[clue] VMWare question (and VMware Server EOL)

[Jim Ockers]

Hi Crawford,

OK to continue your tangent, what's better about KVM than ESXi5?

We've been playing with ESX bare metal and it's nifty, but I have 
noticed that the entire workflow and processes are designed to encourage 
vendor lock-in to VMWare, Inc. That is, once your stuff is in ESX it's 
kind of hard to get it back out if you ever wanted to switch to a 
different virtualization system.

Jim
-- 
Jim Ockers, P.E., P.Eng. (ockers at ockers.net)
Contact info: http://www.ockers.net/


Crawford Rainwater wrote:
> Richard:
>
> <side tangent>
> VMware Server v2.x reached "end of life" as of 30 June 2011 noted on VMware's web site at
>
> https://www.vmware.com/products/server/overview.html
>
> which I think I have mentioned on the CLUE list a few times if not also on other LUGs. ;-)
> </side tangent>
>
> For your particular situation though, I think Andrew and David W.'s comments though are valid as well in this situation since the VMware Converter can do "p2v" (physical to virtual) conversions/migrations.  There is also going via the CloneZilla method which I know of, but have never tried.  However, from my discussions with VMware staff on VMware Converter (circa ESX/ESXi 4 days), it is also a "shot from the hip" at times with Microsoft based systems due to similar reasons you are encountering.  Linux ETC has encountered similar with ESX/ESXi based usage as well (yes, I prefer KVM over ESX/ESXi, but that is another thread for another time ;-) ) where the VMware staff suggested just doing full system rebuilds and migrating application and data over later.  At least then it does work in full.
>
> HTH.
>
> --- Crawford
>
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