I want to setup a home network server that allows for multi-user simultaneous access with custom desktop for each user. I would say the max user number would be 5. This is just a means of getting my feet wet with virtualization to see how it works and also consolidate some home network maintenance to a single location.
Of course, being this small in scope, I would prefer a free option for doing this until such time that I might implement a similar environment for a business.
Questions.
1) Can this be done for free using vSphere? And not just for a 30 or 60 day trial period.
2) Will the following specs work for such an environment?
i know my motherboard supports virtualization through the bios parameter.
AMD FX 6120 processor
32 Gb RAM
Single NIC
I thought I saw some documentation that says NIC minimum is 2. Is this really required for me to setup/install/run vSphere?
If VMWare does not have a solution for me at this time, are you aware of another solution that might best suit this requirement?
I have been researching upgrading to windows 8 pro to get hyper-v or using Citrix XenServer. Any comments on these technologies?
Any help is much appreciated.