VMWare

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VMWare

• AWPP Conference
• Gerringong
• 2006

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What is VMWare?

• VMWare is a machine virtualisation which provides
  a standardised virtual hardware environment in
  which guest operating systems can execute.
• It goes a further step than the Hardware
  Abstraction Layer found in 32 and 64 bit Windows
  operating system, by always presenting the same
  hardware platform irrespective of what the real
  hard is. Whereas HAL provides a layer of
  abstraction between the actual hardware and the
  operating system kernel

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Virtualisation

• There are a number of types of virtualisation.
• Emulation
• simulates the complete hardware to host an
  unmodified OS for a foreign CPU, eg Microsoft
  Virtual PC for Macintosh
• Native Virtualisation
• Simulates aspects of the hardware to host an
  unmodified OS for the same CPU type. VMWare fits
  this category, as does Microsoft Virtual PC for
  Windows (although the OSs are specifically
  targeted)
• Para-virtualisation
• The virtual machine does not simulate hardware
  but instead provides an environment and APIs
  modifying the guest OS
• Operating System level virtualisation
• Allows multiple instances of various operating
  systems to run on a machine presenting the same
  hardware environment to the guest as it does for
  the host.
• Application Virtualisation, which allows running
  of application on remote servers and desktops, eg
  Terminal Server, Citrix VNC.

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Components of VMWare

• The host operating system can currently be
  Windows or Linux, and soon Mac OS X
• The guest operating system can be any x86 based
  operating system.
• VMWare provides some additional drivers to
  optimise the performance of the Guest OS
• VMWare come as
• VMWare Player which can run guest operating
  systems but cannot create virtual machines. This
  product is free.
• VMWare Server which can create, edit and play
  guest operating systems. This product is free
• VMWare ESX Server is an enterprise product with
  centralised management. This is not free
• VMWare Infrastructure and Data Centre are premium
  virtualisation for large scale virtualisation

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Host Requirements

• What the Host needs
• Hardware
• PII - 400MHz (Player) or733Mhz (Server) greater)
• Motherboard, Video, LAN, Audio - any supported
  by Host OS,
• RAM minimum 128Mb (Player), 512Mb (Server) plus
  requirements for Guest OS
• Hard disk 150Mb (Player) 250Mb (Server) and at
  least 1Gb free disk space per Guest OS
• Host Operating System
• Windows server OS and most Linux for Server
• Windows 2000, XP, 2003 server, most Linux
  distributions for Player

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Guest Specifications

• What the Guest sees
• Hardware
• Native processor on host
• Motherboard Intel 440BX, Phoenix BIOS 4.0 R6
• VMWare driver for SVGA II video
• AMD PCNet network card(s)
• IDE, SCSI, USB, LPT, COM, Wireless networking,
  FDD, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, emulated CD (iso image)
  Keyboard, PS2 Mouse but comparable hardware must
  be recognised in host OS
• Many parameters can be set
• Guest Operating Systems
• DOS, Win3.x, Win95, Win98, WinME, WinNT, Win2000,
  WinXP, Win2003
• Novell Netware 4.2 6.5
• Novell Open Enterprise Server
• Linux (most distributions)
• FreeBSD
• Sun Solaris

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What can you do with VMWare

• Create standard machine configurations that can
  be distributed to any Player machine
• support, development, QA and learning
• Shipping evaluations
• Simplifying distribution
• Simplify disaster recovery
• Take advantage of application in different
  platforms
• Key features
• Isolation of Host OS from Guest OS
• Access to host devices
• Copy and Paste and sme drag and drop between
  Guest and Host,
• Adjustable memory
• Powerful networking options
• Configurable shutdown, resume
• Can run virtual machine created with other
  software, eg Virtual PC, Symantec Livestate
  Recovery
• Run local or remote guest images
• Downloadable appliances

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Resources

• VMWare http//www.vmware.com
• Microsoft Virtual PC http//www.microsoft.com/wind
  ows/virtualpc/default.mspx
• Wikipedia http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vmware
• VMWare appliances http//www.vmware.com/vmtn/appli
  ances/directory/