Re: [tlug] VMWare GSX Server

[Patrick Niessen <tlug.niessen@example.com>]

On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 11:54:00 +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull
<stephen@example.com> wrote:
> >>>>> "Patrick" == Patrick Niessen <tlug.niessen@example.com> writes:
> 
>     Patrick> No doubt that it is possible to run GSX on Gentoo, but
>     Patrick> its a matter of liability and safety.
> 
> OH MY GOD!!!!
> 

Stephen I think you have a theoretical point there.  Yes it is true
that one can work so hard and make it work in the end, but would it
not be nicer if it justs works?

The bad support situation you describe is for me the typical MS
situation.  Our HQ says we must use Windows, because of the support. 
In practice as sysadmin in a foreign branch office I have never
received any support from Microsoft.  Perhaps the outsourced service
company at home has such access and they really get help from them,
but over here I am on my own.

If you buy a product that costs 3,000 USD in a small company you want
to make sure that you can use it.  My objective is to save on
replacement cost for hardware, and provide partioning for potentially
unstable systems (like Exchange).  My mission is not to prove that GSX
 can work on 2.6.bleeding-edge-gentoo-kernel.  Basically VMWare tells
me that their system will run without major glitches on a number of
certified distros.  They also tell me how to make it work on those
specified distros.  The list of supported systems is pretty good and
includes commercial enterprise class distros as well as free distros.

My plan will include a mixture of windows system and unix system as
guest VMs.  The Linux Guest VMs will most likely be Gentoo systems.

I think most professional organisations work to standards.  This has
many benefits from a quality assurance point of view.  Are you against
standards?  I think they can be very useful.

My main point is not that I want to sue my vendor when things go
wrong.  I simply want to minimize the operational risk by removing
unnecessary uncertainty, and be able to write in and get the someone
on the other side to answer my enquiry, particularly in the initial
stage.  In case of Suse I bought Professional Boxed 8.1 and tried to
install it on an old Compaq server.  The installer exited, and Suse
install support refused help because The server was not a "normal
system" so would not be covered by the install support.  I got the
machine running half way decent after hacking around for 3 weeks.  I
do NOT wnat to repeat the experience. There is enough uncertainty
already: will the performance be enough, how about VMWare stability,
etc...

Patrick