Recently with anonymous tips from someone I was able to get ESX running inside VMware Fusion Version 2.0.1 (128865).

Just create a VM as per normal wizard & select “Generic Linux” or “RedHat Linux” works well for me.

In order to get a guest VM power up inside ESX running on Fusion you will need the following setting inside the .vmx configuration:-

ethernet0.virtualDev = “e1000″

monitor.virtual_exec = “hardware”

monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = “true”

Once installed you can just connect with the standard VI client as per normal. ESX will detect all the BIOS & hardware config as well.

The above .vmx config will work with VMware Workstation from v6.x onwards.

As I was conducting some testing which required quite a number of VMs. I was able to have the following running in a single MacBook Pro:-

2 * 768Mb RAM Windows 2003 RC2
1 * 1.3Gb RAM ESX 3.5 U3
1 * 512Mb RAM Ubuntu 64bit
1 * 256Mb RAM Knoppix

As follow is hardware spec for my Mac

This beast is really value for $$$. I am sure I can’t run that many VMs in a M$ environment with the same hardware spec.  As why I need to have so many VMs running will continue the series next time.

The only difficulty I have now is Daemon Tools, which use for ISO purpose. Beside that, I am using it as my day to day operational purpose including Microsoft Office, firefox, IE 8, Live messenger and etc. Respond wise had been significant improve as compare to Vista previously.

I am not installed my Workstation to Windows 7 64 bits Ultimate version and use in full mode for my office work. I would like to say I am happy on it. If you want to have a try on this, you will always able to install the windows 7 on both VMware Workstation and VMware Server. Have fun.

I would like to share How to disable or turn off beep speaker sound on VMware Workstation.

1. Look for virtual machine DOT VMX(.vmx) file.
2. Edit virtual machine .vmx file.
3. Insert

“mks.noBeep = “TRUE””

4. Save .vmx file.
5. Power On virtual machine.

For an example, my OpenSuSe 11 DOT VMX file save in drive D:\My VM\OpenSUSE11\ folder as show below.

Enjoy!

VMware Server 2.0 is free and open source version, which is different with enterprise ESX 3i which also a free version from VMware. In term to utilize VMware server 2.0, you will require to have a Windows or Linux install on your machine or server, and install VMware Server 2.0 on top of the operating system to enable the hypervisor to be executed. This is different with ESX 3i which is not require any Operating System to be installed.

We may see this as a competitive product with VMware Workstation 6.5 which recently launched. If you ask my opinion, I will say that both are on different product range. VMware Server 2 can be consider as alternative to the business users, who may not need the advance technology & features to simplify their IT environment with minimal administration require. This product is more suitable for the Small Medium Enterprise users which may not have a Data Center for their working location. I will say that a Junior IT professional will easily able to manage the VMware Server and take the opportunity as a entry level for Enterprise Virtualization with VMware Server 2. Besides that, it does provide opportunity for every users to have virtualization in place for their business to provide better ROI in term of hardware investment and utilization.

If we look VMware Workstation, it provide more features and ability to the IT pro users to perform their test and development environment on their laptop, workstation or desktop which reduce the amount of servers require for a corporate to perform their application development. Somehow, ESX is targeting Enterprise level, 3i is provide for free which some cases we may not require VMotion and HA capability. Management wise, Workstation is simple and easy. You may not require to browse through the web console and easily can be launched as a program from your machine, but you will lost the administration features on the network. VMware Workstation has ACE integrated, drag and drop features and etc, which may not require for most of the VMware Server users for hosting purpose. VMware Server 2 will require a web browser for your management, and you able to manage it through LAN network. There is a tomcat installed while you configure you VMware server at the 1st time.

In VMware Server 2, I had seen there are a lot of new features and improvement and I am impress with the respond time of the web browser. There is absolutely no delay within the respond over the web browser which is easy to be used and managed. It contain most features we require and useable today and improvement of performance and manage ability. Again, this is a free version, as if I compare this to the free version of hypervisor from XEN, I will prefer to proceed with VMware Server 2.

I had tried to setup the VM for Netware 6.5 on VMware ESX 3.5, VMware Server 2.0 and VMware Workstation 6.5, and it was surprised myself that the workstation edition, I can easily provide 2 Vcpu for a single VM which run the Netware 6.5, which ESX 3.5 and VMware Server 2.0 is refused by default. I went for some google search and technical research, it show that the Netware will not require to have 2 Vcpu in most cases, even if you need to do so, you have to know the back door to overcome this.

To force 2 Vcpu per VM, you will require to log in through the web console on the ESX host, and power off the VM. Edit the Vcpu numbers from 1 to 2 or 4. My test result, 2 might be the better option on ESX. Power up your VM now, you should able to see the 2 Vcpu on Netware 6.5 which run on ESX 3.5. Weird thing happen now, you will notice that the CPU utilization is very high and consistently over 50% even with fresh install Netware 6.5. When you do a monitor command from netware, you will only see the 5% utilization from the CPU. I am sure there is bugs from VMware regarding this.

Now we go to VMware Server 2.0, you need to export the image from ESX 3.5 to VMware Server, and power it up. Please do not modify the number of cpu per vm on the webconsole, as it is not allow to be run more than 1Vcpu for Netware 6.5 on vmware server by default. In this case, the CPU utilization on VMware server is much more acceptable which only 30% utilize.

Due to a low demand on Netware today, I believe it is the reason of VMware is not investing too much time of fixing the netware issues. But again, I believe it  is sufficient to host the netware server on VMware as it will not require the extra resources as we normally have on any server today.

Here is the URL you can register and immediate getting the serial key and allow you to download the installation source for a try. More features had been include in 6.5 prior to VMware workstation 6.0

http://www.vmware.com/beta/ws65/registration.html

Try it out!