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Subject:Re: Subject: Virtual Machines for training From:David Neeley <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 20 Oct 2004 14:21:19 -0500
As you all may know, VMWare is available to run on a Windows system or
on a Linux system as the host (there may be others by now).
The performance hit you take when running it on a Windows host is
considerable, especially if the virtual machine is also running
Windows.
As for running remotely, there are many ways to do that--for example,
using the free VNC or one of its variants--but whether this strategy
is successful depends upon what you are trying to teach.
If the objective is merely to train on a system that can't be "messed
up" by the student, it is often simpler and cheaper to build a single
system with its features "locked down" so that it starts to the same
state each time it is power cycled. Thus, any changes the student
makes can be easily "erased" for the next student.
Another way is to use one of the utilities that enables you to go back
to a prior state on the machine at any time...again, allowing you to
"undo" any changes made by the student.
>From the question, I sincerely doubt that a "virtual machine" is
necessary. A program such as VNC or PC Anywhere running remotely with
a headquarters PC set up as indicated above should do nicely with far
less overhead than a virtual machine.
Where the virtual machine technology shines, in my opinion, is when
you need multiple configurations of software for testing and
development purposes. You might be comparing a new release of a
product with an old one--having them on separate virtual machines
allows you to start one or the other with no re-installation or
re-configuration necessary.
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