This week I installed and setup VMWare Server Beta, which as we noted was released for free last week. I haven't used it enough to provide a comprehensive review, but here are some things that stand out right off the bat:
- Installation, as with all of VMWare's products, is a breeze. The install script asks enough questions that you feel confident it's not just spraying files all over your filesystem, while still being fast and easy. All of the kernel modules compile cleanly and quickly, even on my highly customized (and old) Linux kernel.
- Finally being able to run servers in VMWare without having to run XFree86 just to run the GUI (as in Workstation) is very, very cool.
- Probably the biggest downside that I wasn't aware of is that VMWare Server (and versions of GSX Server) actually lack some features that Workstation has. For example, Workstation 5 has some really neat features for duplicating, snapshotting, and creating "linked clones" of machines that allow you to clone similarly configured machines in a way that minimizes disk utilization. This is a really cool feature, and really drives home the potential for virtualization as far as change-tracking, testing, fallback, and even "branching" snapshots of a machine. Not having these features available in the server product is a real disappointment -- I am in fact now torn on which product I actually want to use -- Workstation or Server. Server is great because it runs headless and has better management controls, but Workstation appears to actually have more advanced features.
- The aforementioned issue strikes me as odd. Two things strike me as odd, really:
- .. that VMWare would put fancy features in their "Workstation" (until now, their entry-level/cheapest product) that they don't have in their Server-level product
- .. that they would then release Server for free. I would have expected if anything that they'd release Workstation for free, leaving the Server line as is, while putting the advanced, fancy features here to differentiate from Workstation. I understand the motivation for releasing Server for free, though -- hooking people on the product and then hoping they'll bite on ESX when they run out of capacity. It's an interesting gamble and possibly one that will pay off. But I think making their Server product free might create a gap, down the road, in their product offering. If someone wants a "server"-grade product, Workstation obviously doesn't cut it, while ESX may be out of their price range. This leaves the mid-range Server product line, which, hey, is free (bonus!) -- but will the fact that it's free mean VMWare will constantly be tempted to differentiate it from ESX and Workstation by crippling/removing features present in each? Free is great, but not if it comes at the cost of functionality I require, and this could leave someone with no viable option in a VMWare product.
- It seems quite stable off the bat, and indeed from what I understand it's not that different from GSX server. It doesn't feel like "beta" software.
- I'd imagine there's a finite set of people who could possibly be rather peeved this week: all the people that bought VMWare GSX Server the week before they announced they were releasing it for free. Could this be the motivation for labeling this release as "beta" software? Calling it "beta" might help console the people that just shelled out ~$1500 for GSX -- that they didn't pay something for nothing.