Difference with installing to VMWare or using the appliance?

[edokid]

Hey everyone,

What's the difference with using the VMWare appliance in the downloads section under VMWare server, and just setting it up from scratch and installing to VMWare myself?  Is there any benefit over one than the other?  Assuming that maybe installing from scratch better detects my hardware config?

[EddieA]

I think the appliance has the VMWare tools pre-installed, and the LAN and WAN are configured for the virtual NICs specified.  But beyond that, I think they're the same beast.

Cheers.

[cmb]

@EddieA:

I think the appliance has the VMWare tools pre-installed, and the LAN and WAN are configured for the virtual NICs specified.  But beyond that, I think they're the same beast.

Yep. Basically just saves you the step of doing the install, NIC assignments, and making sure you have the right type of NIC (e1000).