vmwarez.com: VMware Server 1.0 Released - Virtual Center Manageable

VMware has released the free replacement for GSX. This new product has all the old features and more as far as I can tell. I only demo'd GSX once and that was a long time ago... but when VMware introduced the first beta of Server, one big thing that was missing when comparing it to GSX was some form of central manageablity. With GSX, you could manage your physical servers (and, therefore, your virtual servers) with Virtual Center. And this new, free version of VMware server did not have that ability... Till now, anyway. Although VMware Server is free, if you want to manage it with Virtual Center, you have to pay for the VC agent. Which is, in my estimation, very fair. It requires VC1.4, which means that you will be able to manage your Server and Pre-3 ESX deployments in one place. VC2 does not support managing VMware Server. And just like GSX, VMotion is not an option. But, really, Server is not meant to be ESX, is it?

Here's what VMware has to say about Server's features:

VMware Server is a free virtualization product for Windows and Linux servers with enterprise-class support and VirtualCenter management. VMware Server is a robust yet easy to use server virtualization product and is based on proven virtualization technology, which has been used by thousands of customers for more than six years. VMware Server:
Runs on any standard x86 hardware
Supports 64-bit guest operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and Solaris
Can be managed by VMware VirtualCenter to efficiently provision, monitor and manage infrastructure from a central management console
Supports two-processor Virtual SMP, enabling a single virtual machine to span multiple physical processors
Runs on a wider variety of Linux and Windows host and guest operating systems than any server virtualization product on the market
Captures entire state of a virtual machine and rolls back at any time with the click of a single button
Installs like an application, with quick and easy, wizard-driven installation
Quick and easy, wizard-driven virtual machine creation
Opens VMware or Microsoft virtual machine format and Symantec LiveState Recovery images with VM Importer
Supports Intel Virtualization Technology
Protects investment with an easy upgrade path to VMware Infrastructure

And my favorite thing that they say about VMware Server is this... I'd say it myself, but they really did it best to begin with:

Try VMware Server as the first step to VMware Infrastructure
VMware Server is an ideal starting point for users to experience the benefits of virtualization with the knowledge that your investment will be protected and easily migrated to VMware Infrastructure. VMware Infrastructure allows entire industry-standard infrastructure farms to be managed as a shared utility and dynamically allocated to different business units or projects. VMware Infrastructure provides comprehensive virtualization, management, resource optimization, application availability and operational automation capabilities in an integrated offering. View a comparison between VMware Server and VMware Infrastructure.

Click here to visit the official VMware Server site... and download it today!