VMware Communities: Message List - FreeBSD as a Host

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

JanMkl — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:33:44 GMT

Yep, you can ditch it and change to VirtualBox:
http://wiki.freebsd.org/VirtualBox

Jan

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

SterlingCamden — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:41:26 GMT

I hope they'll listen, otherwise I'm going to have to ditch VMWare.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

vmwareeval — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:31:24 GMT

LOL at this thread still going after almost 5 years!! I must have posted my "wish" a year or so ago.

Has anyone from vmware EVER commented in this thread??

(Don't get me wrong, I love their products, but this is really starting to look like a lost cause ... hopefully I am wrong)

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

SterlingCamden — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:13:11 GMT

I would buy FreeBSD as a host right now. Preferred 64-bit host OS, support for 64-bit and 32-bit guest OSes.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

flagel — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:32:12 GMT

I vote for this too!

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

flute2k3 — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:32:39 GMT

Will be highly appreciated by most of the BSD funs in this world, pls!

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

lexxmt — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:33:16 GMT

VMWare Workstaion 7 and Server for FreeBSD plz

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

AsherN — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:47:31 GMT

I somehow doubt that will happen. Even assuming that some deep dark parts of ESX are Linux based/inspired, The code has likely been modified beyond copyright recognition.

And who will sue VMware? You would need pretty deep pockets to sustain a suit like that, that would more than likely take years.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

petermurphy555 — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:20:30 GMT

I believe there is some hope for FreeBSD as a hosting platform. VMware is under the scrutiny of the Linux community, the core of the ESX product is reputedly Linux, but VMware claims its not. If it is finally determined that it is Linux based, they will legally have to release their source or move to a more intellectual property friendly O.S. (*BSD?). It makes more sense to me, from VMware's perspective, to develop their products under BSD licensing.

I'm not saying BSD licensing is better the GPL, but depending on the mindset of the company, one license lends itself better then the other depending on the circumstances. In the case of VMware BSD would solve alot of their possible impending legal woes.

Just my thoughts, btw I could be completely off track on this.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

scfarley — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:47:57 GMT

Just a note for those of us waiting* for VMWare to support FreeBSD as a host: VirtualBox has support in its trunk to be a decent replacement for Workstation. While some features are not complete, it is definitely usable on i386 and amd64 platforms.

More information about its status can be found on the FreeBSD wiki page.

*I am no longer waiting for VMWare.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

cforden — Mon, 04 May 2009 05:16:25 GMT

I bought a Workstation license for Windows. Now, because my Vista x64 machine is used by other family members to visit many websites with unknown business models, I want to run a stable, secure, easy-to-manage OS I can customize as needed, and run Microsoft OS's inside VMs, for surfing. I will make a point of keeping my financial-site VMs encrypted and shutdown while the game sites interact with other people's VMs, or even their VMs run at all. Various BSDs look attractive relative to Linux or Windows for security and stability. I was disappointed to see there was not even a link to a semi-supported or amateur-supported way of hosting WorkStation and Player on any BSD. Consider me a potential customer for a future BSD-hosted Workstation. I would understand if it had less SQA performed and was not always up-to-date with the latest BSD RELEASE. BSD tends to have less frequent change than Linux, so you would also save development and SQA time by supporting it, relative to Linux. I was impressed that VMWare advertised VMs as security solutions, but then surprised they never run on top of any BSD.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

malavon — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:46:34 GMT

If there was a *BSD version I wouldn't be messing trying to get Linux up and running on some malfunctioning server here at work (for some reason Linux doesn't get past it's boot loader but FreeBSD does).

Anyway, really, there is a huge support to have *BSD as a host machine in cases VMWare Infrastructure isn't an option. And I'm pretty sure it would be more stable on *BSD then it is on Linux.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

poohneat — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 18:09:59 GMT

I'd buy a FreeBSD version too.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

francisco1844 — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:16:58 GMT

I am running VmWare under OpenSuse, but if there was a virtualization product for FreeBSD I would jump at it.

If VirtualBox was made to work with FreeBSD I would drop OpenSuse and VMware for it.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

undergamer — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:35:55 GMT

I've purchased licenses for Workstation on Linux and WIndows and would definitely buy another one for FreeBSD if it were offered.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

freebsdrules — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:13:29 GMT

I believe I speak for tens of thousands of BSD users: VMWare can elect to spend what they must on product development and garner tens of thousands of loyal BSD customers, or they can elect not to spend what they must on product development and alienate tens of thousands of BSD users.

Let's face it, If I'm stuck between a rock and a hard-place, I'll use Parallels on Mac. It would mean using a BSD kernel and OS variant, but if VMWare steadfastly refuses to directly support FreeBSD, I'll gladly pay Parallels in favor of VMWare. If, on the other hand, VMWare were willing to expend the effort to port Fusion to FreeBSD (honestly, how big of a stretch can it be...?), then they would certainly collect my money.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

petermurphy555 — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:27:17 GMT

The description fbraqhetto gave is the creation of a virtual freebsd host not an ESX Freebsd host.

Regarding the thread though, I agree FreeBSD should be an option host OS. The real problem here is the Product Marketting folks don't visit the forum, and probably think FreeBSD is a linux distro. The support folks don't have the say in what OS will be the base for the product, though when I was at Mylex support I pushed hard for FreeBSD drivers and emailed the Product Managers frequently till they were willing to work with the Mike Smith to get FreeBSD support. It is possible from the support side to get it done, but there has to be someone with more then "hey its just a job" attitude to convince the the decision makers.

I'm not trying to insult the people at VMware, just trying to expose the problem.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

freegenie — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:42:26 GMT

Hi, can you explain better please? I'm new to this thread, I've just read some previous posts. Are you telling you can run vmware esxi on a FreeBSD as a host machine? Did you try with 32bit version? It seems you just tried with a RedHat option. Are you using that in a production environment?

Thanks

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

fbraghetto — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:41:29 GMT

Yes! It is possible.

In ESXi, I do select Redhat Enterprise 64bits 5.2.... and install FreeBSD 7.x 64bits (since the 32bits has a low perf in our lab).

Using redhat config, it´s possible to enable a virtual gigabit ethernet (em0) host.

And there is a vmware tools for BSD too.

Thank you

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

tom23 — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:17:39 GMT

i doubt they realize how many giants use freebsd out there, such as yahoo, MS, etc. they need to do a new poll of fortune 1000 companies. i myself would like FBSD-host as an option but doesn't seem like they know enough about the platfor to realize how big of a mistake not supporting this solid, solid OS really is.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

JanMkl — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:00:58 GMT

yet another vote for FreeBSD as a Host OS.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

jedinite0 — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 07:46:14 GMT

I would defintly purchase a copy of VMware Workstation for FreeBSD!

Is there any thought being put into it yet?

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

pavrda — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:18:18 GMT

I please for FreeBSD as host too. Using linux is limitation. Virtualization is these days important for us, but we are not so strong in linux as in freebsd. The question is what to kick from the game out either freebsd or vmware.

Jaroslav

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

rogerdk — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:53:21 GMT

Hi,

another vote for seeing FreeBSD as a host for VMWare!!!

I hope this day becomes soon!

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

redtreesystems — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:35:05 GMT

There has been fringe community support for *BSD as a host over time. We'd like to get that support back, and clearly we're not alone. BSD developers with time and ambition please email us at webmaster at red tree systems dot com. We will foot the bill or otherwise raise the funds to provide BSD support.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

priest.romeo — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:03:27 GMT

As many as it would be needed

As soon as VMware has great abilities and FreeBSD would be a great fast and reliable host OS for it, let's start a petition for starting to support BSD platform as a host OS. Actually I don't know what to begin with but may be one of yours who post here, know how?

P.S. If it would be avaliable I would buy at least 2 licenses for Persoanl and Enterprise usage for my Org (for BSD as host).

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

dlauder77 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:05:41 GMT

... and how many votes does it take? This thread is years old!

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

dlauder77 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:04:13 GMT

Another vote for FreeBSD... although that's just a roundabout way to get it on OpenBSD.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

thenorm — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:19:57 GMT

Would really love to see FreeBSD become a host. Know we would purchase a few licenses if that came about.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

mmxsaro — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:32:43 GMT

I'm an avid FreeBSD user and would love to see VMWare run on it. I'm ready to purchase a license right now.

Show me potato salad!

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

redtreesystems — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:24:02 GMT

Another voice for FreeBSD as the host. My company would definitely make the purchase of at least one license. We run three FreeBSD servers at the moment, and would love to see support from VMWare.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

apenisoara — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:53:30 GMT

Would like to be able to run VMWare host solutions (Server / Workstation) on FreeBSD, too. I've been using FreeBSD since 2.2.x and I have FreeBSD servers in production. Virtualization would be a big plus (like I was able to with VMware Workstation 3.x).

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

ejmarkow — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:51:17 GMT

Here is another vote for adding support for running VMware in FreeBSD as a host. Linux is not an option for me as it is much slower and less stable than FreeBSD is.

Prior to 3 months ago, I was a Windows XP user. Eventually, i wanted to experiment with Open Source Operating Systems after hearing and reading so much about them. So, I installed FreeBSD 7.0 on my amd 1000 / 256 meg RAM x86 machine using a KDE desktop. When using the internet, compiling C++ programs, and running applications, FreeBSD performs faster and is more stable than Windows XP. I am delighted and happy using FreeBSD for my everyday needs as a desktop.

If FreeBSD had the same volume of applications and games available for it that Windows has, plus flash and VMware, I'm not sure Windows would be around much longer. FreeBSD is an "unknown giant" and a very well kept secret in the OS market. More people should become aware of it. FreeBSD means performance and stability, even without a powerful machine. Even if the market share of FreeBSD users doesn't match that of the other OS's, it is a wise political move and smart future investment for VMware to support FreeBSD.

Please, FreeBSD as a host! Is VMware going to give us a reply as to whether this will become a reality? I am patiently waiting.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

cosmicboy — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:57:35 GMT

I have the same dilemma, choosing between Opens Suse 10.3 and FreeBSD 7.0, I vote for FreeBSD has a Host for VMWare

Down here in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, we have several customers that actually run FreeBSD in their production servers, but they are starting to use OpenSuse because they need VMWare right now for development reasons.

I would purchase a licencense when available, and convince ALL my customers to change to FreeBSD and purchase licenses too!!!

The OS stability and the experience I have with FreeBSD since FreeBSD 1.1.5.1 (1994) make it my OS for choice.

thanks in advance.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

rlaurie — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:04:34 GMT

I run a small web development company in the states. Two months ago we sat down and tested just about every OS we could get our hands on, looking for the perfect workstation environment for LAMP development. All of them had their pros and cons. We eventually settled between PC-BSD (FreeBSD) and Kubuntu (Linux).

PC-BSD / FreeBSD was actually the winner by far. KDE ran much much faster than on other Linux distros, the ports system works better for developers, we had less stability issues while testing all of the tools we typically use. We've come to the decision that PC-BSD with virtualization support for Windows and Linux - both for QA and for software packages like Adobe Creative Suite - is best suited for an agile development web development firm.

Unfortunately, we had to use our second choice, Kubuntu, because VMWare only supports Linux at the moment. However, after how impressed we were with PC-BSD and how well it meshed with our development process, we will certainly consider using an alternative to VMWare for our Windows and OSX support if a suitable one arises, despite how pleased we've been with VMWare in the past.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

cognos — Sat, 03 May 2008 00:34:14 GMT

Our shop runs twelve virtual servers on three hosts. We had to use Linux -- and learn to use Linux -- only because FreeBSD isn't supported as a host os. Our entire development cycle is dependent not only on FreeBSD, but also vmware.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

realtime_vmware — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:24:48 GMT

Another vote for FreeBSD as a host! I'd gladly pay to have VMWare running on my new FreeBSD7 AMD64 server.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

Partagos — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 05:24:08 GMT

I wonder if VMWare realizes how many linux users there are that switched to linux to use VMWare products that used to be *BSD users? I was one of them. I'd rather use FreeBSD as my main OS instead of Linux and a FreeBSD guest!

Count me as a FreeBSD host vote.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

ptankov — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:10:58 GMT

+ 1 vote, need FreeBSD as a Host

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

fangspeen — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:07:39 GMT

As far as I know Darwin (the BSD underlying MacOSX) is based on FreeBSD but uses a different kernel (Mach microkernel if I'm not mistaken) NeXtstep or Afterstep or something plays a role in the mix too but I'm realy not too sure about that...

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

JaroF — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:55:52 GMT

A support for FreeBSD host for Vmware would be great!

I think that quite some licenses bought for Linux or Windows would actually be for FreeBSD ... ..

Isn't actually MAC OSX based on BSD and has vmware Fusion?

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

vmwareeval — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:58:10 GMT

I would also like to see a FreeBSD Host for VMware as well.

PS VMware is a fabulous product! This addition would make it unbeatable. Thanks

(If you have a Beta, please let me know when and where to sign up)

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

fangspeen — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:00:59 GMT

Same here I would also rather run FreeBSD as a host for my virtual machines

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

uobpjrC0SrAGQxoM3iBHHQD2 — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:30:35 GMT

I also prefer to use FreeBSD hosts over Linux. I would very much like to be able to run VMware Workstation on FreeBSD hosts.

FreeBSD is also supported with binary video card drivers by nVidia for example. So video performance for people with nVidia cards is great (I wish those drivers were OSS, but hey, my work laptop use a nVidia card).

I prefer UNIX like OS for my day to day work and use VMware Workstation 6 on my desktops to run Windows. I only use Linux as a host for VMware Workstation because I have to. If I had a choice, it would be FreeBSD.

So this is another vote for FreeBSD!

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

OLEGRPG — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:59:16 GMT

Please make FreeBSD as a host system its better like Linux

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

flitcraft33 — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:57:11 GMT

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, so I apologize if I am in the wrong spot. I would like to see VMWare run on OpenBSD. I suppose if it runs on FreeBSD, it can probably be coerced to run on Open.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

Mikkel C — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:14:43 GMT

I would like this very much too.

I'm already using VMware albeit only the foundation package.

I would like to upgrade to Enterprise but it's never gonna happen as long as all the enterprise features aren't guaranteed to work with freebsd.

Official support for FreeBSD really is needed from that perspective.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

eclayp — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:04:25 GMT

Count me in as well for having a FreeBSD host

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

genestark — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 21:01:53 GMT

Another vote for FreeBSD as a host.

I had used VMWare2 on older versions of FreeBSD. I didn't realize that current VMWare doesn't

run on current FreeBSD, and today as part of a system upgrade I tried getting a VMWare evaluation

license for VMWare6. Dead in the water!

If VMWare would support FreeBSD hosts, I would buy a license immediately.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

scfarley — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:13:45 GMT

The lack of FreeBSD foundation and FreeBSD developers to cooperate with VMware and give their effort to porting VMware Server to FreeBSD - VMware can't do it by itself - and FreeBSD foundation and FreeBSD developers should make some moves to, but they aparently do not.

I was unaware they had even asked anyone for help. VirtualBox (now owned by Sun) is asking for help on their forum. QEMU and its kernel module run on FreeBSD at this moment.

...also push to the FreeBSD foundation and FreeBSD developers to try cooperate with VMware a little bit closer and give theri 5 cents

People in the FreeBSD community raised a bounty (http://www.rsync.net/resources/notices/2007cb.html) to have someone port VMware 6 to FreeBSD. Hopefully, VMware is helping behind the scenes. It would be nice to see at least native binaries from VMware. I am sure that would make it easier to port the kernel module.

For VMware's sake, they better hurry with the porting effort before Sun passes them. If I have a mix of servers, why would I want to have VirtualBox on the FreeBSD systems and VMware on the others? I would eventually replace VMware with VirtualBox to make it easier to maintain. Personally, I run QEMU but will give VirtualBox a try once it is working on FreeBSD.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

submonkey — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:39:21 GMT

markokobal wrote:

- the lack of FreeBSD foundation and FreeBSD developers to cooperate with VMware and give their effort to porting VMware Server to FreeBSD - VMware can't do it by itself - and FreeBSD foundation and FreeBSD developers should make some moves to, but they aparently do not.

If they want help, all they need to do is mail core@freebsd.org and ask them to find a developer.

Ceri

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

markokobal — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:22:23 GMT

Hi,

It is not likely that VMware is going to release an version of VMware Server to be installable on FreeBSD host. The two major reasons that has also been pointed out between the lines at the VMware World Europe 2008 conference:

analysts got it out that the return of investment would be an long period, because of the minority in FreeBSD users comunity - let's face it - enterprise IT environments and big data centers are run mostly on Linux and Windows machines, althrough FreeBSD is most probably better even in such environments (especialy now when FreeBSD 7.0 got the superior SMP scheduler for multi-way SMP);

the lack of FreeBSD foundation and FreeBSD developers to cooperate with VMware and give their effort to porting VMware Server to FreeBSD - VMware can't do it by itself - and FreeBSD foundation and FreeBSD developers should make some moves to, but they aparently do not.

And well, there are other reasons to - no product of the key players in virtualizations (VMware, Xen, xVM, MS Virtual PC) does NOT have the support to run FreeBSD as host for their virtual machine server - even more - VMware is the only one, that has an stable and solid support for the FreeBSD to run as guest virtual machine. So the lack of competition is also something that VMware keeps in their minds, too.

It is sad, I too wan't the FreeBSD be able to run VMware Server as host, but I guess we will just have to wait a little bit longer, push even harder to VMware to convince them that the return of investment would be big enough and also push to the FreeBSD foundation and FreeBSD developers to try cooperate with VMware a little bit closer and give theri 5 cents.

Kind regards, Marko.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

z00mIn — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:23:42 GMT

This thread was started on Dec 11, 2004 8:15 AM and has 8 pages on the forum so far, that's s probably more than 100 posts in 3 1/2 years or so. There might be people posting more than once, but even then, this should show VMWare that there is some genuine interest in the matter - and some business opportunity!

And don't forget: Whenever a system admin has an OS choice - he or she will sooner or later come to FreeBSD. Isn't that the perfect target audience ?

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

z00mIn — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:15:51 GMT

Next 'FreeBSD as a host++' vote.

Any news on the subject ?

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

RDino — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:09:19 GMT

+1 Vote for FreeBSD as a HOST too.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

majgis — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 17:46:05 GMT

Don't make us unleash Beastie!

+1 vote for FreeBSD as a host.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

rhyous — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:53:04 GMT

VMWare has the following goals and maybe more:

Increase revenue for the company and the stock holders.
Obtain dominance in he market for virtual environment
Be able to pay and keep employees (especially developers and sales reps) working hard and happy.

Vmware is not going to spend the money to port VMWare to FreeBSD unless it is going to increase those goals and their other main goals.

FreeBSD has a large community and big following. The ability to run something like ESX on FreeBSD Server and VMWare workstation on a FreeBSD Desktop (such as PC-BSD and DesktopBSD, or a custom desktop) would be enough to barely make money. So at first glance, it makes money but just barely, so why do it?

The FreeBSD community is very loyal as well, and the first virtual company that hits FreeBSD as a host will probably be revered by the BSD Community.
Remember, the BSD Community is made up of the people that work as administrators for the large companies VMWare is trying to target. Usually they are actually TOP administrators with a lot of clout. So by being in with the FreeBSD community, you are getting in with a lot of other potential business.
Make FreeBSD a supported host would increase sales probably as much as last years advertising because doing so would probably cause as much "buzz" advertising for free as you got with your entire advertising budget last year. This 'buzz' would be occurring amongst the top administrators in the industry. So about that part of barely making money...yeah, now that you see it this way, that simple act could do as much or more than last years advertising did to increase revenue.
Preparing for the future. Lets face it, as open source Operating Systems become easier to use, such as PC-BSD, they are going to eventually take over the market, because no one is going to pay for something they can get for Free. In many ways PC-BSD is better than Windows already though many do not know it yet.

As soon as some Marketing guru realizes this, they would probably drive this feature through development.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

tenbase — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:28:29 GMT

another vote for FreeBSD as a supported host.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

dercarstenhansen — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:59:09 GMT

+1 for FreeBSD as host OS. Linux is not an option.

I am playing with (not so awesome) Open Source alternatives at the moment, would immedialtely buy 1 for home and several for work if available!

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

klaudiuc — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:56:45 GMT

+ 1 vote, need FreeBSD as a Host

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

accvi — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 17:03:49 GMT

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Re: FreeBSD as a Host

osde.info — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:10:19 GMT

22,000 votes so far ! so could vmware please tell us how many MORE votes they need ! is it 10,000 ? 100,000 ? more ?

regards
clive (aka osde.info)
http://www.vizzr.info

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

accvi — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 13:07:43 GMT

+vote for FreeBSD as host.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

jpapi — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:22:27 GMT

Vote: FreeBSD as host OS for VMware.

We are looking for running VMware on FreeBSD as host OS too.

It is a better solution for us to run FreeBSD as server, because of stability in heavy load/ performace.

Linux is the better solution for home use, not for DataCenter/ production / background OS.

(now it is difficult to set up VMware on FreeBSD, ()).

Re: FreeBSD as a Host / service console

SecurityAdmin — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 23:09:55 GMT

VMWares Virtualization Kernel is not Linux, but the thing that moves it is a Linux variant and certainly not bare metal. Try typing uname a from the console of your ESX machine.

The Virtualization Kernel is booted by a Linux bootstap and controlled by a Linux VM

What Im worried about as a Security Consultant is that my ESX server (service console of ESX server) is vulnerable to the same threats Linux is. Until 3.x, thats going to be the case. Really the only way to be comfortable with ESX is if its management interface is on an entirely different subnet or VLAN.

But, youre right ESX is not a Linux host, its a vmkernel host with a Linux management interface and a Linux bootstrap.

The vmkernel may be the head, but Linux is still the neck,

-Brian
Brian J. Brandon
Network Security Consultant
Los Angeles, California

(Omitted)

Links used in reference:
http://www.vmware.com/download/esx/esx201-8045update.html
http://www.vmware.com/download/esx/esx20-7483update.html
http://www.vmware.com/download/esx/esx-252-200512-patch.html

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

SecurityAdmin — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 23:57:32 GMT

deleted

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

Daniel A. — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:48:07 GMT

Another desperate cry for FreeBSD support here.

We use vmware extensively, and wish to use FreeBSD as host OS because FreeBSD to us is a strongly "proven" OS which we are sure will give us the manageability and availability that we require.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

jrdnyquist — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:19:40 GMT

Another vote for FreeBSD as HOST OS. We will buy licenses immediately following release.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

gwolfbsd — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 21:11:24 GMT

I would also like to voice my support for FreeBSD as a host O/S. We purchased a VMware workstation for linux license that we don't use after discovering that it could take more time to port over than it is worth. So that is REAL money that has been spent on VMware for use with FreeBSD. Not to mention the potential support $$.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

jerel — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:18:28 GMT

I'm skeptical that this will ever come to fruition, especially with the announcement of ESX 3i. They definitely won't need another kernel for that product now and I'm betting that VMware Server doesn't make them a whole lot of money. The product itself being free but some people pay for support and for the VirtualCenter license for it. I'm not real sure how much Workstation really costs but the amount of people who would run that on FBSD is probably pretty minimal, a few hundred MAYBE. I'm still holding out hope for this, I think VMware Server as a port in FBSD would be very nice. We'll see.

Jerel

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

stevieg — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:33:01 GMT

My vote's cast too - Main thing keeping my laptop Windows XP is VMWare workstation. I've been waiting for this for years. You will see from my linked account we are long time ESX customers, you would get more business from us if you supported FreeBSD.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

sdreher — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 22:57:57 GMT

Me too. We currently have ESX populating a blade chassis and virtualcenter... and we got the bucks.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

FBSD Fat — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:33:17 GMT

I hereby formally register my vote for some FreeBSD lovin'.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

roy2098 — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 13:35:37 GMT

Yet another vote for FreeBSD as host. I manage dozens of servers, 99% of them FreeBSD for all the obvious reasons. We don't necessarily run *BSD because it's "free," we run it because it is BETTER. Surely this world would pony up the bucks for quality virtualization software...and the *BSD world may be quite a bit larger than you imagine. Finally, if licensed properly, you would find yourself getting boatloads of help from the broader community.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

AbuBasim — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 05:23:48 GMT

The following paragraph is from the Guest Operating System Installation Guide at http://pubs.vmware.com/guestnotes/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=guestnotes&file=guestos_freebsd60.html

Guest Screen Saver
On a FreeBSD host with an XFree86 3.x X server, it is best not to run a screen saver in the guest operating system. Guest screen savers that demand a lot of processing power can cause the X server on the host to freeze.

"FreeBSD host"???

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

Andrew___E — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:28:07 GMT

I manage dozens of freebsd servers and 0 linux and I'd prefer to keep it that way. If I can have freebsd under the hood monitoring the system and vmware running windows that would be fantastic. I'm not certain about most people but once you've spent years developing scripts creating app's to monitor raid controllers, temp sensors etc. to have to then do it again for linux is a huge waiste of resources and I'd rather spend the $$ to buy vmware server on bsd than redevelop apps.

Lets go VMWare and provide us with a freebsd server product.

Also on a related note, there are many performance improvements coming up with freebsd7 running multi-core systems that far excede linux under high load scenarios. You guy's would be crazy to not take advantage of those improvment gains to help sell vmware. Look at this for a very good reason why vmware should support freebsd
http://people.freebsd.org/~kris/scaling/mysql.html

I'm sure someone would love to compare performance of vmware on freebsd7 vs linux if one could

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

hai — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:40:52 GMT

Yes, I am interested too.

Heiko

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

dinoex — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 13:45:15 GMT

We would be very interested in moving from VMware Workstation to FreeBSD.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

flashone — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:22:13 GMT

I'll will purchase several VMWare workstation license if it will be available for FreeBSD.

I need it to run several versions of OS on the same system for mostly development purposes.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

lrosenman — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 20:20:25 GMT

I would also be VERY excited to see FreeBSD 6/7 available as a HOST OS for VMWare Workstation as well as VMWare Server.

I have a big FreeBSD7 box that my hope was to be able to virtualize a bunch of stuff. That can't happen until/unless VMWare supports FreeBSD as a HOST.

I'm also a VERY big FreeBSD advocate.

What do we (the FreeBSD community) need to do to get support from VMWare?

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

markokobal — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:35:13 GMT

It is obvious that this isn't an "mission impossible"

Of course not. However, realize that each additional thing given formal Support requires more resources TO support it!

Sure ... I get that. I'm well aware it's all about companies politics and economy. The point is - political and economical athmosphere is ready to go for this move ...

Besides ... you can never know ... sometimes when you ignore some specter of the market (like in this case is doing VMware with FreeBSD comunitiy) it someday may strike back ... and the competition runs you flat ...

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

imacamper — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:29:57 GMT

If VMWare was available for FreeBSD, we'd buy many licenses. Linux is just too unpredictable and unorganized for our comfort level. Until VMWare is available for FBSD, our organization will continue using other solutions.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

RDPetruska — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:22:29 GMT

It is obvious that this isn't an "mission impossible"

Of course not. However, realize that each additional thing given formal Support requires more resources TO support it! Additional Tech Support, addition QA support, potentially longer test cycles, et. al. And any business must weigh the tradeoffs between additional products/revenue and additional costs (in money and in time-to-market) such things bring.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

markokobal — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:16:50 GMT

Hi,

Seeing other organizations and companies developing support for FreeBSD as the Host operating system (VirtualBox ...) is just another proof and reason that VMware should make some move. It is obvious that this isn't an "mission impossible", but just an logical step in making the product ready to what people demands of it...

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

scfarley — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 16:37:17 GMT

I have been waiting for awhile for FreeBSD host support. QEMU is OK and may get better. I also see that development has begun for VirtualBox to run on FreeBSD. If it is comparable in speed to VMWare, I will begin to use it here at work instead of the VMWare Workstation I currently run. I think there are a few other developers who are interested in VirtualBox as a VMWare replacement.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

caioabecia — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 12:50:30 GMT

Please add my vote for FreeBSD support too!

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

kingneutron — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:30:15 GMT

--I've sent a PM** to a couple of Teh Higher-Ups; they know...

** (with a link to This Thread)

// there was some noise about getting the Prime Minister(?) $involved(?)

/// they can't comment or speculate on company direction, but they're "gauging the interest level" -- so CONTINUE TO SPEAK UP

Message was edited by:
kingneutron

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

markokobal — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 06:18:19 GMT

Hi,

Indeed this is an important fact - usage of VMware on FreeBSD mostly for server virtualization - as not many of us is using freebsd for desktops, but in the servers world freebsd is highly rated and widely used. So there should realy be some movement in the VMware development to produce an version of Server and Workstation to be run on freebsd as host operation system.

C'mon ... people want this (as it is obvious through this forum thread and from other similar discusions), so I realy don't understand the VMware compay why they don't want some extra money - not to mention the "political" bonus as WMware would gain quite some extra people to their platform (as the competition is still strong - MS Virtual, XEN...).

I'm still waiting for someone from VMware company to give some comentary about this issue...

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

dpoland — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:51:50 GMT

I would buy VMWare today were it available on FreeBSD. As it is now, we run the free player and server versions on Windows.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

ovidiue — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:56:34 GMT

I would buy a VmWare for FreeBSD. If would be interesting for me even a linux version that would work on freebsd (some linux binaries works on freebsd using a library).

You must see the usage of vmware on freebsd not only for freebsd desktops, indeed few people use it on desktop...... but on servers...... vmware is good for virtualization.... and a lot of big companies uses freebsd for their servers

best regards,
ovidiu

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

freebsd42 — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:19:41 GMT

Many of us would like to see FreeBSD as host OS for VMware. If there would
be enough of us to push on the VMware company, maybe someday this could
actualy happen. Please support FreeBSD as a VMware host.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

dui — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:17:13 GMT

I, as well, would purchase a license if it were made available on FreeBSD. I have a rather large workstation running FreeBSD. I currently own a license for Windows running on my laptop.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

Pollywog — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:08:12 GMT

On my laptop, FreeBSD also runs faster than Linux (Kubuntu Feisty).
I would buy VMware Workstation (I have used it in Linux) if it were available for FreeBSD.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

markokobal — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 11:22:45 GMT

Hi,

Have now read the whole thread ... It has been years since people is begging VMware company to support FreeBSD 6 as HOST operating system .... and still nothing has happend.

I would realy like to hear someone from VMware company if they are at least thinking about this kind of support?

In my company we would definitly buy several licenses for VMware Workstation if it would be supported to install on FreeBSD 6 as host.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

aetm — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:09:38 GMT

One more vote.

I've got Fusion on the Macs, and have to use XP on the corporate environment on a Dell just for a few programs. I wish I could just install FreeBSD and run Workstation with it to deal with the Windows side, as that's for a Mac / nix geek the most comfortable and stable choice. Of the available options I think I'll go with Ubuntu - but if FreeBSD or any BSD would be an option, I'd go that all the way.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

neojedi — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:12:53 GMT

Count my vote as well. I would be very interested in purchasing FreeBSD VMWare licenses. I have no licenses at present and will not run Linux for stability reasons.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

conradsia — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 10:27:43 GMT

bump!

We still need BSD as a host.

#conrad

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

wquux — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 01:38:24 GMT

Add me as another vote for (and strong potential buyer of) VMware products allowing any of the BSD's as host.

I currently have VMware running on Windows and Linux hosts, but would be quite happy to migrate those to BSD, which I consider to be operationally more stable, secure, and maintenance free.

Thanks!

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

buckwho — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:59:41 GMT

I would buy a Workstation license today if Workstation supported FreeBSD or OpenBSD as the host OS.

Re: FreeBSD as a Host

jeff-delasco — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:14:03 GMT

I am researching options prior to purchase and what I thought was a slam dunk has turned in to more of a fizzle.

Ok, this is crazy. VMWare needs to support the BSDs, namely FreeBSD as a "supported" guest. I know that I can run it, but why in the world would I spend the $$ when the OS I want to run as a guest is not officially sanctioned by vmware?

Have I missed an announcement somewhere? I've searched the site and the forum but I don't see FreeBSD 6.2 listed as a supported guest and there are people calling for it be used as a host? Maybe we should focus on trying to get vmware to fully support it as a guest, then it would seem to a smaller jump to host.

If vmware( VI3) officially supports FreeBSD 6.2, please, please point me to the URL -- and put me on the FreeBSD as a host list. If not, how about joining me in asking vmware to start officially supporting FreeBSD as a guest?