Virtual Machine software

[pzaur]

Any suggestions for running a virtual machine on XP and Win7 64 bit?

Trying to expand my horizons and look into all the different types of servers I can use.

BTW - Free is always best!

-pat

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

start with http://www.virtualbox.org/
it's free and good place to start
gotta run, please ask more questions

 

[digicidal]

Yep virtualbox is probably your best bet for the 'free is best' price!

I've used it on a few different machines - although I'm definitely not impressed with it's performance running Windows VMs on an OSX host - however, that's not your problem so it's a non-issue.

Your other options (also free so you could try all 3) are Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 also Virtual Server 2007 - however, I'm not sure it will allow install on a workstation-class OS. Also VMware Player is a very compatible and reasonably quick VM solution - although as it's name implies it's not capable of creating VMs from scratch. There are literally hundreds of 'appliance' VMs available for it however, so it might not even matter depending on what servers you are testing (lots if you mean Linux servers - or none, if you mean Windows... legally at least).

If you decided you liked VMware Player - there is a legal way around the limitation if you are so inclined. OK... maybe not entirely honest - but legal nonetheless. There is a free 30-day trial on the full version of VMware Workstation - which allows you to do pretty much everything. If you have all of your source disks, etc. prepared ahead of time, 30 days should be enough time to create enough VM's to choke a system completely! Just set them all up during the trial and then use Player from that time on to interact with them.

Player will allow software installs, snapshots, reverting, importing, etc... just not creation of a new VM from scratch.

I use both virtualbox and VMWare Workstation (and Fusion on my wife's Mac so she can run Win7 without having to reboot constantly). Both are pretty straightforward and well supported.

And when you get past the initial stages and want to really have fun - provided you have an extra PC or want to build a compatible white-box server (lots of informtaion on their forums) - I highly recommend VMware ESXi as a hypervisor. I just completed virtualizing my entire datacenter in my office and if nothing else - the difference in fan noise between 10 rackmount servers and 1 massive tower server is heaven to my ears. Of course, it's heaven to my company's bank account too since the A/C bill dropped by almost $200/mo!

 

[pzaur]

Thanks, guys. Does virtualbox support Intel 64-bit chipsets? I looked on the site and saw the AMD64 listed but not the Intel x64 chipset.

-pat

 

[HexOmega]

What are you trying to accomplish with a virtual machine that you can't already accomplish with your intended host?

 

[pzaur]

What are you trying to accomplish with a virtual machine that you can't already accomplish with your intended host?

Educating myself on different platforms as well as learning how to setup a media server like my brother has.

I have two capable machines. Both of which I am unwilling to wipe clean and install a different operating system on.

-pat

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Thanks, guys. Does virtualbox support Intel 64-bit chipsets? I looked on the site and saw the AMD64 listed but not the Intel x64 chipset.

-pat

AMD64 and Intel64 are identical as AMD did it first and Intel cross-licensed it.
Big plus for ESXi - Its your best chance to try real virtual environment for free

 

[HexOmega]

Big plus for ESXi - Its your best chance to try real virtual environment for free

I was going to mention Citrix XenServer but then realized that, like ESXi, it would require him to wipe and create a dedicated host machine.

XenServer is what I use at work for instant access to multiple OSs and it has worked extremely well so far. When using it with another machine running OpenFiler for VM storage over iSCSI, even better

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I was going to mention Citrix XenServer but then realized that, like ESXi, it would require him to wipe and create a dedicated host machine.

XenServer is what I use at work for instant access to multiple OSs and it has worked extremely well so far. When using it with another machine running OpenFiler for VM storage over iSCSI, even better

XenServer is of-course another bare-bones hypervisor like esxi, but big difference is you can get ESXi for free legally.

Regarding OpenFiler - its an interesting product - i had set it up, but my opinion is what it's half-baked product seriously lacking maturity
Just things like adding it to windows 2003 AD was pain in the butt.
Speaking of it - I recently did a small test: Cifs file xfer on local 1g network:
OpenFiler Server on older HP DL380 with 5x145Gb 15K RPM drives in hardware RAID 5 and new "server" - Windows 2008 R2 on Core I3, Software Raid5 with 4 Sata 7200 rpm drives on Intel chipset.

Guess which one was twice faster and much easier to setup... The latter....

 

[jinjuku]

The thing to remember with bare metal hypervisors like ESXi is that they are limited on the the hardware they support. Just FYI.

 

[HexOmega]

XenServer is of-course another bare-bones hypervisor like esxi, but big difference is you can get ESXi for free legally.

Regarding OpenFiler - its an interesting product - i had set it up, but my opinion is what it's half-baked product seriously lacking maturity
Just things like adding it to windows 2003 AD was pain in the butt.
Speaking of it - I recently did a small test: Cifs file xfer on local 1g network:
OpenFiler Server on older HP DL380 with 5x145Gb 15K RPM drives in hardware RAID 5 and new "server" - Windows 2008 R2 on Core I3, Software Raid5 with 4 Sata 7200 rpm drives on Intel chipset.

Guess which one was twice faster and much easier to setup... The latter....

XenServer is available directly from Citrix for free, and legally at that. The free version is missing a few "features" like remote performance tuning but for my intended purpose it works great. They do require a "license" which you obtain from them for free and renew once a year.

I noticed a performance hit running VMs from the OpenFiler box on a local 1Gb network vs. local storage on the XenServer host, but that was expected. Interesting experiment, but not something I'd want to deal with on a large-scale production basis.

 

[krzywica]

Good luck, I've used Xen, Virtualbox, VMWare, and craptastic windows virtualization software. I still feel that for the features/ease of use Vmware products win hands down with a close second to Xen.

 

[Nemo128]

If you're learning, the free 30 day VMWare trial is your best bet.