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I have seen there are various products of like VMware server, VMware Workstation, VMware ESX, VMware Fusion.

Which of these products is best with all features to use on server to make Virtual Machines?

Can I create a virtual machine with server and then use it with VMware Workstation?

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  • Can you provide more detail about what your requirements are?
    – Zoredache
    Dec 4, 2009 at 1:34

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You don't talk about what you're aiming to do here. For virtualized servers, I'd definitely go with VMWare ESX (or ESXi) as it creates a standalone server for servers, plus you'd need a Windows system to run vSphere on to manage the servers.

If you're talking for home use, use the VMWare Workstation application...

But again, you need to narrow down your use case. Creating a standalone server? Play with other operating systems? What hardware do you have available on which to run this? What kind of use do you expect the VM to get? How much experience do you even HAVE with virtualization (I personally wouldn't ask a home user to just go out and play with ESXi, or any virtualization outside of a workstation context really...if they don't understand how resources work and what they're going to be doing to their home computer's RAM and processor, they probably shouldn't toy with it without reading more information ahead of time).

If you're just dipping your toes in the water try Virtualbox on your Windows/Linux system. Get the hang of virtualization and what kind of performance issues you might encounter.

Most of all...narrow down your specifications for what you're going to use it for (at work we're running an ESXi server with several Windows/Linux servers, and I virtualize a Windows system to manage it through vSphere using Virtualbox on Linux...)

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  • Whats the your hardware configuration where you rub ESXi server. I wanteted to know in practical world whats the config of computer
    – John
    Dec 4, 2009 at 1:41
  • @Mirror51: On VMWare's web site there is a hardware compatibility list for ESXi. It runs on a narrow range of "approved" hardware, and anything else is kind of hit-or-miss. Ours is a Dell 2950, I believe, with 16 gig of RAM. You'll want at least 8 gig for more than one VM to run, but again depends on need. You can also Google for "whitebox" computer, homebrew VMWare servers that work with approved hardware (like ultimatewhitebox.com). Google "vmware whitebox" looks like it hits the ulitmatewhitebox and vmware's compatibility lists for you. Dec 4, 2009 at 10:35
  • @Mirror51: also the whitebox would be book for home experimentation, as I believe from my previous research these list hardware like what to get from NewEgg for $300-$500 US that will run decently, though this depends on how old their specs are.But if you are using it for home, you're getting the white box because your boss in the IT department wants you to try experimenting with server rack consolidation without giving you a budget. Otherwise you're going to get banished to Superuser! AAAHHH!! ;-) Dec 4, 2009 at 10:37
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Which of these products is best with all features to use on server to make Virtual Machines?

VMware has a pretty good information about which products are good for what function. Visit these pages.

Can I create a virtual machine with server and then use it with VMware Workstation?

It depends on what version you are talking about exactly, but yes, generally you can create a VM in one product and use it in other products. You may need to use a tool to convert the type of the virtual hard disk if you are going to or coming from ESX. You will have to have a somewhat similar versions of products, I don't believe that you could create a VM with VMware Server 2.0 that would be usable on VMware Workstation 1.0. Check the docs on VMware's web site for details about exactly what can be converted to what.

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Which one is the best?

Well, what's your budget? Are you looking for support, or can you manage it yourself? Does ti need to install on the bare hardware, or is hosted ok?

  • ESX if you want support and on bare-metal
  • ESX for bare-metal and you manage it all yourself
  • Workstation for support with hosted VMs
  • Server for self-management of a hosted virtualization environment

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