VMware Server runs on Windows or Linux, supports Windows and Linux and Solaris guests, and it's free. These are all nice qualities. About the only knock against it has been the absence of a centralized management system, and VMware filled that hole today.
VMware VirtualCenter for VMware Server is a stripped down version of the management system in VMware's enterprise platform, VMware Infrastructure 3 (VI3). In addition to host and VM resource monitoring, and the ability to start, stop, and suspend VMs across the network, VirtualCenter for VMware Server provides a VM library and cloning for rapid provisioning, and it allows you to set alerts on predefined events such as a CPU utilization threshold or a VM failure. It does not include the live VM migration capability found in VI3.
Of course, licensed at $1,500 for three physical, dual-processor servers (plus $400 per each additional host agent), VirtualCenter for VMware Server weighs in at about one-tenth the cost of VI3. The price point is more in line with Xen-based server virtualization offerings from Virtual Iron and XenSource.
According to VMware's Ben Matheson, director of product management, the new bundle is aimed at SMBs running 10 physical servers or more. Matheson said that, among the 1.2 million downloaders of VMware Server, about 70 percent have been SMBs -- companies with fewer than 1,000 employees or fewer than 100 servers.
The new offering suggests that VMware Server management tools might be integrated into VI3 soon. "We do recognize we need to get that functionality available," Matheson acknowledged. "We know when we plan to deliver it, but I don't know if I can talk about that."
Posted by Doug Dineley on February 5, 2007 03:00 AM
