Hi all,

Which of the VMware products are free of cost to download and use. There are different products like VMWare player, workstation, fusion etc but not sure which one is free of cost ?

And what vmware product(if there are multiple free of cost products available from vmware) you guys suggest if i want to prepare for RHCSA/RHCE exams ?

Thanks in advance!

Vmware as far as I know (haven't taken either exam) is not on the exams.

Hi grim76,

yes you are right. I want to use vmware to create and use VMs.

I recommend you use VirtualBox from Oracle. It's free and very easy. VMware is also free but you don't state exactly what your needs / requirements are so we can't really recommend or help you. VMware has a ton of products that do so many different things.

If you want a desk side application that will allow you to create VM's on your workstation, sounds like you need VMware Server. If you're looking for a dedicated VMware server (free) that you can manage and create VM's with from the host, then you can download ESXi for free. I think they're on version 5 currently and it's very nice. You just don't get any of the fancy stuff like Vmotion and other enterprise level attributes.

Also you can chat for free with VM so that they can help you find the right product however be ready for the product name to change weekly with VMware.

I have used VMWare Player, which is free to download, on Windows XP and Debian and it seems pretty decent.
On Debian I found it seemed slower than VirtualBox though that is only my subjective assessment.

Hi carlosinfl,

Thanks for the reply.
As i have already used virtual box, i want to learn using vmware also.
As i stated, my requirement is to create and use VMs inorder to prepare for certification.
I can go for vmware server as you recommended but i just came to know that it has no support now (although i dont expect support from vmware, my concern is how up-to-date vmware server would be).

Hi 273, thanks for the info.

You still give no details to your hardware, how you want to access the machine whether it be local on your laptop or if you have a dedicated machine / hardware to load. VMware Player is what you're looking for I think.

Vmware Esxi and Vsphere client is free.

You need dedicated hardware for the mentioned above. Just an FYI.

Hi carlosinfl,

i want install vmware on my laptop (host would be windows vista).
Will this work ?

ESXi is a host Operating System from VMware that would take the place of Windows Vista...you wouldn't want this I'm assuming. As previously suggested, I believe you want VMware Player.