> To the original poster: May I ask what advantages you will be getting by
> running slimserver in a separate VM?

He says: "I want to run a slimserver within a vmware guest operating  
system. This will also let me move the slimserver os at will if/when I  
upgrade to Mac Os"

Now let me admit, that I am a big fan of virtualization :-). I am  
seriously considering building a dedicated VMware server for my own needs,  
which would run nothing but VMware. Today's dualcore CPUs offer more than  
enough power to easily run a bunch of VMs on a standard PC (we're running  
4-6 Windows/IIS/MSSQL servers on 2x3GHz machines).

A few weeks ago I formatted my former Linux desktop PC (Athlon 1GHz, 1GB  
RAM), installed CentOS with only SSH and VMware. I'm using it for all  
testing and development of SlimCD & SlimNAS, sometimes running three  
different systems at the same time. So... while I can't answer why the OP  
wants to run SlimServer in a VM, I do have some reasons why I'd want it:

- HW-independance: buy a faster box, install VMware, move a bunch of  
files, you're up and running again. No need to re-install and re-configure  
all your systems

- don't worry whether your OS of choice does have drivers for the  
hardware's SCSI/SATA/Whatever

- create a VM with 2TB of disk space, even if you only have 100GB; build a  
larger VM server as you grow

- run your stable environment even when it's getting out of date: I have  
my home server running mail and web services for my home needs. They do an  
excellent job for what I want. I therefore don't want to touch them. OTOH  
I'd like to install new software which can't be run on that old Linux box  
(RH 7.3 based!). With a VM server I could easily create a second machine  
running the latest, bleeding edge software

- run other VMs with a completely different OS environment on the same  
hardware (eg. lean Linux for SlimServer, Windows for your Exchange server  
etc.)

- add new machines as you need them without caring about new hardware

- one big machine consumes less energy than a few smaller ones

I hope I do not sound like a VM* solutions provider - the above is my  
experience and conviction.

-- 

Michael

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