VMware Workstation

Overview:

VMware Workstation is the gold standard in desktop virtualization, transforming the way technical professionals develop, test, demo and deploy software. Innovative features help developers, QA engineers, sales professionals and IT administrators reduce hardware costs, manage risk and streamline tasks, saving time and improving productivity.

Benefits

• Run multiple operating systems at the same time without rebooting.
• Evaluate and test new operating systems, applications and patches in an isolated environment.
• Facilitate fast, efficient testing of applications across a large number of configurations.
• Quickly debug applications on multiple platforms with developer tool integration.
• Easily revert your virtual machine to a prior, stable system state.

What is VMware Workstation?

From the creator of PC virtualization comes the most reliable, secure way to run multiple operating systems at the same time. Winner of more than 50 industry awards, VMware Workstation is an integral component of any serious technical professional’s toolkit.

VMware Workstation provides the most dependable, highperforming, and secure virtual machine platform. It offers the broadest host and guest operating system support, the richest user experience, and the most comprehensive feature set.

How is VMware Workstation Used in the Enterprise?

VMware Workstation delivers the broadest guest platform support for running multiple operating systems at the same time on a PC. VMware Workstation supports over 200 operating systems, including Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and over 20 other versions of Windows along with Redhat, Ubuntu, OpenSuse and 26 additional versions of Linux. And now VMware Workstation can run VMware vSphere™ and VMware ESXi™ for testing or demonstration purposes right on your PC.

Following are the ways in which VMware Workstation is used in the Enterprise:

• Software developers rely on Workstation’s integration with Visual Studio, Eclipse and the SpringSource Tools Suite to streamline the development and debugging of their applications in multiple environments.
• Quality assurance teams use Workstation to efficiently and economically test applications on a complex matrix of operating systems, application platforms, and browsers and by doing away with repetitive configuration tasks.
• Systems engineers and other technical sales professionals use Workstation to demonstrate complex multi-tier applications with ease. Workstation can simulate an entire virtual network environment—including clients, servers and database virtual machines—all on a on a single PC.
• Teachers and trainers use Workstation to rapidly create virtual machines for students, with all the lessons, applications and tools required for the course within a secure, isolated virtual machine. At the end of each class, the virtual machines can revert automatically to a “clean” state, making them readily available for the next set of students.

How Does VMware Workstation Work?

VMware virtualization software maps physical hardware resources to the virtual machine’s resources so that each virtual machine is equipped with its own CPU, memory, disks and network interface cards. No rebooting or hard-drive partitioning is required to switch between the virtual machines. Virtual machines are the full equivalent of a standard x86 machine and are able to run most Windows, Linux and other desktop and server operating systems.

In addition to linking virtual machines to physical network adapters, CD-ROM devices, hard disk drives and USB devices (including USB isochronous devices such as webcams, microphones, etc.), VMware Workstation also provides the ability to simulate additional hardware. For example, it can mount an ISO file as a CD-ROM, and .vmdk files as hard disks; and can configure its virtual network adapter to use network address translation (NAT) through the host machine rather than assigning an IP address for each virtual machine.

Introducing VMware Workstation 7:

Winner of more than 50 industry awards, VMware Workstation transforms the way technical professionals develop, test, demo, and deploy software. Innovative features help software developers, QA engineers, sales professionals, and IT administrators to reduce hardware cost, save time, minimize risk, and streamline tasks that save time and improve productivity.

Ultimate Desktop Virtualization Product for Windows 7

Run Windows 7 in a virtual machine with the industry’s first support for Windows Aero 3D graphics. Easy Install makes installing 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 in a virtual machine even easier than on your physical PC. VMware Workstation 7 works with Flip 3D and Aero Peek to show live thumbnails of your virtual machines. Better than Windows XP Mode, you can run Windows XP with 3D graphics, faster performance, and tighter integration with Unity, shared folders and drag and drop convenience. VMware Workstation is optimized for maximum performance when running on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 PCs.

Best 3D Graphics Just Got Better

VMware Workstation was the first to support 3D graphics in virtualized environments and is now the first to support Windows Aero in Windows Vista and Windows 7 virtual machines. Run even more 3D applications with support for DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3 and OpenGL 2.13D graphics in Windows virtual machines.

Most Advanced Virtualization Platform

Create virtual machines with up to 4 virtual processors or 4 virtual cores and up to 32GB of memory per virtual machine. Driverless printing makes your PC printers automatically accessible to your Windows and Linux virtual machines—no configuration or drivers required. Smart card authentication enables you to dedicate a Smart Card reader to a virtual machines or share access.

Features Professionals Cannot Live Without

• Install and run VMware vSphere 4 and VMware ESXi in a virtual machine
• New IDE integrations for the SpringSource Tools Suite and Eclipse IDE for C/C++
• Replay debugging is now easier and faster
• Remote Replay Debugging makes it easier to share virtual machine recordings for analysis

More Refined Than Ever

Protect from Prying Eyes
Protect your virtual machines from prying eyes with 256-bit AES encryption.

Printing that Just Works
Driver-less printing makes your PC printers automatically accessible to your Windows and Linux VMs—no configuration or drivers required. Your PC’s default printer even shows up as the default, too.

Go Back in Time
Buggy applications, hardware failures, viruses and other malware do not give you fair warning to take a manual snapshot. AutoProtect luckily automatically takes snapshots at set intervals, protecting you from unexpected bumps in the road, making it’s easy to go back in time to when things were good.

Free Up System Resources
Pause a virtual machine to free up CPU resources for use by other running virtual machines or demanding applications.

Key Features of VMware Workstation:

• Seamlessly integrated.
  Unity mode integrates applications from within Windows & Linux virtual machines and makes them appear they are running on the native desktop. User friendly features such as picture cut and paste, email attachment drag and drop, and driverless printing make it easy to work in a virtual machine..
• Snapshots and clones.
  Snapshots preserve the state of a virtual machine so you can return to it at any time. Snapshots are useful when you need to revert your virtual machine to a prior, stable system state. Workstation makes it easy to find and revert to a previously saved snapshot..
• Run multi-tiered applications on a single PC.
  Manage multiple, network-connected virtual machines with Teams. Teams make it easy to start and run complex multi-tier enterprise applications on a single PC with just a click of the mouse.
• Rewind and replay until you find the bug.
  Diagnose non-deterministic bugs with the Replay Debugging technology integrated into Visual Studio and Eclipse. Test your applications running ina virtual machines while “recording,” then let the developer step through the recording with a debugger attached. Never again will there be a nonreproducible bug.
• Printing that just works.
  Driverless printing makes your PC printers automatically accessible to your Windows and Linux virtual machines; no configuration or drivers are required. Your 7;s default printer even shows up as the default.

Why Choose VMware Workstation?

From the creator of PC virtualization comes the most reliable, secure way to run multiple operating systems at the same time. Winner of more than 50 industry awards, VMware Workstation transforms the way technical professionals develop, test, demo, and deploy software. VMware Workstation is an integral component of any serious technical professional’s toolkit.

Most Advanced Virtualization Platform

VMware Workstation provides the most dependable, high performing, and secure virtual machine platform. It offers the broadest host and guest operating system support, the richest user experience, and the most comprehensive feature set.

Run More Operating Systems

With support for over 200 operating systems including Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and over 20 other versions of Windows, along with Redhat, Ubuntu, OpenSuse and 26 additional versions of Linux. VMware Workstation delivers the broadest guest platform support for running multiple operating systems at the same time on your PC.

Indispensable Tool for Professionals

Automate and streamline tasks to save time and improve productivity. Run applications in Linux, Windows, and more at the same time on the same PC with no rebooting. Evaluate and test new operating systems, applications and patches in an isolated environment. Demonstrate complex software applications on a single laptop in a repeatable, reliable manner. Rich integration with Visual Studio, Eclipse, and the SpringSource Tool Suite make it incredibly easy to debug applications on multiple platforms.

Award-winning

Backed by over a decade of proven engineering, VMware Workstation is trusted by millions of users worldwide. The company has won more than 200 awards for its industry-leading software, with over 50 awards for VMware Workstation. In addition to winning InfoWorld’s 2009 “Best Desktop Virtualization Tool,” Visual Studio Magazine Reader’s Choice for “Best Software Development Product” awards, VMware Workstation has been inducted into the Jolt Hall of Fame.

InfoWorld's Best Desktop Virtualization Tool

Visual Studio Magazine Readers' Choice

2008 Jolt Hall of Fame

Redmond Magazine Editors' Choice

More Reasons at a Glance

Seamlessly Integrated
Unity mode integrates applications from within your Windows & Linux virtual machines and makes them appear like they are running on your native desktop. User friendly features such as the ability to cut and paste pictures, drag and drop email attachments, and driver-less printing make it easy to work in a virtual machine.

Snapshots and Clones: The Ultimate Time Saver
Snapshots preserve the state of a virtual machine so you can return to it at any time. Snapshots are useful when you need to revert your virtual machine to a prior, stable system state. Workstation makes it easy to find and revert to a previously saved snapshot.

Installing operating systems and applications can be time consuming. With clones, you can make many copies of a virtual machine from the baseline installation and configuration. This makes it fast and simple to maintain standardized computing environments for employees and students, or to create a baseline configuration for testing.

Run Multi-tiered Applications on a Single PC
Manage multiple, network-connected virtual machines with Teams. Teams make it easy to start and run complex multi-tier enterprise applications on a single PC with just a click of the mouse.

Rewind and Replay Until You Find the Bug
Diagnose non-deterministic bugs with the Replay Debugging technology integrated into Visual Studio and Eclipse. Test your applications in a virtual machine while “recording” and then let the developer step through the recording with a debugger attached. Never again will there be a non-reproducible bug.

Workstation in Action:

With millions of registered users and over 50 industry awards, no other desktop virtualization product offers as many innovative features that help software developers, QA engineers, sales professionals, and IT administrators to reduce costs, manage risk, and streamline tasks that save time and improve productivity.

For Software Developers

Software developers rely on VMware Workstation’s integration with Visual Studio, Eclipse, and SpringSource Tools Suite to streamline the development and debugging of their applications in multiple environments.

For QA Testers

Quality assurance teams use Workstation to efficiently and economically test applications on a complex matrix of operating systems, application platforms, and browsers—and by doing away with repetitive configuration tasks.

For Systems and Sales Engineers

Systems engineers and other technical sales professionals love Workstation because it gives them the power to demonstrate complex multi-tier applications with ease. Workstation can simulate an entire virtual network environment—including clients, servers and database virtual machines—all on a single PC.

For Teachers and Trainers

Teachers and trainers use Workstation to rapidly create virtual machine for students, with all the lessons, applications, and tools required for the course within a secure, isolated virtual machine. At the end of each class, the virtual machines can revert automatically to a “clean” state, making them readily available for the next set of students.

Documentation:

VMware Workstation Data Sheet (.PDF)