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Networking: A Beginner's Guide
One of the nice features of VMware Server is that it is supported on a wide variety
of host operating systems, including many that are designed as client operating
systems. This means that you can install VMware Server onto, say, Windows Vista,
and then install the full range of guest operating systems within virtual machines. This
allows IT professionals to run a wide variety of operating systems, or to test various
operating system and application combinations, without even starting with a server
operating system.
VMware Server and ESXi require that they be installed on a computer that has a
processor capable of supporting virtualization. Fortunately, virtually every Intel or
AMD processor available these days supports virtualization. VMware Server can also
be installed onto either 32-bit or 64-bit processors. However, keep in mind that if you
want to install a 64-bit guest operating system in a virtual machine, the host operating
system must also be 64 bits.
VMware Server supports the following host operating systems:
Windows Server 2008 (64- and 32-bit)
Windows Server 2003 (64- and 32-bit, including Small Business Server)
Windows 2000 Server
Various 64- and 32-bit versions of Red Hat, SUSE, Ubuntu, Mandrake, and
Mandriva Linux operating systems (the detailed list of supported versions
changes, so consult VMware documentation for the version you wish to install)
VMware Server supports the following guest operating systems:
Windows Server 2008 (64- and 32-bit)
Windows Server 2003 (64- and 32-bit, including Small Business Server)
Windows 2000 Server
Windows Vista (64- and 32-bit)
Windows XP Professional (64- and 32-bit)
Mandrake, Mandriva, Red Hat, SUSE, openSUSE, Open Enterprise Server, and
Ubuntu Linux
Sun
Solaris
Novell
NetWare
As with the Hyper-V list, these are the supported operating systems. Variants, such
as other distributions of Linux, may work. For example, while writing this book, I had