Are you just going to be supporting Workstation? If so, then less to figure out than ESX/GSX products. Yes, download the demo, the manuals are good. What direction are you supporting (what OS on what OS?)

To me, the most (potentially) complicated bit is virtual interfaces and networking. The good thing (at least under Linux and probably Windows, too) is that you can rerun the vmware_config.pl script to your heart's content tor redo networking (bridged/NAT/host-only).

Have fun!