Your own environmental factors will be likely carry more weight than our recommendation, but our best performance testing shows that linux installations tend to fare better than their Windows counterparts. Windows 2k3, specifically, was released with the 'Scalable Networking Pack' :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyId=6AEE2E62-B708-44C1-BABE-FC0E7B0F02BD&displaylang=en

...that usually needs some tweaking (specifically turning off TCP Chimney Offload and Receive Side Scaling for heavily loaded systems) to avoid what otherwise look like random network problems. Generally speaking, you'll achieve better performance on 'real metal' than virtualized (given apples-to-apples hardware).
So, for reasons of best performance and scale, I would suggest a physical box running linux. However, if your admins are more comfortable with windows, or if physical boxes are at a premium and a VMWare image is more accessible, then those may end up being better installation platforms for you.

-steve

We are planning to install Build Forge 7.1.1.4 and want to consider the pros/cons of installing on Windows 2003, VMware, and HP-UX Linux. Most of our BF agents will be on Unix/Linux machines.

Any feedback appreciated.

thanks,

Your own environmental factors will be likely carry more weight than our recommendation, but our best performance testing shows that linux installations tend to fare better than their Windows counterparts. Windows 2k3, specifically, was released with the 'Scalable Networking Pack' :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyId=6AEE2E62-B708-44C1-BABE-FC0E7B0F02BD&displaylang=en

...that usually needs some tweaking (specifically turning off TCP Chimney Offload and Receive Side Scaling for heavily loaded systems) to avoid what otherwise look like random network problems. Generally speaking, you'll achieve better performance on 'real metal' than virtualized (given apples-to-apples hardware).
So, for reasons of best performance and scale, I would suggest a physical box running linux. However, if your admins are more comfortable with windows, or if physical boxes are at a premium and a VMWare image is more accessible, then those may end up being better installation platforms for you.

-steve

We are planning to install Build Forge 7.1.1.4 and want to consider the pros/cons of installing on Windows 2003, VMware, and HP-UX Linux. Most of our BF agents will be on Unix/Linux machines.

Any feedback appreciated.

thanks,

Hi Chris,
I guess I am confused by your OS specification for the HP system. You describe it as HP-UX Linux. HP-UX is a distinct flavor of Unix and not of Linux. The Build Forge management console can be installed on several different flavors of Windows, Linux (RHEL, SUSE), Solaris, and AIX, but the management console is not supported on HP-UX. Agents are supported on HP-UX.