What is VMware?
What is VMware?
VMware (or “VM ware”, as it is often mistakenly referred to as) is a virtualization system -- software that allows you to run multiple "virtual" (i.e., not physical) computers within one physical system.
Sound confusing? Think of it this way. Lets say you're running Windows XP. With a virtualization solution such as VMware installed on your computer, you could run a separate, totally self-contained Linux machine in Windows, at the same time. In fact, you could run two, or three, or four different machines at once -- as many as your physical, non-virtual system could handle. Some of them could be Windows, some of them Linux, all of them configured differently, and all of them running at once, on a single machine.
Why is this useful? Lots of reasons. First of all, you can customize just about everything when it comes to a virtual machine -- how much memory and disk space it has, how many of the actual machine's resources it has access to, what drives it can see, what kind of network access it has, etc. Plus, since virtual machines are relatively small and easy to store and configure, you can create as many types as you like -- a unique, perfectly suited machine for every possibile computing need. In a multiple user environment, this allows you have total control over your infrastructure.
Even better, "virtual" infrastructure is disposable. Unlike their physical counterparts, virtual systems never have to be repaired, and are entirely self contained. Any damage to a virtual machine from user error or malicious software is safely confined to the virtual environment -- which you can simply delete and reload in seconds, good as new. Simply keep your important data on the physical machine, and do your experimenting, software testing, web-surfing, or any other risky activity on a virtual one.
For just these reasons, virtualization also makes a lot of sense in a network environment. If you have a powerful central server with a virtualization solution, you can use cheap dummy terminals to run full-fledged Linux or Windows machines with the power of your central server. If a user runs into a problem that seemingly "damages" his or her computer, simply reboot the virtual machine. No physical maintenance required -- ever. You can even create virtual servers.
Multple operating systems, reduced dependency on physical hardware, and a safer, more secure computing environment -- it's all made possible by virtualization.
Unleashing the Power of the Virtual Machine
VMware has a variety of products that use this virtualization concept to make various computing tasks easier. VMware Workstation is a popular virtualization tool that allows you to do many virtual tasks on a single desktop machine. But there are other, more specialized VMware tools that utilize virtualization, as well.
ESX Server allows you to create multiple virtual servers from a single physical server. Even though the virtual servers share physical resources, they each have their own independent processors, memory, networking, storage and BIOS -- with virtual servers, you can allocate computing requests to certain machines and delegate resources just like you would with multiple servers... except you only need one actual server. For you or your IT department, that means you've only got one physical piece of hardware to maintain -- if one of your virtual servers "fails", just throw it away and start up a new one in seconds.
VMware Lab Manager is a series of virtual test environments for software developers and QA teams. Testers build and crash systems all the time -- that's their job -- but the process is time consuming. Building a physical system for each prospective test environment, and then breaking it, and then rebooting it is a constant drain on productive testing. Virtualization, and Lab Manager specifically, eliminates these physical bottlenecks by providing easy to restore test environments in the form of virtual machines. Once QA crashes a test environment, they can save the status of the machine for others to view, and quickly start another. They can even test multiple environments (even on multiple operating systems!) at once.
Virtualization is fairly cutting edge, and VMware has a number of specialized products that are constantly evolving -- they even have a MacOS X product, called VMware Fusion, currently in beta that allows Mac users to run virtual Windows or Linux machines right in OSX. For more information on their products, check out http://www.VMware.com.
Here are some training courses that match this article:
VMware Infrastructure 3: Install and Configure
VMware Infrastructure 3: Operations
VMware Infrastructure 3: Overview
VMware Infrastructure 3: Fast Track Program
VMware Server
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