[lugip] vmware?

Tue Nov 25 10:44:29 EST 2008

Thanks for relaying your experiences. This si the type of thing I need 
to know. I have used vmware for desktop purposes and it has worked 
great, but when you are talkign about servers, it is a whole diffeent 
ball of wax.

I'm not sure if it would be any better then the desktop edition with 
VMware, but for the record, Ubuntu does have a server edition. I 
generally agree about the issue of running an install designed for a 
desktop as a server. I have been playing with xubuntu for servers. You 
get a little bit of graphic-goodness and it doesn't require a great deal 
of overhead.

Edward

John Martinetti wrote:
> well, if you want opinion, do *NOT* use Ubuntu.
> My opinion is based upon experience having 22 production servers in the
> field running Ubuntu with Vmware Server (the free version) hosting Windows
> 2000 Server images.
> We're currently in the planning and testing phase of a project to replace
> Ubuntu with CentOS and the *paid* version of VMWare, ESX server.  It's nice
> being able to open a trouble ticket with Vmware when you're out of options.
>
> Main reasons for my displeasure?  Stability. Ubuntu was not playing nicely
> with Vmware after running updates.  On multiple occasions we had to move the
> working Windows image over the the "hot-spare" server hardware in the branch
> location due to an administrator running updates on the Ubuntu host.
> Now - keep in mind...our host machines were not bare-bones Ubuntu systems,
> much to my dismay, my cohorts insisted upon having full blown Gnome Desktops
> on each machine so we could access them over crappy WAN lines using
> NoMachines' NX client/server remote control package.   And it's also
> arguable, that we really didn't take a good hard look at all the packages
> installed on the servers that really weren't necessary....so there ya have
> it.  Still -in the long run...I'd advise against Ubuntu, it's a desktop
> OS...not a server.  For those people who think it can be molded into a
> reliable server platform..that's great....but for actually geting stuff
> done, you want a distro that's suitable for the task, not one that *could
> be* after you've fscked with it for a month.
>
> Another thing to keep i mind about Vmware, definitely pay careful attention
> to the hardware compatibility list.  Dont go thinking you can use just any
> old white-box....that's a reciped for disaster and sleepless nights.  Stick
> to a proven hardware platform straight from the list or your liable to
> experince Vmware's wonderful "pink-screen-of-death".  Seen it?  It's
> alarming...and it definitely means you'll need a mop. Surpisingly, Dell has
> *many* options on the Vmware hardware compatibility list and also surpising
> to me, not nearly as many HP/Compaq choices, although the standard DL and ML
> series are well represented.  We're waiting for approval on a project now to
> completely virtualize a small engineering firm with Dell hardware and Vmware
> running their Windows server images on top of ESX.  Using vizioncore's
> VRangerPro utility, you can snapshot each Windows image daily and sync them
> across all hardware, so in the event that one piece of hardare fails,
> recovery is trivial and pretty quick with little to no data loss - so there
> are some interesting niches for Vmware now that weren't really viable until
> recently.
>
> That's my $.02 - good luck with your decision.  Consider CentOS....for that
> matter...consider CentOS for *any* Linux Server application over a desktop
> distribution.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 10:04 AM, Edward M. Corrado <ecorrado at ecorrado.us>wrote:
>
>   
>> I would like to start using VMware for some of our servers. The guest
>> operating system on these will normally be some form of Linux at this
>> point. I would like to have a stable platform for the underlying host
>> and am considering Ubuntu 8.04 because of the long term support. What
>> are other people using? Is there a reason to use something other than
>> Ubuntu as the host? It seems that they  Also, what version of VMware are
>> you using? I was looking at the free VMware server, but I know there are
>> other options.
>>
>> How about other virtualzation products?
>>
>> Edward
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>> LUG/IP Hardware Sig meets first Tuesday of the month at the Hamilton Public
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>>
>> LUG/IP meets Second Wednesday of the month at the Lawrence Headquarters
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>>
>> LUG/IP Coffee Klatch meets on the fourth Sunday of the month at the Panera
>> Bread in West Windsor near Target at 8am
>>
>> For more information go to http://www.lugip.org
>>
>>     
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> LUG/IP Hardware Sig meets first Tuesday of the month at the Hamilton Public Library at 7pm
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> LUG/IP meets Second Wednesday of the month at the Lawrence Headquarters Branch of the Mercer County Library at 7pm
>
> LUG/IP Coffee Klatch meets on the fourth Sunday of the month at the Panera Bread in West Windsor near Target at 8am
>
> For more information go to http://www.lugip.org
>   