[itdiscuss] Which Virtualization product to use???

[Bill Glick]

Greg,

The free VMware Server should work fine.  I've been using VMware  
Server 1.x for a couple of years in production settings.  There are  
some additional nice features to paying for the ESX stuff, but when  
you're on a tight budget, the free VMware Server stuff is great and  
very reliable.

My only hesitation is in using version 2 of VMware Server.  As far as  
I know, that's still a beta product and I wouldn't trust that for  
production yet.  I'd stick with version 1.0.4 for now.

We run VMware on rhel/centos linux distributions.  The VMware Server  
installer files are among the easiest software I've ever configured in  
linux.  Very straight forward, for very complex software.

I don't have any experience with MS servers and didn't realize Citrix  
had commercialized the Xen virtual server.  In my opinion, Xen is a  
bit more linux specific and less user friendly, unless you're a power  
linux user.

-Bill


On Feb 21, 2008, at 12:12 PM, Greg Kern wrote:

>
>
> Hey guys:
>
> Three quick questions, related to a project I have on my plate
> RIGHT NOW, and for which I need to make a pretty much IMMEDIATE
> decision about:
>
> 1.  I’ve download VMware Server 2.0, and about 50 free  
> Licenses   Would you personally have any problem with rolling  
> this product out for Production use?  Building VMs on it that will  
> be used every day by Users for their real work?
>
> 2.  If I go with VMwareServer 2.0, I’m considering installing  
> Suse Linux as the “bare metal” OS, and then installing  
> VMware Server over top of that; do you know of anybody who has done  
> that, and who might be able to answer a couple of questions for me  
> about it?  I’m not a Linux pro by any means 
>
> 3.  I also have a copy of MS Virtual Server 2005 R2, and the Public  
> Beta of the new Citrix XenServer (supposedly a competitor to  
> ESX)  Should I avoid these two products and go with VMware  
> Server, ya think?
>
> Thanks VERY much for your thoughts.
> GS

----
Bill Glick
   bill at glick.com
   217-689-4284
   AIM/Y!/Talk: billglick