Virtual Server 2005R2SP1 vs. WMware Server 1.0.3

I want to run 2 virtual servers. One IIS server, and another Apache server.
The server I'm going to run this on is already running Apache, so I would like to make some sort of image of that server, that I can easily import to the virtual server when i get that installed. Does Microsoft, or WMware provide tools to create a image, that I can import later?

 

I've been looking at VMWare over last few days. VMWare Server is a free product and just needs a simple registration to download. Once you have created an image, the image and virtual disk files are held in a single folder. Copying the folder and all its contents, then Opening the copied image from within VMWare, creates a new instance. You can even copy the folder to another PC and open it with either VMWare server or VMWare player.

There is also Microsoft's Virtual PC, which is also a free product. This also works well.

Both are free products that can easily be downloaded. Both products install easily and are easy to use. If you have a spare PC with plenty of RAM (I'd recommend 1Gb or more - though I've done a lot of my testing on PCs with less RAM) and hard disk space (you want at least 2Gb of space for each instance), it should be a doddle. I'd highly recommend downloading and playing with these products.

Personally, I think the VMWare product is better : more flexibility and upgrade options. However, I'd happily use the Microsoft product too. Have a play yourself and choose the product that best suits you and your requirements.

 

Dont think virtualpc is to good at running servers since it is not running as a service. So im testing MS virtual server atm and it looks really nice, but wmware is nice aswell And as long as you got a ms window server license, you can use virtual server for free. Gonan test some more on wmware since i havent tested their server version...