VMware Communities: FreeBSD as a Host

Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Oct 31, 2007 4:22 AM

in response to: Daniel A.

jpapi 1 posts since
Oct 31, 2007

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, ()).

Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Nov 7, 2007 5:07 AM

in response to: jpapi

accvi 2 posts since
Nov 7, 2007

+vote for FreeBSD as host.

Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Nov 18, 2007 1:10 PM

in response to: accvi

osde.info 829 posts since
Jan 25, 2005

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

Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Nov 22, 2007 9:03 AM

in response to: osde.info

accvi 2 posts since
Nov 7, 2007

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Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Nov 30, 2007 7:56 AM

in response to: accvi

klaudiuc 2 posts since
Sep 24, 2007

+ 1 vote, need FreeBSD as a Host

Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Dec 2, 2007 5:59 PM

in response to: klaudiuc

dercarstenhansen 1 posts since
Dec 2, 2007

+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!

Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Dec 6, 2007 12:28 PM

tenbase 1 posts since
Oct 12, 2007

another vote for FreeBSD as a supported host.

Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Jan 24, 2008 8:54 AM

in response to: tenbase

rhyous 9 posts since
Mar 21, 2007

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.

Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Feb 2, 2008 9:47 AM

majgis 1 posts since
Feb 2, 2008

Don't make us unleash Beastie!

+1 vote for FreeBSD as a host.

Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Feb 28, 2008 9:09 PM

RDino 1 posts since
Nov 21, 2007

+1 Vote for FreeBSD as a HOST too.

Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Mar 2, 2008 4:16 PM

in response to: RDino

z00mIn 2 posts since
Feb 6, 2005

Next 'FreeBSD as a host++' vote.

Any news on the subject ?

Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Mar 2, 2008 4:23 PM

in response to: z00mIn

z00mIn 2 posts since
Feb 6, 2005

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 ?

Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Mar 2, 2008 10:22 PM

in response to: z00mIn

markokobal 73 posts since
Aug 7, 2007

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.

Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Mar 3, 2008 1:39 AM

in response to: markokobal

submonkey 2 posts since
Dec 28, 2006

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

Reply Re: FreeBSD as a Host Mar 3, 2008 6:13 AM

in response to: markokobal

scfarley 6 posts since
Mar 15, 2006

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.

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