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K_Wilke

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VMWare Newbie

Hello all,
Well, I must bite the bullet and learn about VMWare, so I am asking what is the best way to go about doing this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Kelly W.
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dmwynne
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Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
What do you want to learn about VMware, VMware is a company which has many Virtualisation, Products, split into Datacentre, Desktop and Cloud.

VMware Workstation is a Type 2 Hypervisor, other Type 2 Hypervisors include, VMware Server 2, VMware Player 3.0, Virtualbox 4.0, and Parallels.

Type 2 Hypervisors are SLOW.  In most reviews and experience, they perform at roughly 30-40% hardware capability.  That means an OS in a VM run off VMWare Workstation will likely perform at best like it has an 800 MHz CPU if you have 2 GHz physical CPU. You install Type 2 hypervisors onto of an existing host operating system.

If you use a Type 1 Hypervisor, you get MUCH better performance. ESX, ESXi, are all Type 1 hypervisors - they (based on experience and reviews) typically get 80-90% hardware capability - so that same VM run off the same 2 GHz CPU should operate more like it has a 1.6 GHz CPU instead of 800 Mhz. Type 1 hypervisors are installed on the bare metal of the server.

Type 1 and Type 2 Hypervisor Downloads

Type 2 Hypervisor Downloads for Windows OS

VMware Player 4.0 Free Download
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_player/4_0

VMware Workstation 8.0 (60 day trial, $199)
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_workstation/8_0

Type 1 Bare Metal Hypervisors

VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi)
https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/index.php?p=free-esxi&lp=1


The Industry standard Hypervisor is VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), but you'll need a server or compatible workstation to install as it's a bare metal server, of you could use VMware Player 4.0, to host VMs, or also install ESXi.
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K_Wilke

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Yes I want to learn the enterprise product but should learn any other products of VMWare as well.
Will try to get my hands on a decent old server then.
Thank you,
Kelly W.
Best way, start and download VMware Player 4.0, and start geting familiar with virtual machines, and then later you can try VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi).
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You can install ESXi in VMware Player, if it's just for lab or test, and then there is no need for a server!

See this URL and article

http://www.veeam.com/blog/nesting-hyper-v-with-vmware-workstation-8-and-esxi-5.html
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Exactly what I wanted to see.  Thank you so very much.