Virtualization snapshots

[CoW]8(0)]

I noticed that the VirtualBox snapshot system is very limited where if I revert to a previous snapshot, any future snapshots after that are lost. This becomes an issue when I'm testing different pieces of software and want to compare the state of the virtual machine during different states.

Is there any virtualization software which uses more independent snapshots where each snapshot is treated as another virtual machine and restoring one snapshot doesn't affect any of the other snapshots? I don't mind the extra hard drive usage for a feature like this.

 

[AceXsmurF]

ESXi is what I use in the QA lab to do pretty much exactly what you are talking about.

 

[lopoetve]

ESX does what you want, except remember that they're not copies, but deltas.

 

[CoW]8(0)]

So VMware server has a similar snapshot system to VirtualBox?

In the comparison between VMware server and VMware ESXi, https://www.vmware.com/products/server/faqs.html, what does "Dedicated Server Required" mean?

 

[AceXsmurF]

Think of it this way, if you use ESX the sole function of the machine you install the ESX 'OS' on is to run virtual machines.

 

[CoW]8(0)]

Ah, so there's no 'host' operating system in ESX aside from the vmkernel with ESX provides. This type of virtualization is a bit too low level for me as I need a host operating system (such as Windows 7) to perform other tasks.

 

[SpaceHonkey]

Hence the "dedicated server required"

 

[crazyfinx]

Ah, so there's no 'host' operating system in ESX aside from the vmkernel with ESX provides. This type of virtualization is a bit too low level for me as I need a host operating system (such as Windows 7) to perform other tasks.

Install vmware workstation 6.0 in windows 7 and above an you'll be able to install ESXi 4.0 on a virtual machine running in workstation. I've done this and works well with test boxes.

 

[lopoetve]

WS7 works better than 6.0, and 6.5 works better than 6.0 as well

And VMs inside of virtualized ESX will be almost unusable.