After you install the guest OS, you should install the VMware Tools on the guest OS. The guest OS can run without the VMware Tools, but they provide some important enhancements to the functionality of the VM, including enhanced SVGA video performance. In addition, the VMware Tools control panel lets you synchronize the time between the VM and the host and resize the virtual disk. The utilities let you copy information among VMs and provide a set of scripts that you can configure to automatically run when the VM state changes.
I found performance to be surprisingly good with a few active VMs, but as you might expect, performance degraded as I made more VMs active. The total available memory limited the number of VMs that I could have active simultaneously. Performance depends a lot on the total RAM available in the system and the functions you perform with each VM.
An included suite of management tools makes configuring VMware GSX Server a snap. For local management, VMware GSX Server provides the VMware GSX Server management console, which runs directly on the host system. The local VMware GSX Server management console lets you create, monitor, start, stop, reset, and suspend VMs. It also lets you run the VM in full-screen mode, in which a VM appears as if it's a standalone system. Running the VM in full-screen mode also provides a noticeable performance improvement because this mode provides exclusive access to the VM. A strength of VMware GSX Server is that you can manage it remotely using either its browser-based VMware Management Interface or the Remote Console. The VMware Management Interface is a zero-footprint management tool, and it connects to the virtual server through http//<host>:8222. The Remote Console, which you install on a networked PC from the client installation section of the VMware GSX Server CD-ROM, is similar to Win2K Server Terminal Services in that it prompts you for the name of the host server, then displays a management window that lets you perform the same tasks you can perform from the local VMware GSX Server management console. Note that you can't use the Remote Console while using the local VMware GSX Server management console to manage a VM. Figure 2 shows the GSX Server Remote Console in Suspended mode.
In addition to the Remote Console, VMware GXS Server gives you a VmCOM Scripting API and a VmPerl Scripting API that you can use to control the virtual server. Both scripting APIs offer similar functionality, letting you write scripts that automate virtual server management tasks. Unfortunately, you must visit the VMware Web site at http://www.vmware.com/support/developer to access the documentation for these APIs.
The documentation that accompanies VMware GSX Server is outstanding. The 550-page user's manual thoroughly describes the Windows and Linux installation procedures and offers detailed instructions about performance tuning and setting up Microsoft Cluster service with VMware GSX Server. I didn't encounter any problems during the review, so I never needed to use the company's technical support line. However, while learning how to use and set up the product, I did find valuable information both on the support Web site at http://www.vmware.com/support as well as in the VMware newsgroups at vmware.gsx-server-for-windows and vmware.guest.windows2000.
VMware GSX Server pricing starts at $3035 for a two-processor system and $6050 for a four-processor system, making this product competitively priced with other VM offerings. VMware GSX Server's new features make it a good choice for an organization that's looking to consolidate its server environment. The improved scalability and easy remote management capabilities make VMware GSX Server an effective solution for simplifying server management and reducing the number of systems required to support an organization. If you're not already using a VM solution in your test environment, you should definitely look into the flexibility of creating the multiple test scenarios that VM products enable. For information about additional VM offerings, see the sidebar "Other VM Products," page 36.