I realize this is an old post and you’ve probably moved on from this topic, but I got to thinking about doing this same thing the other day. What if you installed a full version of Server 2008, then installed VMware Server using some repackager utility? The repackager would take a snapshot of the system before the installation of VMware, then a snapshot after the installation. It then takes all of the changes and puts them into an .exe. Then maybe install that .exe in 2008 Core? I don’t know if VMware Server relies on any of the elements missing in Core that exist in the full version of 2008, though, so it may just be impossible no matter what.
Well, that stinks. If you could pick only one MS OS to run VMware on, wouldn’t it be 2008 Server Core?
I wonder if VMware has any agreements with Microsoft around such things? I mean, that IS treading close on Hyper-V territory…
I was think of doing just the same until I came across this post. You saved me the waste of time.
I realize this is an old post and you’ve probably moved on from this topic, but I got to thinking about doing this same thing the other day. What if you installed a full version of Server 2008, then installed VMware Server using some repackager utility? The repackager would take a snapshot of the system before the installation of VMware, then a snapshot after the installation. It then takes all of the changes and puts them into an .exe. Then maybe install that .exe in 2008 Core? I don’t know if VMware Server relies on any of the elements missing in Core that exist in the full version of 2008, though, so it may just be impossible no matter what.
Anyway, just a thought.