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Workstation Virtualization
Featuring VMware Workstation 7.0
VMware Workstation Overview
We highly recommend VMware Workstation 7.0 for everyday virtualization use, especially if you are a software developer or run applications on multiple operating systems. When coupled with high-performance, high-efficiency computing hardware (CPUs, storage solutions, and the like), Virtualization can save you a fortune and increase your productivity substantially! Although the product name implies only "Workstations", you can also certainly use VMware Workstation to run virtual machines on a Server.
Virtual Machine (VM) technology allows you to exploit the true power and flexibility of your desktop or laptop computer and reduce hardware costs by 50% or more by running multiple operating systems simultaneously on a single PC. With modern Processors / CPUs (like those offered by Intel), coupled with leading-edge virtualization software from VMware, you will be amazed at how efficiently and transparently you emulate "multiple machines" on one computer.
Mainstream and affordable hardware virtualization is truly one of the most exciting technological advances in computing of recent years, and it promises to be a technology that will only expand in scope in the future. And this power is surprisingly simple to use, thanks to the innovations that VMware Workstation brings to the market.
With VMware Workstation, you can easily:
- Run multiple operating systems simultaneously on same computer (e.g., Linux, Windows XP, Windows Vista), as well as the applications specific to each operating system.
- Host legacy applications and overcome platform migration issues
- Demonstrate multi-tier configurations on a single PC - e.g., you can have a SQL-Server Database Server running in one VM, a Web-Server in another, a middle-tier / object server in another, and yet another VM for your client-side application(s).
- Configure & test new software or patches in an isolated environment, thus reducing deployment risks and costs.
- Automate tasks for software development and testing.
The latest release of VMware Workstation brings with it some exciting new functionality that is sure to further enhance your productivity.
Here are a few of the features new, or significantly enhanced, in this release:
- Virtual Printing — one of our favorite new features because of how much we detest installing printer drivers inside each virtual machines when all we really would like to do is just print to our host machine printers! Workstation 7.0 now allows you to print from virtual machines without mapping network printers or installing printer drivers in the virtual machine. With virtual printing enabled in the virtual machine setting, all of the printers installed on the host operating system are available in the guest operating system. Can you say, "awesome!... and, about time"!
- TWO GREAT FEATURES LONG OVERDUE: Expand Virtual Disks and Compact Virtual Disks — This should be a huge timesaver!
- Windows 7, Aero Glass, and Aero Peek support — all ready for helping with the migration to Windows 7, and a great way to keep Windows XP desktops running alongside Windows 7 as you evaluate software compatability and so forth.
- AES 256-bit Encryption — for further security of configuration files.
- 3D Graphics Improvements for Windows XP guests — OpenGL 2.1 and Shader Model 3.0 support is now available for Windows XP virtual machines
- vSphere 4.0 and ESX Support — this feature is cool for us developer types, as it allows us to install and run ESX 4.0 as a guest operating system (when, otherwise, it would previsously have been a "bare iron only" install). This new feature is a great advantage, since running ESX as a guest eliminates the need to have spare hardware available to run ESX natively and enables ESX to run on systems that are not listed on the ESX hardware compatibility list (HCL). Great for migration-testing and more!
- Support for more "beefy hardware" emulation: including Four-Way Guest SMP and 32GB Guest Memory!
- Cross-Platform License Keys — use the VMware Workstation 7.0 license key on both the Windows and Linux versions. (Make sure you read the EULA for the terms and conditions that must be met when switching platforms.) We previously disliked how the licensing model essentially forced you to commit to staying on Windows (or Linux) as a host OS forever, or pay for another Linux VMware Workstation License just to move hosts... now, it appears to be "free" addition!
- And other new VMware Workstation 7.0 Features and enhancements...
The latest release of VMware Workstation builds upon these features of the prior 6.5 release:
- “Unity” mode enables an Integrated desktop experience, whereby you can rather seamlessly integrate your favorite guest-VM applications with your host
operating system's desktop, which allows the guest application windows to look just like host application windows (but with color-coded borders for a visual
indicator that an application is really running in a guest-VM).
- Accelerated 3-D graphics on Windows XP guests: hosts running Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Linux
can have guest applications that use DirectX 9 accelerated graphics with shaders up through Shader Model 2.0 on Windows XP guests.
- Record/replay of VM execution activity - record full system behavior, including all CPU and device activity; this can
be quite useful when testing or debugging applications.
- Virtual machine streaming - enables downloading a virtual machine from a Web server and powering it on without waiting
for the download to complete via a command-line startup command (VMware Workstation or Player) with the URL of the virtual machine;
you can even pause and restart the download.
- And other new VMware Workstation 6.5 Features and enhancements...
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VMware Workstation : How it Works
VMware Workstation creates fully isolated, secure virtual machines that encapsulate an operating system and its applications.
VMware uses a virtualization layer that maps the physical hardware resources (i.e., Devices on your Desktop PC, Workstation, or Server)
to the virtual machine's resources in such a way that each virtual machine has its own CPU, memory, disks, networking, and other I/O devices, and is the full equivalent of
a standard x86 machine.
VMware Workstation is simply an application that you install onto your computer's host operating system, like any
other application install you are accustomed to. The VMware application setup takes care of installing the virtualization layer drivers and
virtual-machine management software components you will need to run any type of supported Guest Operating System and applications
(be it Linux, Windows XP, Vista, Server, etc) and provides broad hardware support by inheriting device support from your host computer.
Once you have the VMware Workstation software installed, you can create as many guest virtual machines as you desire, and these "guest" operating
systems are essentially just like having another computer running on your computer, but within a self-contained Window (and, with the new
VMware Unity-mode view, an application within a guest operating system can appear as though it is a normal application Window running on your computer,
without the virtual-machine management window surrounding it). Creating a guest operating system is a rather straightforward process, as it is a task
performed with the help of virtual machine setup "wizards" (i.e., step-by-step prompted setup tasks with simple selection dropdowns, checkboxes, and radio-buttons)
that make this a very simplified procedure. It is very easy to choose how big the virtual machines' allocated disk space will be, how much RAM the VM will
be alloted, and so forth.
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VMware Workstation
