[rescue] VMware (was: replacing an Ultra2)

[Michael-John Turner]

On Sun, Apr 15, 2007 at 07:27:58PM -0500, Micah R Ledbetter wrote:
> I don't remember the difference between Server and ESX, but IIRC  
> (someone please correct if wrong), I think that Server runs on top of  
> a "normal" OS like Linux or Windows, while ESX runs on bare metal.  
> ESX probably also has the cluster and migration features.

Yep, that's pretty much it. What is now VMware Server used to be a product
called VMware GSX Server - it allowed for VMs to be started in the
background (ie without running the UI), managed remotely, etc, features
that VMware Workstation didn't have (and it was more expensive when still
sold). ESX is part of their high-end infrastructure offering and runs on a
customised Linux distro on bare metal.

It goes something like:
Player (free as in beer) -> Workstation/Fusion ($$$) -> Server (free) -> ESX ($$$)

I haven't compared Server and Workstation lately, but I'm not quite sure
how they justify charging for Workstation when Server is free and
(theoretically) offers more features...

-mj
-- 
Michael-John Turner | http://mjturner.net/
mj at turner.org.za    | Open Source in WC ZA - http://www.clug.org.za/