Generally yes, select Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 32-bit for VMs with less than 6 GB RAM, and select Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 64-bit for VMs with 6GB of RAM or more.
However I discovered while setting up my ATC classroom under VMWare Workstation 10 or later, that selecting "Machine Info" will crash the Gaia install as described in sk104011: Viewing Machine Info during installation process causes crash
There is a hotfix available, or you can select Other/Other for the VM type as a workaround. Selecting Other/Other forces the use of the older Buslogic/IDE for the mass storage driver and seems to avoid the issue when selecting Machine Info. Using Other/Other instead of the "correct" OS setting doesn't seem to impact VM performance or stability otherwise from what I have seen in my lab.
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My book "Max Power: Check Point Firewall Performance Optimization"
now available via http://maxpowerfirewalls.com.
Gateway Performance Optimization R81.20 Course
now available at maxpowerfirewalls.com
