Where do you get the 2.5 client? We own VI3 Enterprise, so I can access VirtualCenter and the latest version of that is 2.0.2 Update 1. That also gets you the client--I don't see any place to download just an updated client.

Joe

Well, I didn't try it yet but the prospect of having a default Web interface for such a product is a bad omen. I believe this should be provided as an option and shouldn't be forced on users. The size of the program compared to other alternatives is also worrying. I'm watching how VMWare products get more bulky each new version and I don't like it. I would like a streamed product with stability and good virtual hardware support but it seems to be going the other way arround.

Well, I didn't try it yet but the prospect of having a default Web interface for such a product is a bad omen. I believe this should be optional and not installed by default. I'm also worried by the size of the product that with each new version is duplicated. I don't see a related (and justified) increase in functionality or stability and so I regard it as plain bulkiness. I always liked VMWare for their products but with each new version I like them less and I see other alternatives appearing in the market that might take the lead if they understand that users want a good virtualization platform above all else (like a Web Interface).

See, I lost this test two times trying to post it here... Should we expect the same results from the Web interface for VMWare Server 2?

I feel compelled to put my opinion in about the Web UI.

I have been using the Server 1.x versions since they were beta and also WorkStation in production.

The Web UI is OK for some cases, but should be optionally left out, with the Client App kept in.

The slim client is fast and best for development machines where Guess OSes are used for configuration testing. The web server is too much of a resource hog to have constantly running on my development machine.

I just un-installedServer2 beta and went back to 1.x, and have no plans to upgrade again while the Web UI is not optional.

Please, make the Web Server optional, and bring back the Client app.

my $0.02, thanks

Just wanted to add my voice to the general discontent with the removal of the native console. I think it's a great interface, reliable, and far less finicky then anything running in a web browser is likely to be. Have I tried the new interface yet? No. But it can only be as stable as the browser which contains it, and I think that most browsers are not exactly known for rock-solid stability at this point. Tying the stability of your interface to your virtual machines to a third-party product like that doesn't seem to be a great move to me. I frequently use Windows full-screen for hours running in the VMware Server Console on my Linux laptop right now, and it works great. I seriously doubt a similarly good experience can be achieved running inside a browser.

If 2.0 removes that as an option, I'll give the web interface a fair shot. But if the experience is what I expect, I will likely be sticking with 1.0.x as long as possible and then probably looking for an alternative virtualization solution.

David Brewer
Second Story Interactive Studios

I think that you misunderstand. I'm not disputing whether 1 browser instance can manage all my guests; I'm saying that if I have multiple VMWare servers, I am required to run multiple instances of the Tomcat software so I can manage my virtual machines. Here's a little comparison:

VMWare Server 1.0.4:

ps aux | grep vmware-serverd
root 6027 0.2 0.2 18264 16068 ? Ss Nov12 5:41 /usr/sbin/vmware-serverd

VMWare Server 2.0 Beta 1:

ps aux | grep vmware-hostd
root 3457 0.0 0.6 136572 38112 ? Ssl Nov12 0:03 /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-hostd -a -d /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml

So...18KB...130MB...for some people that is an extra guest instance on their host server. I know I run some guests in 128MB RAM.

Regards,

Tren