In alt.solaris.x86 Doug McIntyre <merlyn@geeks.org> wrote:
> gerg@panix.com (Greg Andrews) writes:
>>Al Slater <al.slater.xxx@xxx.scluk.com> writes:
>>>
>>>I run Solaris 10u4 and various flavours of Nevada under Windows using
>>>VMware Server 1.0.4 (which is also free).
>>>
>
>>Is that really "under" windows? It isn't actually Windows and Solaris
>>are each guest OSes hosted by VMWare Server?
>
> VMWare Server is an daemon/service run under Windows or under Linux that
> will virtualize vm's under it. At best, the other VMs will run
> alongside windows or Linux with some virtualization.
>
> ESX server is a hypervisor that boots on bare hardware, and doesn't
> require another OS to run. It'll have as its first VM, a redhat linux
> VM that manages the aspects of the hypervisor itself, but the hypervisor
> doesn't run under that linux instance unlike VMWare Server that does.

I was a bit confused and put off by this part at first. I don't like or
trust linux. Here is how ESX seems to work.

the install process is like installing redhat or centos. it's clearly
linux

the machine boots up, it's clearly linux, but somewhere along that process
the machine boots the vmware kernel or whatever it is, and the linux you
saw is now running inside vmware. It's not longer a machine that just
booted linux. The vmware management consoles which run in this very
modified linux are now just a guest VM like anything else you install on
it.

Most vmware patches can be installed while your esx server is running,
which is a plus. the only downside to the virtualization world is you need
to shutdown all your guest VMs if you need to reboot the esx server
itself, for a major patch, which happens every now and then.

Overall, it's still cheaper than having dozens of even shitty servers,
most of which are doing nothing anyways.

> The ESX server is a bit more robust, but I can't think of the last
> time I've had to take down my VMWare Server on a redhat system.

I've never vmware esx crash, but lots of problems with vmware server under
windows xp on various machines. When acrobat/firefox act stupid like they
always do, your vmware server may die with them in any attempts to
recover.