a VMware environment on a budget

Saytan

Saytan

Saytan

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i'm currently trying to assemble a VMWare environment on a tight (read: i'm paying for it) budget. in order to get as much use of the system's resources for my VM's (which will be win2k/2k3 citrix systems) i figured a very light OS would be the way forward, and if it's free, so much the better - which is where this post comes in.

does anyone have any recommendations/experience of a good lightweight linux platform for the sole purpose of running VMs

i've looked into damn small, but i'm not sure this meets my needs, or whether there's a better option?

thanks in advance :)
 
It depends on how much you value your time, you could do something really ideal and spend hours getting it working.

Best bet install Ubuntu and add the Commercial Repo then use VMware server. If not that then use XP and install VMware server on that.

It will probably save you enough man hours to account for the extra performance requirements, use what you save to by some more RAM if your short.
 
ESX 2.5.5 is available for free download on the VMWare website... I would check that out (there are hardware restrictions and it's not as good as 3 - but worth a try).

If not, then an Arch ftp install is the way to go IMHO - unlike other GNU/linuxes, Arch is optimised for i686 and you only install what you want/need.
 
I'm with PhilGQ here. I set a few servers running a stripped-down Gentoo at work, just enough to run VMware server from RAID, fill up the hosts with plenty of RAM and start enjoying the consolidation and hardware transparency :)
They run Win2003/XP guests and I've never seen uptimes like it. :D

=walls= said:
ESX 2.5.5 is available for free download on the VMWare website... I would check that out (there are hardware restrictions and it's not as good as 3 - but worth a try).
Click to expand...
How can one obtain that for free? I tried to download it with my VMware account (which I used to obtain VMware server serial numbers) and it said I am not authorized to download.
 
=walls= said:
ESX 2.5.5 is available for free download on the VMWare website... I would check that out (there are hardware restrictions and it's not as good as 3 - but worth a try).

If not, then an Arch ftp install is the way to go IMHO - unlike other GNU/linuxes, Arch is optimised for i686 and you only install what you want/need.
Click to expand...

+1

Arch is good, but I wouldn't say 100% stable, its bleeding edge.

Arch with Fluxbox or twm etc would make a very fast system
 
matja said:
How can one obtain that for free? I tried to download it with my VMware account (which I used to obtain VMware server serial numbers) and it said I am not authorized to download.
Click to expand...

Gutted - sorry, have just realised... I have ESX 3 registered against my account... which is why I can download it...
 
right then - i'm technical, (not linux, but i am a fast learner) and since this whole thing is about learning, i'll give arch a go, with debian as a fallback point if i get irritated/annoyed/into a rush situation

thanks everyone
 
In my experience VMWare on Linux Server (ubuntu server) as disappointingly slow. Not exactly sure why but when VMWare was running via Desktop Ubuntu it ran well.

Cirtix won't like VMWare. I assume that you require this setup for testing purposes.
 
That'll be OK then. Have used citrix a little in VMWare and it is fine for testing.

I'd either recommend an XP box with just VMWare on it (maybe IIS for the web interface) or if you don't have a license then ubuntu desktop would do the job.
 
Saytan said:
right then - i'm technical, (not linux, but i am a fast learner) and since this whole thing is about learning, i'll give arch a go, with debian as a fallback point if i get irritated/annoyed/into a rush situation

thanks everyone
Click to expand...

One point to note: If you go for Arch - you'll not be able to use the default kernel, as it's too bleeding edge for the vmware binaries... I think the latest supported kernel is 2.6.20 (Arch uses 2.6.23).

IMHO Arch really is the best for this application, but it's not the most n00b friendly linux - but is a great way to learn linux - so best of luck :)
 
PErsonally I cut down RHEL5 by removing everything that wasn't absolutely essential for my vmware environment (then again, thats what I do for everything, only the packages which are essential for the application). That was pretty good to use, reasonably fast, then again that box was a dual xeon with 5GB of RAM...
 
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