T500 and Virtual Machines

[Marin85]

JDH,

Thanks for your reply!

1. Reading through the VMware forums I think my problem was isolated to the relationship between Vista x86 as host OS and this older version of VMware (if I remember correctly, it was 6.0.5). With the latest updates to v6.5.1, every x64-capable cpu should be able to run every combination of x86 and x64 hosts and guests.

2. I think I was somewhat unclear in my previous post. To check out again my statement, I have just created a new Ubuntu VM with 30 GB "dedicated" to the VM. The free space on my disk before creating the VM was 60.2 GB, the free space after creating the VM is 59 GB, Ubuntu VM shows 24.8 GB free space. So, actually I´m 'complaining' about having too much free space (resp. missing some occupied space) Not that it really matters, but I remember with the earlier versions of VMware (v6.0.5) that the virtual HD space was strongly dedicated to the VM and was subsequently subtracted from the free available space of the real HD. This doesn´t seem to be the case anymore with the newer versions of VMware. I have Ubuntu right now, while typing this, running and the space usage across the whole system is as described above.

Regarding point 3 from your original post: there are a few cases (rather exceptions) where two or more VMs can simultaneously use same 'hardware'. The first case is when using the same virtual CD drive, all VMs can read the virtual media there. Though I haven´t experimented with a physical CD drive.
BTW, I have shadow storage turned off from the very beginning, I don´t need anything eating my HD space slowly but surely (actually not so slowly). Just in case I checked that out, the output of vssadmin was "0% used" for both my main drive and the external USB drive attached to my ThinkPad. But I can imagine that the shadow copies can be quite helpful in connection with VMs in case something should go wrong.

Marin

Off-topic: If I have to choose across all Ubuntus, I would rather go for Kubuntu. The KDE interface has everything windows explorer doesn´t, and some more that makes operating there much more comfortable IMO and productive... In windows I mostly miss the upper-level-button from the regular explorer (though it appears when browsing the HD from a some programs).

EDIT: This thing about "sharing free disk space" is what one observes if virtual disk space hasn´t been pre-allocated. I have also removed the statement about sharing USB HDs as it was misleading and clearly not true the way I put it.

[jap@tks]

So then down to the machine. I strongly suggest trying Vista 64-bit as your host. I did that.
...
I saw other people here suggest using Vista as the host, and if you can manage it, it will be worth your while.

That's my plan!

VPN clients. I had difficulty trying to run VPN clients in an XP guest on my Vista machine. I do understand the critical need to have the VPN client working. I have the same critical need. I heard in this thread that Cisco may have a fix. I think I heard Juniper Netscreen could be used. That said, I purchased a 64-bit SoftRemote client from SafeNet (the OEM vendor for Juniper) and it works great. So your VPN need may be solved.

I may have some questions for you about this once I get to that point. For example, does it matter if I use a Cisco VPN Client as long as the protocol is IPsec? In other words, can I change my client without my customer having to change their server setup?

Joseph