Every day Virtualization

This post is targeted mainly towards students and regular computer users. Its all about uses of Virtualization in our daily life. I will highlight specific VMware products that can be used to simplify our every day computing needs.

Lets see a few scenarios/problems where Virtualization has provided some interesting solutions:

1. Use of multiple OS - Running multiple OSs has become a part of daily activities among students and computer professionals. All those who have tried to configure multiple OS on one machine would know that it is not an easy task. Creating partitions and installation is one thing, if something goes wrong in the process then we are in a soup. Even if we do succeed in setting up the OSs, can we run all of them at once, share files, switch to a different OS in an instant or change disk space and other configurations on the fly? The answer is NO. Well the good news is that we don't need to do all that any more. Partitions and dual boots are things of the past.
Solution: Virtualization. VMware provides some desktop Virtualization products that can be installed on the Windows OS and in turn can create virtual machines with any OS you want. VMware supports more than 40 different OSs. Interesting part is that these software are FREE. We will see in this post what are those software and theirs uses.

2. Portability: Ever felt the need to share your work or show case your project in a different computer or environment and it doesn't have the OS you are looking for? Traditionally one would need to replicate the same environment by setting up the different partitions, OS and custom settings on the new machine. But with Virtualization we can carry the entire virtual machine (Complete OS, all the applications and the data in it) in one single file in a USB stick and run it on the new machine just like any other application. We will see how we can do that with VMware products.

3. Security: How many times did you install something that screwed up your system and may be even made you reinstall windows? Or some program you were never able to uninstall? Copied a file with virus and was never able to clean/remove it? Well these problems are passe now. You can create snapshots (save the state of OS in the form of a file) of the Virtual machines at any point of time and revert back to the previous snapshot when something goes wrong. Lot of corporates use this feature to test their software on Windows. E.g. if QA finds any bugs in their software, instead of developers trying to reproduce the bug, the complete virtual machine is sent over to the Developers.

Well the advantages are not limited to the above points but lets get into the the crux of our discussion - VMware implementation and see the means of achieving these benefits.

VMware hosted products: - These products need a host OS to run on like Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac.
VMware Server (FREE):
This software installs on Windows OS just like any other Windows application. Once it is installed, Virtual Machines can be created with the amount of memory, disc space, OS of your choice. The FREE version can be downloaded at: http://www.vmware.com/download/server/

Once the VM (Virtual Machine) is created (and booted) it acts like a complete OS in itself. In the console view, things can be seen exactly the way it would appear in an OS loaded on the hardware directly.

How does it work? Well that's the magic of VMware, it makes the Windows think it is running just another Windows application but it is in fact running a complete OS. Once you get your hands dirty with VMware products, you can figure out how to share files between the OS in the VM and the host OS or even among the VMs. There is no need to partition the discs or dual boot as the new OS runs on top of windows like any other Windows application. The number of OSs that can be run on our Windows is only limited by the memory and disc space we have. VMware can support any number of VMs.

Once our VM is up and running, we can practice or do projects in the new OS. When its time to show it or share it on other computers/environments the entire VM i.e., the new OS along with all the applications and data loaded into it, can be loaded into a USB stick. This can be done by just copying the ".vmdk" file of the VM. Each VM has a vmdk file associated with its name that stores the OS, all its application and data into just this one file. Amazing isn't it. This VM can also be played on any other machines that have VMware products installed.

One important feature of VMware server is the snapshot feature. It can save an instance of a VM with the new OS and all its programs in a snapshot. We can name our snapshots and create a tree structure of those snapshots. The coolest part is that we can traverse this tree as we want, e.g. soon after a VM installed-OS is created, say Linux, we can save a snapshot called 'LinuxOnly' then go ahead and install all the software we want and save another snapshot say 'LinuxLoaded'. For example if Linux gets corrupted while installing an application, there is no need of reinstalling the OS again. We can just revert to the earlier snapshot - 'LinuxOnly'. This feature is similar to Windows Restore but is much more efficient and without any risk of data loss. We can even record and replay our actions on the VM. You can find the latest news about VMware Server at http://www.vmware.com/products/server/

VMware Player (FREE):
This is very similar to VMware server minus the functionality to edit or configure the VM. In other words, it can just play a ready made VM but cannot create or edit it. You can compare VMware player to Real Player, real player can play movies but cannot create one, similarly VMware player can play VMs but cannot create them. This is a very light-weight software. People who do not want to create or edit VMs, but just want to run them, then VM Player is THE thing.

VMware Player can be downloaded for FREE at http://www.vmware.com/download/player/

We can Google for ready made VMs of any Open Source OS. It is indeed surprising to see how many people/enterprises have shared their VMs for free. Also, different FREE virtual appliances from various companies can be found at http://www.vmware.com/appliances/. But be sure to search for FREE hosted VMs.

VMware Workstation:
This is can be viewed as an extended version of the VMware Server. VMware Server is for the average user but Workstation is typically for an IT Profession. It has all the bells and whistles, tools needed for the Developer community. If you are a software professional dealing with multiple OS, I strongly suggest you to take a look at VMware workstation. This is the first product of VMware, it is very mature and has been there in the market for around 10 years now. It used to be called GSX. Only recently a downsized version of it was released to the general public in the name of VMware Server, for FREE. You can download VMware Workstation at http://www.vmware.com/go/buyworkstation

Students aspiring to be Developers will also find it quite amusing. But they don't have to worry about the cost as VMware gives a good discount to students on the Workstation at http://www.vmware.com/vmwarestore/academicstore.html

VMware Fusion:
You have a Mac and a PC (Windows) but have trouble sharing files? You own a Mac but missing Windows? Or planning to use a Mac but cannot move away from your Windows applications? You don't have to worry about it any more. With VMware Fusion, a Mac can run any Windows OS. Fusion is very similar to VMware Server in terms of functionality, the only difference is that Fusion sits on a Mac instead of Windows. People even say that new VMware Fusion 2.0 runs Windows better on a Mac than regular Windows. I havent tried it yet but guess its true, as it makes use of the powerful Apple hardware.

You can download the latest version of VMware Fusion at: www.vmware.com/go/buyfusion

It is not a free product but for all the convenience it offers for the Mac users, I think the price is well worth it. But if you are a student, you can get a hefty discount on Fusion at http://www.vmware.com/vmwarestore/academicstore.htmlThere are lot of programs targeted towards students, including sharing costly resources for projects. More details can be obtained at http://www.vmware.com/partners/academic/usage.html

If you haven't got your hands wet with Virtualization, the FREE VMware products listed above are a good start. Dont forget to vist www.vmware.com for the latest news about these products and more.

So what are you waiting for, go virtual...go VMware.

Please let me know what you think of this post. Any suggestions/comments about the current post or any ideas for future posts are welcome.

~ Kiran Malla

Resistance is futile...you will be Virtualized

Reference: www.vmware.com

Disclaimer:

The information put here may not be entirely accurate. Any information that is found incorrect or incomplete is not a deliberate effort and can be considered as my limitation of knowledge on this topic. The views expressed here are entirely personal and are not directed towards any particular person or company. Any inaccuracies can be highlighted in the comments so that the article can be corrected after a fact check. All the Virtualization products discussed in the article are related to VMware Inc. only as I have knowledge about those products. There could be other Virtualization products available in the market that could do the same or a better job than the applications discussed in this article.