Hi Lee, Thanks for the info - I have no idea what ESX provides that the WorkStation version does not - all I do know is WorkStation (which is all I need, I was going to use this on a notebook) is $299, GSX is $3,025(!) and ESX doesn't even have a published price on the vmware.com website.
This discussion reminded me I haven't looked at their product for a while, and I see they just releasd a new WorkStation release so I figured maybe they added the missing support (that evidently already exists in ESX). I read through the pages and pages of stuff on their website but could not determine if they supported PCMCIA, NIC and MODEM devices which can be dedicated to a guest virtual machine. I sent their sales department a simple note which said "Does the latest release of VMWare WorkStation support PCMCIA devices, and can PCMCIA devices, modems and/or NIC's be dedicated to guest virtual machines?". They replied saying "We are not Technical Support - but if you click on the links below you'll find everything you need to know" and they proceeded to steer me back to the very same web pages I had already read that did not answer my questions. So I replied that I had already been there, could not find the answers to my questions, and cannot consider purchasing their product unless I know whether or not this support exists. Their response was (basically) "we only list on our website what we DO support" and she proceeded to steer me to yet more web pages that didn't answer my relatively simple sales question(!). You would THINK that their sales associates would be familiar with the product they are selling. Even if they aren't THAT familiar with it, you would THINK that this individual could have turned to their Technical Support (or other) folks and asked that simple question - but instead she kept giving me "non-answers" and directing me to web pages that provided yet more "non-answers", geez! So, VMWare goes back into the "nice toy, see if they've matured in a year" folder. Michael Coffin, VM Systems Programmer Internal Revenue Service - Room�6030 1111 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C.� 20224 Voice: (202)�927-4188�� FAX:� (202) 622-6726 [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -----Original Message----- From: Lee Stewart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 7:19 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: z/VM and VMware At 09:55 AM 9/30/2003, you wrote: >Very true - but in my case I needed to dedicate individual NICs to >virtual machines, and also had a PCMCIA device that the virtual >machines needed dedicated access to. Seem like a "virtual machine" >hypervisor needs to address real hardware access - just like mainframe >VM does. Providing "access to a network" is not the same as attaching >a dedicated NIC. VMware/ESX *does* provide the ability to have several NICs. And you can pick and choose how you use them. Share them, dedicate them, or team them (several NICs acting as one). Lee ---------- Lee A. Stewart Senior Systems Engineer Sytek Services, a division of DSG www.sytek-services.com www.dsgroup.com Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (719) 566-0188 Fax: (719) 566-0655
