Posted: 8/3/2008 1:37:20 PM EDT
|
I would like to cut down on the number of machines that I am using here in my home. So what I did was put VMWare Server on my 2003 Server and then loaded up XP Pro and Ubuntu as a Virtual Machine. I'm typing this from the XP Virtual Machine. However, my hardware is pretty old so things are a little sluggish. The biggest thing is the delay in mouse movement which is pretty much a deal breaker. I may need to wait until I get a little more horsepower and try again. We have a few servers at work running on Virtual Machines and they work very well. I've never noticed the delay that I seeing here at home. Of course those are all on new hardware with 4GB of memory. Who here is using Virtual Machines, what Virtualization software are you using, what kind of hardware and do you have any performance issues? |
Excellent! I saw the prompting to do so at the bottom of the machine but figured I didn't need them. I just installed and it's made a huge difference. I hope to buy a new quad core processor and a couple gigs of memory in the near future. I'm sure that will also help out. In the mean time I've cut out two computers by switch over to Virtual Machines. I figured the Server was already on all the time. Why not have my desktop running on there at well. Eventually here I would like to look at some of their other products. Looks like they have a few other interesting pieces of software. |
|
I use VirtualBox on ArchLinux to set up an XP virtual machine so I can do graphics work. There just is no comparison between Linux graphics programs and Win32. VirtualBox is awesome, but I've found they key is the VM. I have use TinyXP for my guest OS, which is a very stripped-down version of XP. It is of dubious legality, but I do have a Windows XP license, so I'm not going to worry about it much. Short of that, I'd probably use a base Windows 2000 install. If you want help, give me an email or a PM, and I can walk you through it. Alternatively, I might be able to send you a copy of one of my own VM images that's already set up, or just the .iso for TinyXP (provided you have a license) |
|
I have run VMWare and Virtual PC. We use VMWare (ESX server) for about 30 servers right now, and will be using (GSX) for some Citrix boxes soon. We have a Mac user that RDP's to an XP virtual system. I am setting up the test users for our Vista migration with Virtual PC and a virtual XP box with our standard software package so they can flip back and forth. I have been running it for 6+ months now with pretty good results. |
Correct. As I said above; I use Linux for 99% of my daily work (web development). I have a Windows XP virtual machine installed, though, so I can use Adobe Photoshop and a few other applications that I must use for my job, but don't have Linux equivalents. Its also very nice if you want to try a different OS, so you dont' wipe your hard drive and not like it. Finally, its nice if you're dealing with something that may have a virus, to keep it contained while you work with it. |
TinyXP runs fine on 192MB of dedicated RAM. My 4GB laptop runs 4x VMs without a hiccup, and my old 512MB machine would run TinyXP with photoshop installed as fast as my 2GB Windows desktop. |
You can't run quickpar, winrar, grabit, nero 7, bitcomet and zone alarm security suit on any XP without a GB or more of ram. That's how my Torrents and Usenet VM is set up. I suggets VM for things like that because if it goes bad you can always just delete it and start over. 
|
Why are you running that stuff in Windows anyhow? |
Why not? It's quick, it's easy and it does an excellent job. I've got a ubuntu vm also. |
Use Xen |
|
I've got an old Dell server (dual 3 GHz Xeon CPUS) with 16 GB RAM running WIndows Server 2008 Server Core and Hyper-V. Couple of spare HD hooked up to it. Run various server OSes as needed, Exchange VMs, System Center setups with multiple servers and management consoles. etc. My quad core desktop runs Vista Ultimate and VPC 2007 so I can run Windows XP as a guest OS if I need it. |
|
If you have Windows 2008 Standard or Enterprise server it now includes Hyper-V. Hyper-V has better performance then VMWare as well as Virtual PC and Virtual Server. Your VPC VS hard disk images will transfer right over as well. You can get as high as 95% of native hardwaer performace with Hyper-V. The catch is you need a 64 bit Intel or AMD processor with Virtualization support. Microsoft also supports a lot of OS's including Linux on Hyper-V. www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f3ab3d4b-63c8-4424-a738-baded34d24ed&DisplayLang=en www.microsoft.com/virtualization/default.mspx www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/virtualization-consolidation.aspx www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv-supported-guest-os.aspx |