Re: [Devil-Linux-discuss] VMware questions

[Heiko Z. <he...@zu...>]

>> >> > What is the advantage of the VMware modules that come with DL, over
>> >> > running DL in a VM without the modules?
>> >>
>> >> Advantages:
>> >> Performance (especially the network driver),
>> >
>> > Do I use the VMware module as the NIC driver (instead of pcnet32),
>> > or do I load the module along with pcnet32?
>>
>> You use vmxnet instead of pcnet32.
>
> OK.
>
>> If you use a 64 bit guest OS, then the driver has to be the e1000.
>
> vmxnet doesn't work on a 64 bit guest?

Correct.

>> >> some better memory management,
>> >
>> > Does the hypervisor only take the memory that the guest is actually
>> > using, instead of the entire amount reserved for the guest OS?
>> > Only with the module loaded?
>>
>> I'm not 100% sure, but I think the module plays a key role.
>> There are various parameters you can set for the over commit.
>
> Parameters to the module load?

None necessary.
You control everything either on a global vmware level or on a per-VM
basis (the VM specific config).

>> I'm not too familiar with the ESX server,
>
> Me neither, except for the couple days I spent playing with the eval.
>
> During the ESX 3.5 install, I saw Linux kernel messages run by, and the
> install screens looked a whole lot like the standard Redhat install
> screens, with the Redhat logo replaced by the VMware logo.

Yes it's based on Redhat, but optimized for vmware.

> After ESX installed, I saw more Linux kernel messages during the boot,
> and I logged into the console as root and confirmed I was running Linux
> with a 2.4 kernel, and VMware services were running.

I thought it was an older 2.6 kernel....

> ESX 3i is different, as all traces of Linux, or any underlying OS, are
> gone (or hidden).  It claims to be much smaller and it appears like the
> hypervisor is running directly on the hardware without the Linux layer.

Yeah I'm not familiar with 3i.

> Some of the fancy (expensive) VMware features aren't supported with 3i,
> but IMO it's more secure and less overhead.  I'm leaning toward buying
> 3i for work after evaluating both.
>
> My major complaint with both versions of ESX is the client (required to
> manage the hypervisor and the guest OS's) is Windows only.  Yuck!

Doesn't the webinterface have a java version?

> And the VMware infrastructure software (expensive features we're not
> buying now) requires a standalone Windows server running a SQL-server or
> Oracle database!  Triple Yuck!!!
>
>> I use the free one at home.
>
> Me too!  :-)
>

-- 

Regards
  Heiko Zuerker
  http://www.devil-linux.org