[ILUG] VMware GSX server is now free.

[conor at discuskeeping.com]

> I've been considering virtualizing some of my server infrastructure, in
> particular so I can set up one or more GForge installations on a single
> PC, using Xen.

LieNux only? Then I'd use Xen.
My website runs on xen, which I am very happy with. Co-Lo jobby.

> Now that this is beer-free, it may also be promising, although there may
> be too much virtualization involved with VMWare; I'm curious how well a
> VMWare VM performs for server tasks, esp compared to e.g. Xen.

We use vmware internally here for the lab systems, and it performs very
nicely.

The difference with GSX from ESX server is simply: GSX can be installed on
any distro. ESX is already rolled up. So you get sshd and thats about it.
The rest is gui driven or command line.

So in a heterogenous environment, vmware is the better choice.
I have customers running esx with MS SQL on win2k3, and they use it for
production. Other VM's running exchange etc., etc.

VMware scales quite nicely, quite surprising how many VM's can be used
simultaenously.

This is my first try with GSX, so will be interesting.

> - --j.

Regards
Conor.