VMware Server vs VMware ESX/ESXi

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The story

At the beginning there were two enterprise solutions:

• GSX Server (Ground Storm) -> now VMware Server

• ESX Server (Elastic Sky) -> the first bare metal hypervisor

http://www.petri.co.il/forums/showthread.php?t=15206

Now the end of VMware Server 2 is near!

http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2010-0007.html

End of General Support for VMware Server 2.0 is 20 11-06-30, users should plan to upgrade to the newest release of either ESXi or VMware Player.

See also this post:

http://virtualization.info/en/news/2010/05/vmware-server-to-be-discontinued-by-june-2011.html

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VMware Server 2.x

New enhancements and functionality are listed below:

• New expanded operating system support

• 64-bit operating system support

• VMware Infrastructure (VI) Web Access management interface

• Independent virtual machine console

• More scalable virtual machines

• Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)

• Support for Virtual Machine Interface (VMI)

• Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI)

• Support for VIX API 1.6

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VMware vSphere

http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/buy/editions_comparison.html

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VMware Server vs VMware ESXi (and ESX)

http://www.vmware.com/products/server/faqs.html

	VMware Server	VMware ESXi
Architecture	Hosted	Hypervisor
Hypervisor type	Hybrid	Type-1 (bare metal)
OS Requirements	Windows or Linux	None
Typical Use Cases	Test & Dev, Production	Production, Test & Dev
Dedicated Server Required	No	Yes
Centralized Management Option	No	Yes
Ease of Use	High	High
Performance	Good	Best
Scalable to VMware Infrastructure	Easy	Easiest

See also:

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Virtualization software comparison

One of the most complete comparison (by ).

Include also VMware ESX/ESXi and VMware Server:

http://www.it20.info/misc/virtualizationscomparison.htm