Network virtualisation allows the recreation of an entire network including multiple subnets, this is required to correctly recreate live deployment scenarios. It can interact with vSphere/Esxi to allow VMs to be moved directly into vSphere, or copied out and stood-up in Workstation; full support to import/export from OVF templates is also supported. This functionality has proved extremely beneficial in pre-staging supporting servers for DR recovery tests as well as testing system upgrades.
It has given us the flexibility to recreate live server scenarios including the supporting networks and AD domain controllers; these are then used to test upgrades or migrations with no impact on the live servers or network. These actions can then be repeated on the live servers, or the upgraded test VM can simply replace the original server (depending on the service requirements and server role). This can be completed by transferring the test VM directly from Workstation to the ESXI host or vSphere environment. If the transfer is the preferred method, the original VM remains available as a failback.
The addition of a built-in virtual router would be a good addition. Currently, I run my own virtual router in order to provide conectivity between virtual subnets.
I've been using it for several years; VMware Workstation since v6 (released in 2008). Initially, it was just for building test servers for training purposes, and versions 7, 8 and now 9 for creating test implementations of live server deployment scenarios, to assist in resolving live issues or to test change controls.
There were no issues.
In v6, it was a 32bit environment with a maximum memory of 4Gb RAM. Therefore, this required a high level of swap out of RAM to disk in order to provide sufficient memory space to run VMs, this occasionally caused system crashes. Since v8 this has not been an issue.
None, Workstation scales to 32Gb of RAM.
No VMware support is provided with Workstation.
Technical Support:No VMware technical support is available with VMware Workstation.
The initial set-up is straight forward, however, you need to ensure that virtualisation is switched on in the BIOS.
Workstation is a one off licence payment.
Make sure you have at least four cores available on an Intel i5 (i7 with eight cores recommended) a minimum of 8Gb RAM (32Gb recommended) and lots of internal storage (SSD preferable). Having a virtual SCSI SAN is also recommended if you wish to evaluate vSphere or Hyper-V deployments including shared storage for VM failover.
I believe Richard Parker's statement about Virtual Box is a great post with the exception of his last line. I use virtual box at home as well as VMware Workstation 12 (my director at work is very leery of freeware on our work network.) Virtual box is free and it does what most people need - I love it too! However, one of the strengths/paybacks for VMware workstation is when you use it alongside a VMware vSphere environment in your network. Workstation can connect to vCenter server or to an ESXi host and you can create virtual machines or manage powered off machines settings. You can attach ISO images, a USB key, etc. You can clone servers to your workstation and then test/tweak them yand subsequently upload your finished product to an ESXi host or to a vCenter environment. You can build a server, place specialized software on it, test it, even share it so that a test group can hit it while it is on your workstation and when it is ready for prime time, move/upload it to your vSphere environment. We have had a few instances where we were able to leverage workstation to resolve issues on virtual machines without impacting users. I am a fan of virtual box as well. At home I choose to use both because I had screen size issues on some of the machines I use for legacy gaming - virtual box worked better for some but for others it couldn't cut he mustard and the reverse was true for other platforms. But if you have forked over the cash to purchase VMWare workstation - put it in the trenches and make it pay for itself - because it will! BTW - I have not experienced the memory leak on my VMware 12 software - I will be looking for this though.