Free VMWare Server - VMWare ESXi

I am an ardent fan of virtualization and has been following this technology since more than 10 years now! You may have noticed other posts on this technology in this blog already. Gone are the days of dual or multi boots. Why do you want go thru the pain of restarting your machine every time just to access the other operating system.

VMWare has a bunch of lovely options for you! Virtualize is the key word! Crawling (slow) virtual machines are a thing of past (ya, it used to be painfully slow before, make this technology kind of useless, especially on low-end hardware). The latest breed are "almost" comparable to real hardware performance. If you want to try your hands on virtualization, check out one of the following free (yes, totally free) options from VMWare:

1) VMWare Player:
Just play your VM like you play a movie. Great if you want to try a new OS or bring up an OS for casual use! Just load your VM, start it and you are ready to roll! Needs a host OS like Windows to run this. Perfect for desktop/laptop users.
http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

2) VMWare Server:
A little more advanced than VMWare Player, more features, more customization. Remote management of VMs possible. Use this if you want to host it on a server and then access it remotely. Needs a host OS like Windows or Linux.
http://www.vmware.com/products/server/

3) VMWare ESXi Server:
If you want more performance and has better hardware, then you should go for this instead of the above. This is a bare-metal hypervisor (means, doesn't need any host OS, therefore direct access to hardware and way too faster and lighter). Install this directly onto your server (as your base OS) and it gives you everything you need for a software enthusiastic, developer, tester or even a small business! It is a carrot from VMWare to get you to try this (and fall in love with and get addicted to it), with an upgrade path to their other licensed advanced products.
http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/

Only catch is some missing advanced features and a cap on physical and virtual hardware.

Comparisons between ESXi (Free) vs licensed products (ESX etc)

VMware ESX and ESXi 4.0 Comparison (latest version)
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1015000
VMware ESX and ESXi 3.5 Comparison
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1006543
ESX vs ESXi
http://blogs.vmware.com/esxi/2009/06/esxi-vs-esx-a-comparison-of-features.html

  












  












VMWARE VSPHERE 4 ESSENTIALS BUNDLE LICENSE
VMWARE VSPHERE STANDARD LICENSE

WebSphere (WAS) Password Recovery

Many a times you might have come across scenarios like you don't remember the passoword of the newly installed WebSphere Application Server (WAS) or you installed it a while back and totally forgot the userid, password or both! Same can be used if you screw up the security configuration too. Here is a lifesaver tip!

Turn off WebSphere Application Server global security from outside the administrative console so that you can access admin console. To do so you can either change the security.xml file of WAS or use the wsadmin tool for it.

Using WAS command-line client wsadmin (run with root privileges):
1) Open a connection to local WAS in offline mode (else you would need to login)
wsadmin -conntype NONE

2) Turn off global security
wsadmin> securityoff

3) Save
wsadmin> $AdminConfig save

OR
Disable security by modifying the security.xml file(s)
1) The security.xml file is located under WSAS_install_root/AppServer/config/cells/cellname. Always store a copy of the security.xml file in a temporary directory before making any changes

2) Open the security.xml file and search for the very first occurrence of enabled="true". This is located inside the tag.

3) Change enabled="true" to enabled="false", then save the file.

You must restart the server for the change to take effect!

Server admins, secure your WAS server installation (tighter OS security) to prevent unauthorized access ;-)


More info:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=180&context=SSEQTP&q1=disable+global+security+security.xml&uid=swg21105430&loc=en_US&cs=utf-8&lang=en