Topic: E-smith on Win2000 server !!

[Joakim]

Has someone tried to install E-smith on a Win2000 server running VMWare 3.0 ?
ie. running E-smith in a window as a virtual server .. Could there be any danger doing this for? Would be interesting to know if someone did it.
A nice thought though since you can run windows service and E-smith services on  the same machine....

regards
Joakim

[Dan G.]

Yes, I have done it experimentally, and it works at initial glance --- no extensive testing done, but let w2k's reputation be your guide.  In the end, we blasted the server back to Red Hat, installed vmware, and ran both the w2k server and SME servers as VMs.

Dan G.

[Dan Brown]

It works fine for me, though I only use it for testing purposes.

[Devlyn Davis]

It does work just fine.  I ran an SME server via VMWare for about a month on my machine.  To all other computers, inside and out, it looks like a stand-alone box.  I only ran it in stand-alone mode.  I have not tried it in server and gateway mode.

-Dev

[Andrei]

I have run this configuration quite a few times to demo the SME server. It works great for demo purposes. But vmware users typically run it in the reverse (Linux hosting Windows) since linux outperforms Windows even on a bad day.

[Les Mikesell]

I've done it for testing using a linux host and there shouldn't be much difference caused by the hosting side.  You can configure the SME guest with 2 virtual nics  (one bridged, one local) and run other additional guests with local-only nics to emulate a LAN with SME as the gateway.

[Kurt Friis Hansen]

Works. In a variety of configurations and settings.

[Andrei]

Is it me or can I get a witness that VMWare is GREAT! One of the best purchases I have made this year.

[Kurt Friis Hansen]

I agree wholeheartedly...

I use VMware for testing software, production environments and new installations.

When a test environment has been verified as working, it is (typically) a case of just zip'ing the VMware virtual disk, which will often fit on a standard CD-ROM (transport media and backup in one).

Then the content of the CD-ROM is un zipped onto the production platform, and within a minute or 2, it is possible to close one running platform down, rename two directories, and booting up the new plartform (if there's a hickup - God forbid - you can switch back within a couple of minutes, and continue as if nothing happened).

The method also enables you to configure systems based on different operating systems (various Linux distributions/versions, various Windows ditto), and switching from one environment to the other, when things are working (and even back again, if this is required).

Typically I use a Windows 2000 Professional as host (driver support is far, far better, than Linux), but the "virtual hardware" seen from the guest system, makes it posible to get the best of many worlds, and mix and match as needed (without the hazzle of reinstalling any drivers).

SME-server is a nice little system, that is easy to deploy - a ZIP'ed copy of a working, basic and "fully blade'd" server is approx. 140-150GB before adding a specific user environment.

Regards