The Snapshot feature let me capture my basic machine configuration by pressing a single button. Then when I messed things up, which I do regularly, it was just a button-press to roll back to the saved version.

Since I wanted an isolated network to work in, I teamed my two virtual machines. Configuring the virtual network was easy but teaming the machines had unexpected consequences. Once machines are teamed, VMWare wants to start all the members of the team within 10 seconds of each other even if they were all shut down.

This would be great if I had 4GB of RAM. Since I don't, "cold booting" two virtual machines stressed my host machine. Suspending the virtual server, instead of shutting it down, helped and not selecting "Don't show this message again" on the informational popups meant the workstation startup could be canceled, freeing up yet more resources.

No, I haven't gotten into that database yet. I haven't gotten the virtual machines or Domino to work quite yet and all my evaluation licenses are starting to expire. It should only take another bottle or two of aspirin to get through a full re-installation. Or maybe, as long as I have to do all that, I'll try XEN.

[Another product to consider is the open-source VirtualBox, that does much of what VMWare does. - Ed.]

Mick Moignard has been working and traveling with Lotus Notes since Release 2.0 in 1991. Mick is a DominoPower Senior Technical Editor and a Principal CLP with Unipart Expert Practices, a Lotus Advanced Partner in the UK. If you want to discuss anything to do with this article, or indeed anything else to do with Notes and Domino, contact Mick at Mick_Moignard@unipart.co.uk. Unipart Expert Practices will also happily discuss any opportunities you may have with any Notes and Domino application development or infrastructure projects you need help with. Unipart Expert Practices can be found at http://www.unipartep.com.