I'm still running vmware for my workstation(fusion) and will likely be using it on my new server as well (ESXI). Why? While the points about Xen are all very good ones and Id much prefer to support open source software, at the end of the day I've decided that for my purposes vmware is just easier to work with.
If anyone provides you with a VM, chances are good that it will have been made by vmware. A great example is SANS courses which will often provide pre-built VMware images with all the tools. While the other virtualization tools _can_ open these files as well, my experience was that it was less reliable, and as you got into more complicated configurations issues started to arise. while Xen is extremely powerful, vmware is a lot quicker to get up and running, and a lot easier to build a virtual lab in. If I were building production VMs where performance would be a big concern Id look a lot harder at Xen. For a home lab to hack in I care a lot more about ease of getting up and running, and not spending a lot of time dorking around with the configs. Its been a couple of years since I ran Xen, but at the time it was defintely a _lot_ more work than throwing up any vmware product ive used. Virtualbox, as others have said, is to me the open source worlds version of vmware workstation. I'd be disinclined to run it on a server, however if thats what youve been using and have plenty of VMs made in it, there probably isnt a compelling reason _not_ to use it for your home lab unless you really intend to have a dozen live VMs up at a time. For a backtrack image and a single target really any solution is going to do just fine performance wise. On Tue, 2009-07-28 at 12:05 +0000, [email protected] wrote: > O have played around with VMware server on Ubuntu 9 recently it I ran into > too much issues and overall performance is too slow. I currently run virtual > box which seem to work fine, but on some occasions it keep lossing the mouse > control or looking up (I did this on my laptop). > > All in all I think Xen is more like ESX (build for servers), and virtual box > is more like vmware workstation (great for testing and dev but not long > term), so I would go with Xen. > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry > > -----Original Message----- > From: Robin Wood <[email protected]> > > Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:13:41 > To: PaulDotCom Security Weekly Mailing List<[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Pauldotcom] best way to run graphical BT4 from a server > > > 2009/7/28 Dale Stirling <[email protected]>: > > Xen will work for full virtulisation and run Backtrack (haven't tested). > > > > Xen delivers it Graphical interface over VNC. though you can set up TLS > > support for these connections. > > I'll be only allowing access to it through a VPN but would probably > stick TLS on as well if available. > > So, half expecting to start a war here, Xen vs VirtualBox for this > setup? I've personally ruled out vmware server just because it was > always sluggish compared to VirtualBox and I really didn't like the > browser thing they came up with. > > Robin > > > > > Dale > > > > On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 9:04 AM, Robin Wood <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > >> 2009/7/27 Nick Drage <[email protected]>: > >> > On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 10:54:50PM +0100, Robin Wood wrote: > >> > > >> >> I'm building a server that is going to go into a data centre and I > >> >> want to some kind of virtual machine software, probably either > >> >> VirtualBox or Xen, and in that I'd like to run BT4. What is my best > >> >> option to get a full BT4 X session back to my linux desktop? > >> > > >> > I can't speak for Xen, although I know someone to ask if no-one here can > >> > help... which I suspect is extremely unlikely ;) > >> > > >> > For Virtualbox, Look at VRDP, which I would expect you can port forward > >> > over SSH. The "--vrddport" and "--vrdpaddress" options should be used > >> > here. > >> > >> I like Virtualbox so would rather go with that so I'll have a look at > >> VRDP and see what it offers. > >> > >> > BTW, if you use VMWare Server instead watch your firewalling, IIRC > >> > it opens several listening ports whether you want it to or not. > >> > >> I tried it and didn't like it, didn't seem a patch on VirtualBox last > >> time I gave it a go. > >> > >> Robin > >>_______________________________________________ > >> Pauldotcom mailing list > >> [email protected] > >> http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom > >> Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > > Pauldotcom mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom > > Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com > > > _______________________________________________ > Pauldotcom mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom > Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com > _______________________________________________ > Pauldotcom mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom > Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com _______________________________________________ Pauldotcom mailing list [email protected] http://mail.pauldotcom.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pauldotcom Main Web Site: http://pauldotcom.com
