Vmware as a Practical Learning Tool

Abstract

Providing a dedicated lab to each group of students in order to gain hands-on learning experience is not always possible due to budget and space constraints. For example, in one class of 20 students, each student requires at least three computers with each computer capable of running three operating systems, such as UNIX, Linux, and Windows Server 2003. This requires a large computer laboratory with 60 computers in total. In addition, it is difficult to manage the laboratory to accommodate students from other classes. For example, once one class leaves the laboratory, another class of 20 students needs to start immediately with each person configuring Windows Server 2003 Active Directory on four computers. This requires another large computer laboratory with 80 computers. This chapter presents VMware as a teaching and learning tool to overcome the problems mentioned above. Under VMware, students do not require administrative privileges on physical machines. Consequently, they have complete freedom to experiment within their own virtualised environments.