I occasionally need to connect to CIFS shares on a Samba 2.0 server and an OS/2 server from my Vista machine but it doesn’t work by default. The fix is relatively easy.
This link was helpful:
http://www.builderau.com.au/blogs/codemonkeybusiness/viewblogpost.htm?p=339270746
VMware made ESX3i available for free today.
https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/login.php?eval=esxi&t=1
The hardware compatibility list is fairly limited for ESX3i compared to ESX 3. It appears however that the software will work on a variety of machines, but just won’t be supported by VMware.
As an example, a Dell PowerEdge 1850 is on the HCL for ESX but not ESXi.
I tried testing the free version of ESX3i on a Dell Optiplex GX620 and it installed without issue. I was able to connect to the web interface running on the host, download the VI client, and manage the server that way. I copied a VM from my desktop to the test host using VMware Converter and was able to run it.
I then tried installing ESX3i on a PowerEdge 1850. During the boot process the keyboard stopped responding. For what it is worth, the keyboard was actually a PS2 Raritan KVM.
I later was able to get it to install while using a USB keyboard. After the installation was over the console refused to respond to the keyboard through the KVM.
So I’m not sure if the keyboard refused to work because ESX3i did not like the Raritan KVM, or if it does not like PS2 keyboards period. Perhaps this is why the 1850 did not make it to the HCL.
But it appears once it has been installed the 1850 works reasonably well as a host machine.
Those are my notes so far anyway…
Considering this product cost $495 retail last week and is now free it is definitely worth a look.