From owner-freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jan 22 03:13:38 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 95DED106564A for ; Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:13:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from colin@colinbaker.org) Received: from mail.derivataters.com (unknown [IPv6:2607:f4e0:0:202::2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5F8E98FC15 for ; Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:13:38 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.derivataters.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 35BC26782E for ; Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:08:34 -0600 (CST) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at example.com Received: from mail.derivataters.com ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (colinb.colo.supranet.net [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 12QPTfRBH-q7 for ; Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:08:33 -0600 (CST) Received: from vein.home.derivataters.com (97-88-245-202.static.mdsn.wi.charter.com [97.88.245.202]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.derivataters.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 4490067825 for ; Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:08:33 -0600 (CST) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-15; format=flowed; delsp=yes To: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org References: <4F1B1C45.60902@freebsd.org> Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:13:10 -0600 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: "Colin Baker" Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <4F1B1C45.60902@freebsd.org> User-Agent: Opera Mail/11.60 (Win32) Subject: Re: so, FreeBSD on VMware is dead, right? X-BeenThere: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting software to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:13:38 -0000 On Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:12:53 -0600, Michael Scheidell wrote: > I reached out to a high level sr engineer at VMware and told him there > was a lot of companies using FreeBSD on VMware, and a lot more that > would, if just VMware gave us some love (fixed, or helped us fix some > device drivers). > > He asked "how many"? > > Well, I sure can't go back to him and tell him that there was only one > company who contacted me back who said that they used VMware in > production systems, with FreeBSD guest os. > > If there isn't anyone else with VMware problems, and I really want to be > clear: VMware is a 'for profit' company, so, small numbers won't > impress them, but if there are any companies (aside from the one that > contacted me.. you don't have to again, I have your email). > > If no one else, I'll call him back on the phone and apologize for > bothering him. > > I was really hoping to get some of the virtual nic issues, and hgfs > issues worked out, but, I guess there isn't enough commercial interest. My company uses FreeBSD on VMware in production quite extensively. We've had a support case open with VMware for almost two years about guest crashes that occur randomly (basically, guests just completely stop responding and require reboot. We've had this happen on different hardware, multiple storage backends, multiple FreeBSD versions, multiple different VMware clusters), and frequently enough to cause serious complaints from users. VMware has yet to give us any answers, other than "enable ____ additional debug logging". I don't believe they've taken our issue seriously, it hasn't been escalated, and it has gone on far too long without any solution. The benefits of their product still outweigh the drawbacks (though we've moved the most critical systems back to native hardware), but it's gotten to the point in which as soon as a competitor has the features we need, we're gone.