This week I needed to do some testing on two different server setups and did not have any spare boxes handy. I have found in the past that i have spent a lot of time getting hardware together, plugging it in and finding install CD’s.

I set about trying an easier way of testing, and having a good spec laptop which I use day to day, I decided to install VMware Server on it. Then I created a Virtual Machine and installed a clean CentOS 5.1 build on it.

I needed two systems for my testing so decided to keep this install as my “template” or “clean base” and clone it. I would then have “clean”, “server1″ and “server2″. When I finished my testing I could delete the two server VM’s and would be ready to start again next time.

It worked great and I would highly recommend it. (Plus its Free!)

Stay tuned for my next post on: How to clone a VMware Server virtual machine!