VMware Server available for free download

[Posted July 12, 2006 by corbet]


                      VMware Delivers Free VMware Server

  Enterprise-Class Support and VMware VirtualCenter Management Now Available

    PALO ALTO, Calif., July 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VMware, Inc., the 
global leader in virtual infrastructure software for industry-standard 
systems, today announced the general availability of VMware Server after a 
five month beta program with more than 700,000 downloads.  Customers deploying 
the free hosted virtualization product for Linux and Windows servers can now 
purchase enterprise-class support from VMware.  In addition, they can now use 
VMware VirtualCenter to centrally provision, monitor and manage VMware Server 
deployments.
    VMware Server, the successor to the award-winning VMware GSX Server first 
introduced in 2001, enables users to realize the benefits of virtualization.  
With VMware Server, users can quickly create and provision new server capacity 
by partitioning a physical server into multiple virtual machines, bringing the 
powerful benefits of virtualization to every server.
    "VMware Server is a rock-solid product and the best way to begin 
experiencing the benefits of virtualization," said Joseph Foran, director of 
IT for FSW, a nonprofit human services agency based in Connecticut.  "Its 
release shows VMware's continuing commitment to developing and distributing 
the best virtualization technology on the market."
    Users can easily progress from VMware Server to VMware Infrastructure 3, 
the third generation of the industry-leading infrastructure virtualization 
software suite that allows entire industry-standard infrastructure farms to be 
managed as a shared utility and dynamically allocated to different business 
units or projects.  The suite is designed to deliver comprehensive 
virtualization, management, resource optimization, application availability 
and operational automation capabilities in an integrated offering.  Today 
VMware Infrastructure is used by more than 20,000 companies worldwide of which 
more than 90 percent are running it in production server environments and 25 
percent are choosing to standardize their industry-standard systems on it.
    "VMware Server offers unparalleled operating system support, ease of use, 
manageability with VMware VirtualCenter and support from the industry's most 
experienced support organization for virtualization," said Brian Byun, vice 
president of products and alliances at VMware.  "VMware delivers the 
industry's broadest range of server-based virtualization products.  Customers 
can choose one compatible set of products to have every environment and 
virtualization use case covered, starting from free single-server 
virtualization with VMware Server, all the way to full enterprise-wide 
infrastructure farms managed, automated and optimized as a shared utility with 
VMware Infrastructure."

    VMware Server is feature-packed with the following capabilities:
    -- Runs on standard x86 hardware
    -- Support for 64-bit guest operating systems, including Linux, Windows,
       NetWare and Solaris
    -- Support for VMware VirtualCenter to efficiently provision, monitor and
       manage infrastructure from a central management console
    -- Experimental support for 2-Way Virtual SMP, enabling a single virtual
       machine to span multiple physical processors
    -- Runs on a wider variety of Linux and Windows host and guest operating
       systems than any server virtualization product on the market
    -- Ability to capture entire state of a virtual machine and roll back at
       any time with the click of a single button
    -- Installs like an application with quick and easy, wizard-driven
       installation
    -- Quick and easy, wizard-driven virtual machine creation
    -- Support for VMware or Microsoft virtual machine format and Symantec
       LiveState Recovery images with VM Importer
    -- Experimental support for Intel Virtualization Technology
    -- Investment protection with an easy upgrade path to VMware
       Infrastructure

    Foran continued: "FSW is excited about VMware Server because of its 
stability, support for new and legacy virtual machines and the ongoing support 
of Linux and Windows hosts.  The remote console feature also provides us with 
flexibility for managing virtual machines across multiple physical systems, 
and support for 2-Way Virtual SMP allows us to create virtual machines that 
can take advantage of the processing power in our multi-processor systems.  
Having support for 64-bit guests makes the platform scalable to our newer 
hardware as well."
    "We are excited about the general availability of VMware Server," said 
Dave Parsons, CTO of ALG Software, a global provider of corporate performance 
management solutions headquartered in the UK.  "The ease of installation and 
use coupled with advanced features such as 64-bit guest operating system 
support and 2-Way Virtual SMP make VMware Server an ideal product to 
experience the benefits of server virtualization.  With the option to purchase 
enterprise-class support and centralized manageability with VMware 
VirtualCenter, and the ability to easily migrate to VMware Infrastructure 
while protecting your investment, you just cannot go wrong with VMware 
Server."

    Pricing and Availability
    VMware Server is available at no charge for immediate download at 
www.vmware.com/products/server/.  Enterprise-class support list price is $350 
for a one-year subscription per two processors for Gold level and $450 for 
Platinum level.  VMware VirtualCenter for VMware Server list price is $600 per 
two processors.  Support and VMware VirtualCenter for VMware Server are 
available for purchase through VMware resellers.
    VMware Server may be redistributed by authorized third parties.  Please 
email server_distribution@vmware.com for more information.

    About VMware, Inc.
    VMware, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC), is the global leader in virtual 
infrastructure software for industry-standard systems. The world's largest 
companies use VMware solutions to simplify their IT, fully leverage their 
existing computing investments and respond faster to changing business 
demands. VMware is based in Palo Alto, California. For more information, visit 
www.vmware.com or call 650-475-5000.

    VMware and Virtual SMP are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, 
Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and 
names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

SOURCE  VMware, Inc.

to post comments

VMware Server available for free download

Posted Jul 13, 2006 10:02 UTC (Thu) by Cato (guest, #7643) [Link] (3 responses)

This is really good news for Linux, along with the existing VMware Player, in many ways:

Hosting pre-built 'appliance' Linux VMs on Windows desktops means it is absolutely trivial to get a working Linux system on top of Windows, pre-configured for some useful task, such as web serving, bug tracking, Wiki hosting, or whatever. One example is TWiki VM, which enables a 5 minute installation, after a big download, that avoids many hours of trying to get Cygwin, Perl, Apache and RCS working on Windows (I wrote the installation guide and I know how hard it is for the average Windows user).
This means that people who want to host a Wiki server on their intranet can really easily try out a Linux-based Wiki on their Windows desktop, then migrate it to a Windows server, or go direct to a Linux server. Whichever route they choose, they get a good experience of Linux doing a useful task, without the hassles of installing the Linux distro, installing the apps, and configuring the apps to work correctly.
Someone who wants to learn Linux but only has a Windows PC can have a working Linux system in a virtual machine within a few minutes, without the risk of re-partitioning or even needing to reboot into a UMSDOS-hosted Linux. Performance is pretty good, and they can use their familiar Windows-based web browser to read through tutorials while they try things in Linux. LinuxBasics.org provides a pre-built VM called LBox for this purpose, to help people experiment while they are learning Linux using the other excellent resources on that site.

You can of course try these pre-built VMs on Linux by installing VMware Server (and create your own VMs, these are full read-write tools). Even if you're a Linux guru it can be quicker to just download a new VM for some app you've not tried (e.g. Asterisk, TWiki, Jabber servers, security toolkits) or a new distro. See VMware's directory of pre-built appliance VMs, which includes many open source based VMs as well as commercial apps such as BEA WebLogic.

For open source developers, a pre-built VM appliance can be a great way to showcase your application, configured to do something useful out of the box.

I don't get commission from VMware, I just really like the fact that these tools are now free (as in beer).

VMware Server available for free download

Posted Jul 14, 2006 0:58 UTC (Fri) by rasjidw (guest, #15913) [Link] (1 responses)

Actually, most of your comments apply to VMware Player, rather than VMware Server. According to the VMware Server data sheet, the Windows Version of VMware Server only runs on MS Windows 2000 server and MS Windows Server 2003. Not the kind of systems your average home user has around just to test Linux on.

On the other hand, VMware Server for Linux runs on Mandriva, RedHat, SUSE and Ubuntu (and probably others - although these are the supported distros), and is a great way of consolidating several servers onto a single box. In fact, that is what I'm doing right now (on top of Ubuntu)...

VMware Server available for free download

Posted Jul 16, 2006 2:29 UTC (Sun) by tsinclai (guest, #11399) [Link]

>>Windows Version of VMware Server only runs on MS Windows 2000 server and MS Windows
Server 2003

I'm no expert, but this appears to be only partially correct. I'm running VMware Server 1.0 on a
WindowsXP box and for the most part it seems to work as designed. There was a pop-up during
the install which suggested that some of the server tools might not work as expected on a non-
server Windows system and that the console would have to be manually started.

I've only been working with it for a few days, though, so perhaps I'll find some more issues. So far,
for the simple things I'm doing (creating, configuring and running appliances), it works very well.

VMware Server available for free download

Posted Jul 16, 2006 2:34 UTC (Sun) by tsinclai (guest, #11399) [Link]

I'm very happy about this as well. I teach, among other things, network security and Linux system
administration and there are a few classes where virtualization is a real boon. For example, my
Linux students could set up a multi-server network on a single box.

Unfortunately our current solution is to use Microsoft's Virtual PC. So, ever since I heard about the
VMware offerings, I've been evangelizing them as an alternative to my program director and fellow
faculty. I made copies of the software available on a local file server, along with some useful/
interesting appliances.

I've gotten some good responses so far. In fact, my PD is setting up his own test box to test out
VMware.