
You can't do consolidated backups on ESXi, just FYI.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions and comments.
It is all very helpful and that little course looks great.
I am planning initially to use VMWare to consolidate some fairly low end servers and don't really know the best way to do it.
Judging from the comments on here I should look at ESXi and not VMWare Server.
So much to learn.
Thing to remember is that the whole world is doing this at the moment, It's a great field to be in and it's one that your company will reap the benefits of. There is a great community out there for VMware, the communities site http://communities.vmware.
www.virtualpro.co.uk
Hi,
So just to clarify a few facts, before I order some hardware etc.
If I run ESXi then I won't have an Operating System installed onto the Server itself?
Do I then need individual OS Licenses for each Guest OS? (ie 3 x Windows Server Standard Licenses etc)
Is there a certain model of server I need to be able to run ESXi? - Is there a list around, I was going to buy HP DL360G5's
Can the Guests be stored on storage that is local to the server rather then SAN's?
Thanks
> If I run ESXi then I won't have an Operating System installed onto the Server itself?
Nope, but you need a server that will allow ESXi, it's quite picky here.
http://www.vmware.com
> Do I then need individual OS Licenses for each Guest OS? (ie 3 x Windows Server Standard Licenses etc)
Yes, you need a license for each guest OS. Windows Enterprise Server might allow you to install it multiple times.
For testing simply choose one of these 180 days trial version of e.g. windows 2003 servers available from microsoft.
> Is there a certain model of server I need to be able to run ESXi? - Is there a list around, I was going to buy HP DL360G5's
http://www.vmware
> Can the Guests be stored on storage that is local to the server rather then SAN's?
Yes, you can use local storage.
If I run ESXi then I won't have an Operating System installed onto the Server itself?
In that case ESXi is your "operating system" on the server that manages and assigns the access to the hardware of all guests.
Do I then need individual OS Licenses for each Guest OS? (ie 3 x Windows Server Standard Licenses etc)
Usually yes, but the exact licensing depends on the operating system that you install in the VM. An example, you can install four VMs with one Windows Server 2003 Enterprise license.
Is there a certain model of server I need to be able to run ESXi? - Is there a list around, I was going to buy HP DL360G5's.
VMware provides a compatibility guide here:
http://www.vmware.com
A
If the server doesn't appear on the list that does not mean the ESXi will not run on it, but the server isn't certified then. The prevent future problem with the vendor of the server you should choose a server from the compatility list.
Can the Guests be stored on storage that is local to the server rather then SAN's?http://www.vmware.com
A
If the server doesn't appear on the list that does not mean the ESXi will not run on it, but the server isn't certified then. The prevent future problem with the vendor of the server you should choose a server from the compatility list.
Yes.
The DL360G5 is on the list but noit with the last version. But it's likely that it'll work with the last version, because ESX is listed with update 4, ESXi not.
- 30.04.png
- 38 KB
DL360g5 vmware compatibility
Microsoft itself confirms it here...
http://www.microsof
Just as addon, because there is a difference with 3rd party virtualisation:
http://www.
If you have assigned a single license of Windows Server Standard Edition to the server running ESX, then you may run one instance at a time of Windows Server Standard Edition. If you have assigned a single license of Windows Server Enterprise Edition to the server running ESX, then you may run up to four instances at a time of Windows Server. You may not run a fifth instance under the same Enterprise Edition license because that right requires that the fifth instance be running hardware virtualization software and software managing and servicing the OSEs on the server. However, Datacenter Edition permits unlimited running of instances in virtual OSEs.
This might help to choose the right windows version:
http://www.virtual
And there is also a calculator:
Windows Server Virtualization Calculators
The Windows Server Virtualization Calculators provide two ways to estimate the number and cost of Windows Server Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition and Datacenter Edition licenses needed for your virtualization scenarios to help you determine the most cost-effective edition of Windows Server.
http://www.microsof
To
Regarding the raid - check this:
http://www.petri.co.i
For performance reasons assigning a dedicated (raid 1) array to a VM is a good choice. If you just create a big RAID5-array with all VMs on it, the performance of all VMs depends on the utilization of the array and if a harddisk of the array goes offline, this effect all VMs and not only one. And the RAID5-performance is poor if one disk is offline.
Hi Everyone,
So I now have got my first ESX Server up and running, and am busy creating my first guest.
This leads me to my next question which may or may not be able to get answered within this thread.
So my network setup is fairly simple (i have attached a .pdf of the switch, router & firewall setup).
So my question is this, as you can see from my diagram my dmz is a seperate switch running 5 dmz's on seperate vlan's. Now currently this switch is connected to a port on my asa that has got vlan sub interfaces configured.
My ESX Server is on the LAN and I want to run a combination LAN & Various DMZ Virtual Servers on this.
What is the best way to do this?
Thanks
@essexboy80:
Glad to hear that you successfully setup your ESX server.
Your last comment goes very far beyond your original question. You have asked basically for a beginners guide to VMware products and your last comment is very special that someone who finds this question in the future, searching for a "How-to get started with VMware" likely wouldn't need.
You're a Premium Service Member and can ask unlimited questions. Therefore I want to ask you the close this question and award the points to the experts who in your opinion have helped you and post your last comment as a new question.
3 Ways to Join
Business Accounts
- Perfect for organizations
- Multiple users
- Save over 36%
- Create a Business Account
Answer for Membership
- Earn free access
- Showcase your knowledge
- No credit card required
- Sign Up to Answer
Loading Advertisement...
by: TolomirPosted on 2009-04-28 at 04:12:42ID: 24249532
Hello,
the ESXi Server is a downsized ESX Server basically without graphical management tools and without high availability. Especially the ESXi Server is free but comes without maintenance support. It also has some special demands on the hardware where it should run in contrast to the vmware server running on an OS.
Win2k3 Enterprise allows to install the software on the physical server and 3 times as virtual host on that particular windows server. It is not meant to get 4 virtual hosts on e.g. an ESXi Server. (You might want to license 4 windows 2k3 standard servers though)
---
Basically you should have an idea what you want to run on that vmware server. Is it a mailserver or an exchange server, an oracle database etc. Then you should monitor the performance on the old physical servers. This gives you a profile for your vmware hosting consideration.
RAM, CPU Usage, storage amounts and access profiles must all be met by a single virtual server...
Tolomir