TV not working, lights cannot be switched.. what the #()@#!!

[DJF3]

It started with me being annoyed because my Windows did not come up as expected and it was getting closer to the hour... That means I would lose 1 hour of sensor data in my RFXCOM database

6 hours later my Windows did not show more than the background and a mouse pointer
System restore points, which I take once a day were unaccessible. Just like the Control Panel and most of the native Windows components.

Wife coming home to find out that the TV did not respond, lights could not be switched, remotes did not work

Having written a section on HomeSeer maintenance to monitor, secure and backup your system missed 1 major item.. http://www.domoticaworld.com (click 'HS Tips' on the left side)
WHAT IF YOUR XP CRASHES!

30 hours after everything stopped working, Windows is re-installed and VMWare Server is running with HomeSeer.

Fortunately HomeSeer was running in VMWare, otherwise I could probably add another 12-24 hours before everything was back to normal.. "Move your HomeSeer VM to another machine" - sure, but I just found out that my home 'server' is the only Microsoft Windows device in my house.

Maybe I should buy some small PC (like EEE box) as a backup.

..... What a lovely way to spend your time, looking at the sun shining .....

<DJ_Status>Up&Running</DJ_Status>
<DJ_Uptime>12 minutes</DJ_Uptime>

[Snelvuur]

so if homeseer was running in vmware, why didn't you just restore a snapshot of vmware?

[DJF3]

The host OS was XP that crashed. Had to reinstall that to run VMware server

[TANE]

Vmware clients will also run fine on OSX Vmware fusion or Parallels

[Rene]

You could try VMWare ESXi 4. This does not require a host OS. Otherwise use Linux as your host OS.

[DJF3]

ESXi 4 is great but it needs dedicated hardware, and I'm also using the server as a 'workstation'.

The virtual machines from VMWare Server cannot be imported or used in Fusion/Parallels (correct me if I'm wrong here!)

DJ

[wwolkers]

depending on which version of VMware server you are using, and which version workstation / fusion / player, it should all work!
In server 2.x you have the option to choose between machine version 4 and 7 (versions 5 and 6 never existed outside of vmware).
version 4 should always work. version 7 only works on the latest versions of the products (new in server 2.x, new in ESX 4 etc)