VMware Server

Infobox Software
name = VMware Server



caption = The web interface of VMware Server 2.0.0
collapsible =
author =
developer = VMware, Inc.
released =
latest release version = 2.0 (build 116503)
latest release date = release date|2008|09|23
latest preview version =
latest preview date =
latest maintenance version = 1.0.7 (build 108231)
latest maintenance date = release date|2008|08|28
frequently updated =
programming language =
operating system = Microsoft Windows
Linux
platform = x86-compatible
size =
language =
status =
genre = Virtual machine
license = Proprietary, Freeware
website = [http://www.vmware.com/products/server/ VMware Server]

VMware Server (formerly GSX Server) is an entry-level server virtualization software suite from VMware, Inc., a subsidiary of EMC Corporation. VMware released version 1.0 of Server on July 12, 2006. Server is a continuation of the retired GSX Server product line. VMware Server can create, edit, and play virtual machines. It uses a client-server model, allowing remote access to virtual machines, at the cost of some graphical performance (and 3D support). In addition to the ability to run virtual machines created by other VMware products, it can also run virtual machines created by Microsoft Virtual PC. VMware, Inc. makes Server freely available in the hope that users will eventually [http://www.vmware.com/news/releases/server_beta.html upgrade] to VMware ESX Server.

Users of VMware Server's internal utilities can preserve (and revert to) a single snapshot copy of each separate virtual machine within their VMware Server environment. The product does not have a specific interface for cloning virtual machines, unlike VMware Workstation.

Known issues

Known limitations of VMware Server, as of August 2007, include the following:

Hardware support

* VMware virtual machines do not support FireWire. [http://www.vmware.com/community/message.jspa?messageID=390865#390865 Discussion forum] .]
* VMware Server does not support 3D hardware acceleration. [cite web |url=http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=84344#post936246 |title= Re: HOWTO: Enabling Accelerated 3D for a Virtual Machine in VMWare 5.0 |accessdate=2008-09-18]
* Only 3 mouse buttons function inside the guest OS. Five-button mice remain unsupported.Fact|date=August 2007

OS support

VMware Server is not officially supported on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. [cite web|url=http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmserver2.pdf|title=VMware Server User’s Guide: VMware Server 2.0|date=2008-09-15|accessdate=2008-09-27|publisher=VMware] However despite the vendor's lack of support, the 64-bit version of VMware Server 2.0 will nevertheless install on the 64-bit edition of Windows Vista due to its kernel being the same as Server 2008. Alternatively, 32-bit Windows VMWare Server 2.0 hosts on Intel EM64T VT-enabled and AMD64 processors can run 64-bit editions of Windows as a guest OS, but may be restricted by the amount of addressable physical memory of the underlying 32-bit architecture.

VMware Server does have native 64-bit host support on Linux. 64-Bit Solaris 10 1/06 (Update 1) and Solaris 10 6/06 (Update 2) running as a guest will fail with a triple fault on Intel Pentium M-based systems Merom, Woodcrest, and Conroe. Sun Microsystems has published a workaround for this issue. [cite web|url=http://blogs.sun.com/jim/entry/how_to_install_solaris_10|title=VMWARE : How to install Solaris 10 u2 6/06|date=2006-11-06|accessdate=2008-09-29|publisher=Jimmy Andriambao]

Network protocols

Attempting to mount an NFS share from a NAT'ed instance of VMware Server may result in a permission-denied error. [cite web |title=VMware Communities: NFS Mounted Datastores |url=http://communities.vmware.com/thread/47413 |date=2006-07-07 |accessdate=2008-09-18] To fix the problem, switch the VMware instance to use bridged networking rather than network address translation (NAT). Bridged networking implies adding another device on a network, while NAT uses the VMware server to assign the instance an IP address, either through DHCP or through a static IP configuration. Another method of dealing with the permission-denied error involves using port forwarding, but this results in more complexity.

VMware Server can swallow CPU interrupts, which makes keeping the clock accurate difficult.cite web |title=Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines |url=http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmware_timekeeping.pdf |format=PDF |date=2005-08-01 |accessdate=2007-09-26 |publisher=VMware] For this reason, Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers should not be run under virtualised Operating Systems, including VMware. Other issues include running Windows Time Service (usually as an Active Directory Domain Controller), Kerberos and other services and daemons relying on accurate local time. VMware Server provides a solution whereby the guest's OS clock is periodically syncronised with the host OS (which in turn can be configured to synchronize with an NTP server for even more accuracy).cite paper|publisher=Microsoft|title=The Windows Time Service|url=http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/0/f/20f61625-7b2a-4531-b007-1c714f1e51b7/wintimeserv.doc|author=Shala Brandolini and Darin Green|date=April 2001|accessdate=2008-06-13] [cite web|url=http://www.vmware.com/support/gsx3/doc/tools_guestd_sync_gsx.html|title=Synchronizing the Time in the Guest with the Host Operating System|publisher=VMware|accessdate=2008-06-13] These issues can also be solved outside the realm of VMware Server, by utilising external (and physical) NTP servers.

See also

* Comparison of virtual machines
* List of VMware software
* Virtual appliance
* Virtual machine
* Virtualization
* x86 virtualization
* Hyper-V

References

External links

* [http://www.vmware.com/products/server/ VMware Server product page] - VMware, Inc.
* [http://www.vmware.com/download/eula/server.html VMware Server End-User License]