VMware sends in the clones to ease testing

Picture perfect

Free IT resource Open Source Business Conference (OSBC) May 22-23, 2007 Sponsored by OSBC Free IT resource Virtualization Insights from Top Experts - Learn how virtualization gets real! Sponsored by Dell VMware Workstation 5 VMware, vmware.com Excellent  8.8 criteria score weight Flexibility 9 20% Manageability 9 20% Performance 8 20% Scalability 9 20% Setup 9 10% Value 9 10% Cost: $189 Platforms: Guest platforms: most major OSes, including various flavors of Windows, Red Hat Linux, Suse Linux, and NetWare. Host operating system support for Suse Linux; Mandrake Linux; Windows XP, Server 2000, and 2003; and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. 64-bit systems are also supported. Bottom Line: VMware's Workstation 5 creates virtual machines for testing migration, pre-deployed system images, code development, or OS security, all in a completely isolated, hardware independent environment. The only limits are system memory and disk space. Welcome improvements to this version include virtual machine clones, VM snapshots, and team capabilities, all at a ridiculously affordable cost. About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology

In past versions of Workstation, you could create only one snapshot. Version 5 allows for multiple snapshots, which enables you to save a virtual machine’s entire state at any given point in time to disk, including apps and configuration settings. After creating a series of snapshots, I was able to move forward or backward in time, choosing any snapshot as my current virtual machine. When I had a problem with one snapshot, I could revert to a previous one and see if the problem still existed. I could even create branches of snapshots so I could test different apps that were loaded before or after installing Service Pack 2 on XP, for example.

Snapshots are excellent for testing application and OS security vulnerabilities and patches. A welcome, graphically oriented snapshot manager displays all snapshots on a single screen as icons, along with their branches for easy navigation between virtual machines. The snapshot manager really helps keep track of all of the different snapshots and branches during testing, definitely a useful addition.

Another interesting and useful addition to Workstation 5 is teams, which allow two or more VMs to work as an isolated network segment, affecting only the other VMs within their team. Creating teams provides an excellent way to test multi-tier client server applications in an isolated, managed, and reproducible environment. In my tests, I created several clones and then put them together as a team. I was then able to tweak network environment settings to see the effects on each machine as I throttled up or degraded network performance.

Of course, you’ll need sufficient RAM and disk space to accommodate a running team, as the amount of memory available dictates how many VMs can run simultaneously. By leveraging VMware’s ESX technology, Workstation 5 better utilizes memory consumption. The two gigs of RAM on my Stratus server easily handled the half-dozen VM team members running at once.

Workstation 5 boasts several less important, albeit interesting and useful, additions. Among them is the ability to drag and drop files or directories from the host OS to a virtual machine. Admins also can create AVI movies within a virtual machine, which opens the possibilities for capturing errant applications in the act of collapsing, for training, or — my favorite — for recording WebEx sessions. The solution also now supports isochronous USB in a virtual machine, so peripherals such as Web cams, microphones, and speakers will now work, albeit slower than they would on their non-virtual counterpart.

Additionally, performance of this version seemed snappier, including faster suspend, resume, and powering a virtual machine on and off. VMware also adds command line options for scripting. VMware Workstation 5 can also import Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Virtual Server virtual machines into Workstation 5 VMs, easing VM migration.

VMware has squeezed a lot of useful new features into Workstation 5, making it very well-suited for individuals or departments who would otherwise find themselves reinstalling OS after OS for testing. Although you’ll need ample disk and memory to reap the full benefits of the solution, VMware Workstation 5 is well worth its minimal cost.