VMware
March 10th, 2006I decided recently after some issues with my chroots to change to Virtual machines powered by the currently free vmware-server (ebuilds can be found here). Setting up virtual machines is quite easy, and even without a actual clone function in the server edition its fairly easy to clone a machine. It’s basically a matter of copying the machine you want to a new directory and then doing a custom new image at the same exact spot.
Beyond that its a very nicely rounded program. Feature rich considering that at its core its a application that allows you to run virtual machines within a already running machine. One of the most common features I use is the quick switch, as it allows me to switch between my gnome machine and the kde machine to test bugs for each system at the same time. This naturally helps improve my ability to fix a couple of bugs at the same time instead of having to only do one or the other. With full screen, its exactly as if its the host machine.
As far as speed, its probably around 80% of what my max is in the non virtual machine. This is just a guess as I’ve not run genlop on comparison applications at all. Its just a gut feeling but one that I feel fairly certain of. Avoiding the pain of chroots and the problems they possible have, is worth it.
As far as bugs, I’ve only really run into three so far. The configuration didn’t remove the not-configured flag to be able to start the machine (very minor). The virtual machine seems to have halted, but started once I woke up the screen in the morning (minor, as I was trying to compile gnome at the time..and it stopped at 70 of 201 packages). The third tonight was a strange crash that could be associated with removing the usb keyboard and attaching it to the laptop so I could actually do stuff like stabilizing packages that I had tested in the virtual machines.
This advertisement not brought to you by vmware, even if I hope i get a free copy of workstation for it (just kidding mostly).
March 11th, 2006 at 12:37 am
Hi Joshua, so unfortunately I can raise my hand to one of those bugs. The not removing the not_configured flag is a problem with the fact that we’re using the ebuild rather than their installer. They make a database of all their files (called /etc/vmware/locations) and only remove a file (even if it’s the not_configured flag file) if it’s listed in there with the right file size. If you’d like to post your problem information and perhaps do a bit of testing for me in the bugzilla report, I’ll try and tidy up that whole area and a get a really nice polished working version. Thanks!
Mike 5:)
March 11th, 2006 at 2:58 am
Hello Joshua.
So this new VMware Server, is it run just like the Workstation version? I mean, it is installed like a program on an already working Gentoo box, where after one creates virtual machines to run with Gentoo as host?
It’s not like the ESX version which is an “OS” in itself?
March 11th, 2006 at 3:10 am
kim- It’s like the workstation just not as feature rich. Its a server application that allows you to create virtual machines that run as guest machines within the host system.
mike- not sure how much help I’ll actually be. I’ve been behind on bug squishing but if there is anything in particular I could help with please feel free to let me know.
March 11th, 2006 at 3:56 am
Hmmm, so if I have WKS running here, why would I switch to Server?
March 11th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
VMware Server is the product formerly known as VMware GSX Server. It is a slighly enhanced version of Workstation. However, I am unsure of how much of the functionality of the original GSX product has been retained. The interesting things were the Virtual Infrastructure support (see: VMotion, Virtual Center), and the ability to run in headless mode. The reasons for that were that it is a Server class virtualization product.
If you have Workstation, I would see no reason to move to Server unless you are hitting some limitations.
March 11th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Thanks Coward.
I figured as much.
No, I really like workstation.
What would be considered a “limitation” is if Server has better “hardware” support. I mean giving me more options of what hardware I offer to the guest OS.