ABSTRACT
In 1999, VMware launched the release of their fi rst product now known as VMware Workstation. Th is was considered by many to be the fi rst commercially available virtualization platform on the x86-based architecture. In the years following its release, VMware has continued to mature their product line based around their patented virtual machine technology. Near the end of 2000, VMware signifi cantly added to their product line by announcing VMware GSX Server 1.0. Th rough the years, VMware has upgraded and updated the GSX Server product to create a powerful, stable, and scalable server virtualization platform. As an added bonus, GSX Server also provides a direct upgrade path to VMware ESX Server, VMware’s most powerful and scalable server virtualization product and is itself an upgrade path for VMware Workstation users. In April of 2004, VMware announced their 64-bit roadmap for virtualization. With the release of GSX Server 3.1, VMware completed the fi rst milestone for their support of 64-bit computing. It was the fi rst x86 server virtualization product to be released that added support for 64-bit host operating systems, which means
there are 64-bit drivers present that allow installation of the product on x86 64-bit platforms. Unfortunately, VMware offi cially only supports 32-bit guest operating systems within a virtual machine running on a 64-bit host server. Th is does, however, make it possible to upgrade to 64-bit host operating systems and continue to run existing 32-bit operating systems in virtual machines. With the introduction of support for 64 bit guest operating systems within the VMware Workstation 5.5 release, it is only a matter of time before GSX Server adds offi cial support as well.
