You can run different operating systems on one physical machine at the same time using virtual machines — without affecting the operating system on the management workstaion. Each operating system is installed in a virtual disk file — therefore, there is no need to repartition the server disk drives. This is possible because VMware ESX Server does not require one-to-one mapping of an operating system with a hardware environment. When you are finished with the operating system, you can discard the virtual machine disk.
Once you have installed VMware ESX Server and configured its memory, disks and networking, you are ready to install a guest operating system into it. To do so, you power on the virtual machine with the operating system installation disk in your CD-ROM or floppy drive. The virtual machine boots and the operating system starts in its normal installation procedure within the virtual machine window.
You cannot install an operating system into a virtual machine if you only have an upgrade package for the operating system.
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