VMware Workstation

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VMware Workstation

VMware Workstation running Ubuntu under Windows
Developer(s)	VMware, Inc.
Initial release	1999[citation needed]
Stable release	6.5.2 (build 156735) [1] / 2009-03-31; 3 months ago
Operating system	Microsoft Windows Linux
Platform	x86-compatible
Available in	English
Development status	Active
Type	Virtual machine
License	Commercial, Proprietary
Website	http://www.vmware.com/products/ws/

VMware Workstation is a virtual machine software suite for x86 and x86-64 computers from VMware, a division of EMC Corporation. This software suite allows users to set up multiple x86 and x86-64 virtual computers and to use one or more of these virtual machines simultaneously with the hosting operating system. Each virtual machine instance can execute its own guest operating system, such as Windows, Linux, BSD variants, or others. In simple terms, VMware Workstation allows one physical machine to run multiple operating systems simultaneously. Other VMware products help manage or migrate VMware virtual machines across multiple host machines.

Besides bridging to existing host 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 some hardware. For example, it can mount an ISO file as a CD-ROM, and .vmdk files as hard disks; and can configure its network adapter driver to use network address translation (NAT) through the host machine rather than bridging through it (which would require an IP address for each guest machine on the host network).

VMware Workstation also allows the testing of live CDs without first burning them onto physical discs or rebooting the computer. One can also take multiple successive snapshots of an operating system running under VMware Workstation. Each snapshot allows you to roll back the virtual machine to the saved status at any time. The ability to use multiple snapshots makes VMware Workstation useful as a tool for salespersons demonstrating complex software products, and for developers setting up virtual development or test environments. VMware Workstation includes the ability to designate multiple virtual machines as a team which administrators can then power on and off, suspend, and resume as a single object — making it particularly useful for testing client-server environments.

Contents 1 Version history 2 Known issues 2.1 Hardware support 2.2 OS support 2.3 Network protocols 2.4 Vulnerabilities 3 VMware Tools 4 Gallery 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Version history

• 2001-11-01 - VMware releases Workstation 3.0.
• 2002-04-09 - Workstation 3.1 is released at Microsoft Tech-Ed 2002^[2]
• 2003-03-23 - Workstation version 4.0 is released.^[3]
• 2004-04-05 - VMware announces the release of workstation version 4.5.^[4]
• 2005-04-11 - Workstation version 5.0 is released.^[5]
• 2005-09-12 - VMware updates Workstation to version 5.5.^[6]
• 2007-05-09 - VMware releases Workstation version 6.0.^[7]
• 2008-09-23 - VMware releases Workstation version 6.5.0^[8]
• 2008-11-21 - VMware releases Workstation version 6.5.1^[9]
• 2009-03-31 - VMware releases Workstation version 6.5.2^[10]

[edit] Known issues

Known limitations of VMware Workstation, as of June, 2008^[update], include the following:

[edit] Hardware support

• VMware virtual machines do not directly support FireWire.^[11]
• VMware Workstation cannot use more than 2 CPUs (or cores) per virtual machine. This means that a single virtual machine cannot use the full power of the underlying hardware on machines with the total number of cores greater than 2 (Quad Core 2, or 2 x Core 2). This is true also for the last version 6.5.
• VMware Workstation version 5.5 provided only experimental support for 3D hardware acceleration, via Microsoft's Direct3D 8 API.^[12][13] A video has appeared on YouTube that demonstrates several 3D-accelerated games running under VMware Fusion and Mac OS X. The release notes for Fusion beta 2 include a list of 3D-accelerated computer games that can run within Windows XP-based virtual machines. In version 6.5, Direct3D 9.0 API support (only up to Shader Model 2.0) is provided on Windows 2000 and Windows XP guests (although not Windows 9x) and on any host OS. Its 3D performance is roughly equivalent to GeForce 6600/7300LE, running Crysis at 14-18 fps at low settings. Windows Display Driver Model support is not available as of version 6.5, therefore Windows Aero is not available in virtualized Windows Vista and later Windows guests.
• 64-bit guest operating systems require a 64-bit processor and a BIOS compatible with x86 virtualization. ^[14] Intel processors require Intel VT hardware virtualization technology as Intel 64-bit processors without hardware virtualization technology do not have segmentation support in long mode. ^[14] AMD64 processors must be revision D or later to run 64-bit guests. ^[14]
• Five-button mouse is supported in version 6.5.^{[citation needed]}
• Additionally, when using VMware Workstation in an environment using Media Access Control (MAC) addresses as unique identifiers (UID), one should (and often must) manually configure the MAC address for each virtual machine in order to ensure uniqueness (for example, in an environment in which network switches implement MAC security; or in an environment in which Altiris products use the MAC address as the UID). In such a situation, disabling all networks/adapters other than "bridged" and editing each virtual machine's .vmx file to change "ethernet0.address" to a unique MAC and "ethernet0.addresstype" to "static" will help.

[edit] OS support

64-bit Solaris 10 1/06 (Update 1) and Solaris 10 6/06 (Update 2) fail with a triple fault on Core 2 generation processors (this includes processors codenamed Merom, Woodcrest, and Conroe). A Sun Microsystems blog has published a workaround for this issue.

[edit] Network protocols

VMware Workstation can swallow CPU interrupts, making maintenance of accurate time difficult.^[15] Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers should not be run under VMware.

[edit] Vulnerabilities

Vulnerabilities have affected VMWare products. These can offer ways for users inside a Guest to become super-user, or allow Guests to execute code on the Host.

Notable ones include:

CLOUDBURST - Immunity's Kostya Kortchinsky discovered a vulnerability in the 3d API allowing Guests to execute code on the Host. http://www.immunityinc.com/documentation/cloudburst-vista.html . This vulnerability was fixed in 6.5.2 (and related ESX and Fusion releases).

Rafal Wojtczvk (CVE-2007-4496) also discovered a Guest->Host memory corruption vulnerability, although it's not known if this was exploitable.

Greg MacManus of iDefense Labs discovered a vulnerability in the Shared Folders implementation which allowed Guests to read/write host files (in a non-default configuration) (http://labs.idefense.com/intelligence/vulnerabilities/display.php?id=521). This was then built on by Core Security who discovered that the patch did not correctly account for unicode characters. The unicode traversal vulnerability was fixed in VMware Workstation versions 5.5.6 and 6.0.3.

[edit] VMware Tools

VMware Tools is a package with drivers and other software that can be installed in guest operating systems to increase their performance.

[edit] Gallery

VMware Workstation booting a Virtual Machine

Boot Menu of VMware Workstation

The BIOS of VMware Workstation

[edit] See also

• Comparison of platform virtual machines
• List of VMware software
• x86 virtualization
• OS_level_virtualization
• Parallels Virtuozzo Containers
• iCore Virtual Accounts
• FreeBSD Jail
• Solaris Containers
• VirtualBox

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• VMware Workstation product page
• Workstation at VMware Store