Is Workstation the only container available from vmware?

[Dave_the_Wave]

Is Workstation the only container available from vmware?

I mean, there is no ESX for Windows, right?

Long ago there was vmware GSX server container for Windows, which probably ended when Microsoft started dabbling with HyperV.

I really don't want to nest ESXi inside a Workstation.

Assuming Workstation is the only container for Windows, can it be managed with vCenter? and allow for vMotion and all?

[daphnissov]

Not sure what you mean by "container" in this instance, but yes, VMware Workstation is the only hypervisor product on Windows. It cannot be managed from vCenter and cannot participate in vMotion operations.

[Dave_the_Wave]

A container is anything that isn't a bare-metal hypervisor.

It's why ESX, ESXi is so favored among many over its years. It never had to exist inside a Windows OS that is constantly being patched and bugfixed.

Just how nasty is it to nest ESXi inside Workstation? I understand that is done for labs training, but how well does it or does not work?

[daphnissov]

A container is anything that isn't a bare-metal hypervisor.

The term for this is type-2 hypervisor. Whereas ESXi is a type-1 hypervisor (i.e., it runs directly on bare metal as the operating system), Workstation and Fusion require coordination of the calls for virtual machines to be interpreted and scheduled through an underlying OS.

Just how nasty is it to nest ESXi inside Workstation? I understand that is done for labs training, but how well does it or does not work?

It works and isn't necessarily terrible, although just like everything else your mileage may vary...greatly. It's generally more successful to nest ESXi within ESXi, and there are far more articles out there that can guide you successfully through that process.

[continuum]

GSX unfortunately was discontinued although it was the best Workstation ever. RIP
Running nested ESXi is only good for learning vSphere-administration.
Do not even consider to use nested VMs in ESXi in Workstation for production !