OK, so I really haven’t done all my homework before trying to install a VMware trial of ESX server with Virtual Center. I am familiar with the concepts and ideas of virtualization as we have a MS virtual server running fine.
So when we installed the MS virtual server product, I was familiar with the concepts, and had experience using Virtual PC. The install on the MS product went well, didn’t require lots of rethinking and second tries, and I didn’t have to pay for it. I spent a few hours today trying to get all the parts of VMware up and running. After a ton of reading, it looks like the old server we tried to test this out on isn’t compatible. Apparently, you can’t allocate space for a virtual server on IDE drives. Parts of their docs to say you can’t use IDE for production environments, and the server does install on IDE drives. You just can’t create any virtual servers on IDE. I can’t blame them for that, but for testing purposes, why not?
We’ll see how it goes in a couple days. We’re getting a new server in which we can use for a week or two for a VMware test. I already purchased our licenses so I hope it goes well!
