How VMware Server works

VMware Server provides a free and easy to access server virtualization approach, but deploying several aspects of it-especially configuration-can be tricky. Even if the product is free, there will be a high price to pay if there is an error in the installation and security process.

This guide provides a description of how VMware Server is installed, configured (primarily focused on high security), and how to run successfully on Microsoft Windows 2003 servers.

This series of articles is divided into eight parts. In this section, TechTarget, a special expert in China, Andrew Kutz, provides guidance and descriptions of how it works and how it is deployed. In subsequent sections, it will also describe its configuration, security, installation of the customer system, and so on.

This series of articles will be a shortcut to understanding the knowledge that VMware Server is running in Windows Server 2003. And it's my personal understanding of the pros and cons of VMware Virtual Server deployments will also be a sublimation. In addition, VMware has its own 214-page manual, which I often refer to in this guide.

Some of the assumptions that were made when you created this guide:

First, assume that VMware Server is being installed on a new or otherwise useful server. VMware can be installed on an existing, and you want some of its additional resources to be better utilized on the server, and this guide is more focused on ensuring the efficiency and security of VMware Server and host operating systems (OS), so every step I'm talking about is based on an existing operating system.

Depending on your situation, if one of the steps described in this guide is not implemented, mark it down for future deployments and skip it and move on. There are steps that need to readjust existing configurations, such as those that involve securing IIS (Internet information Server) security on Windows. Also, you can choose to execute my suggestions or skip them, depending on your situation.

I also assume that you will put top security at the top of the agenda. Because VMware Server has a number of virtual servers, security is paramount. This guide will help readers build a "bastion host" that is highly secure.

Virtualization is often used to service virtual Web servers, so I assume that such servers will need to be connected to the public Internet. Port Conversions and gateway devices (like a netscaler) can be limited, especially if you want several virtual network servers to share 80, 433 ports at the same time, rather than netscaler each workspace can afford a network management device. I will discuss the two exceptions to this assumption in the rear.

I guess most system administrators have solid knowledge of Windows. This guide is primarily for IT administrators who are new to VMware Server, rather than new people who are exposed to IT management. You'll probably find some handy tips and tricks for securing windows, but I'm not going to tell you the basics of what the disk array controllers are, or where to configure the Windows paging files, and so on.

How VMware Server works

VMware Server is an alien virtualization solution. It is not directly installed on a bare metal server. VMware server must be installed on a server's existing operating system, such as Microsoft's Windows system or Linux system. This contrasts with the--esx of another VMware Server virtualization product and the open source virtualization solution--xen.

The input and output tasks of the existing operating system are a heavy burden on VMware server, so it is not as efficient as the bare Metal System management program. On the other hand, it has extensive driver compatibility because VMware Server can use any hardware device that can be compatible with the host system. A bare-metal system management program usually only supports a limited number of devices because the core program of the control system and many device drivers are not assembled (the aim is to keep the core program concise and fast).

Xen is special, although it is a bare metal system management program, but it with other hardware devices have a wide range of compatibility. This relies primarily on the drive-domain operating system to implement (usually the Dom-0 operating system) without the need to provide device drivers.

Here is an overview of how VMware Server works:

At the bottom of this architecture is the physical host server. The layer above the bare metal is the host operating system, in which case the Windows 2003 Server Standard version is typically selected.

VMware server consists of three major components installed on top of the host operating system. They are the registration service component, the authorization service component, and the user interface management component respectively. The Registration service component is responsible for the start and stop of the virtual machine and its client connections. The Licensing Services component is responsible for verifying connections that are introduced from the MUI (Windows Multilingual) and the VMware Server console. The MUI allows users to manage virtual machines through a Web interface.