Does Microsoft provide a different level of support for applications and services running under a VMware virtualization host rather than under a Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 virtualization host?

A. Most Microsoft products are supported under Virtual Server 2005 now, which means you get the same support for the application or service running in a virtual environment as you would if it was running on a physical machine.

Support for Microsoft products running under a VMware host is typically on a "best-effort" basis, depending on your contract with Microsoft. Microsoft will typically attempt to help resolve the problem, but you might reach a point where you're told to reproduce the problem outside of VMware to get continued support.