Noob questions

[MattDLEA]

Sorry for the questions but can't get my head around this.

 

A few years ago I used virtual PC to test PC and server installs.

Is virtual PC and virtual server the same as VMware and that?

 

Basically all I want to do is have a virtual server and 2 virtual pcs to test and play about with.

 

Now my current PC can't run server 2008 so I'm on the look out for a new one. The rest of the time it will be for normal office work.

Is an Amd or intel chip best and what should I be looking for in these? Cores? Etc

 

Cheers

Matt

[Demarcation]

the quickest way up is most likly going to be virtual box, if you are only using them as test servers, if you want to run them live I would recommend something more like hyper-v server

[synaesthesia]

Intel will get you a better virtualised experience. All the modern Core stuff will do well for that. Go for an i5 and plenty of memory.

 

There's a few hypervisors about (layers on which the virtual machines run) like VMWare, Virtual PC, VirtualBox etc. VirtualBox is probably the best bet if you're doing it on your own PC as it's free, extremely flexible and fast. It can also read the virtual drives created by all other solutions such as vmware workstation, microsoft hyperv/virtual pc etc.

 

If you have a dedicated machine for it, ESXi by VMWare is great - there's no real OS underneath it so performance is great, it's free for up to 32GB of memory and no limit of what you can run on it. It is headless so the machine sits on the network and you don't interact with it other than via software on your workstation (Vsphere Client)

Edited November 29, 2013 by synaesthesia

[MattDLEA]

Cheers ,

No this will be my home PC, mainly for web dev.

But every so oftern I'd like to do some ad or group policy testing at home to further my knowledge ... They will never become live

 

Edit haswell?

Edited November 29, 2013 by MattDLEA

[sparkeh]

I would probably go for the free version of Hyper-V Download Microsoft® Hyper-V

That is the 2008R2 version, I can't find a version from 2012, not sure if they released one.

[kestrel1]

There is a 2012 version available here:

Download Hyper-V Server 2012 R2

[Arthur]

this will be my home PC, mainly for web dev.

If you only have one home PC then you should use either Hyper-V (included free with Windows 8 Pro/8.1 Pro) or VMware Workstation (£123.50).

 

haswell?

Definitely! Along with lots of RAM (16GB or 32GB depending upon how many VMs you want to run simultaneously). Ideally you will want the VMs running from an SSD too.

Edited December 1, 2013 by Arthur

[MattDLEA]

OK had a play with VirtualBox.

Is it possible to get Server 2008R2 to run in Virtual box on a 32 bit laptop?

Im guessing not as 2008R2 is only available in 64bit

[Steve21]

That depends on your CPU, You can run the 32bit "host" and 64bit "client" as long as the processor you're using supports VTx etc, (Or that's how it should do it).

 

Steve

[MattDLEA]

@Steve21 Just looked and the computer at work is a ARK | Intel® Pentium® Processor E5700 (2M Cache, 3.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)

with 2gb of ram.

Will that processor allow me to run virtualbox and server2008r2 on it and another virtual box with windows 7 on it? I dont mind if its slow just will that work?

If so I will look at beefing up the RAM in it.

 

Cheers.

[Steve21]

Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x) ‡  Yes 
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) ‡  No 
Intel® 64 ‡  Yes 

 

It should be fine in terms of actually running it. The only thing you're missing is VT-d but that's more related to passing through PCI options without drivers being installed etc. (Obviously check VTx is enabled bios wise etc)

 

https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch09.html#pcipassthrough should explain that a bit more.

 

There's no reason you can't just install it on it and test it though, it's free to install, and you can use the 30/180 day demo's, even with low RAM. Then just increase it after, as you can increase it on the fly in virtualbox anyway.

 

Saves spending money just in case

 

Steve