Introduction

VMware produces some of the coolest software available at least that s what I think and that s why I wanted to write a book about it. Virtualization has changed the way all of us think about servers and services, backup and restores, development and testing, and particularly operating systems and applications. Many in the industry believe that visualization will change the way most, if not all, IT shops operate and that in a few years a virtualized platform will be the platform upon which most new x86-based operating systems are deployed.

Before we get started with VMware s ESX Server, let s first review the history of VMware, the company. VMware was founded in 1998. It quickly delivered VMware Workstation in 1999. A few years later, in 2001, VMware delivered GSX Server and ESX Server, both of which brought VMware into the server world. In 2003, VMware began offering Virtual Center, which included VMotion. VMotion is an incredible awesome technology that allows you to move running virtual machines from one physical ESX Server to another without powering down the virtual server. We will discuss VMotion and Virtual Center in greater detail in Chapter 8.

VMware claims nearly 3 million registered users, and at the company s VMWorld user conference, VMware stated that 5 percent of x86-based servers now run on a VMware platform.

Like many, I first started using VMware as a test platform, running virtual machines to test patches, configuration changes, service packs, and so on, but then I attended the Microsoft 2003 TechED...