This archive contains answers to questions sent to Unidata support through mid-2025. Note that the archive is no longer being updated. We provide the archive for reference; many of the answers presented here remain technically correct, even if somewhat outdated. For the most up-to-date information on the use of NSF Unidata software and data services, please consult the Software Documentation first.
Hi Noel, I am one of the people working at Unidata that has had experience with VMware Player running on Windows XP. I have played around with the Fedora 7, 8, OpenSUSE 10.1, Ubuntu 7.3, and FreeBSD virtual machines running in VMware Player and have been successful in running McIDAS-X and LDM. In addition to my experiments, another user in the Unidata community recently commented about running the LDM in a Linux virtual machine running in VMware ESX on a Windows XP platform. Here are his comments: "No problems with going virtual using Vmware's ESX version! Just have not tried it on their other products. Vmware Server is FREE and I suggest EVERYONE look into going Vmware virtual were applicable. I am still scared of XEN although a company called Virtual Iron has made a lot of headway from what I hear. Two main things I can think of to mention: 1) You might have to work a bit to get proper time. But it is doable, you will get many, many hits on keeping time and Vmware via Google. (I am running vmtools w/ time sync to host & ntp) 2) I have seen cases where take snapshots of the VM cause problems. Nothing consistent. Of course you can see many other gains with going virtual to include ease of administration and overall operation cost do to consolidation abilities. If you go with one of Vmwares Enterprise Solutions (SAN required) you really start to see the benefits of virtualization with features such as Vmotion/SVmotion and DRS. I could go on for days..." In short, since the current LDM does not run natively under Windows, we recommend that sites consider one of the two following approaches: - run Linux on a machine dedicated to LDM-related activities - run a Linux virtual machine in VMware on a Windows machine (XP or Vista). Run the LDM in that virtual machine and write the products received to a Windows folder that has been configured to be sharable. Please let me know if you have any questions. Cheers, Tom **************************************************************************** Unidata User Support UCAR Unidata Program (303) 497-8642 P.O. Box 3000 address@hidden Boulder, CO 80307 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unidata HomePage http://www.unidata.ucar.edu **************************************************************************** Ticket Details =================== Ticket ID: FKG-151989 Department: Support LDM Priority: Normal Status: Closed