Rob's Blog

31/3: Using Lotus Foundations’ Built in VMware Server

In my last post, I mentioned the ability to run VMware images was probably the most important addition to Lotus Foundations with the new 1.1 release.

Lotus Foundations Run is the name given to the new add-on software that brings the power of VMware Server 2.0 into the mix allowing Lotus Foundations to host applications on virtual servers.

So now Lotus Foundations can host Windows applications.  You can install practically all operating systems and then install applications on top of those operating systems.

Installing Lotus Foundations Run is almost identical to the installation of Lotus Foundations Start.  Full details can be found here.

Now what I know about virtualisation takes about 30 seconds of revision.  I've recently installed VMware workstation for the first time.  I'm no expert.

I decided to try out this new software using a couple of downloads from Jump Box which basically hosts ready made images that you can use straight away.  The two I chose were free.  All I did was download them, unzip them and copy the image folders onto my Lotus Foundations server.  A couple of clicks later and they were deployed - that simple.

I deployed SugarCRM and Ruby on Rails knowing precisely nothing about either of them!  Obviously, using an application in Production is going to require a little bit of tuning to decide what resources are required but Lotus Foundations Run is extremely easy to use.