jwcolby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Fri Mar 21 13:56:47 CDT 2008
That is what I mean. To "backup" AFAIK all you have to do is to copy the directory itself that contains the virtual machine files. And of course to restore, or even just to move to another machine entirely, just copy that same directory. The host machine obviously has to have VMWare server running on it (to run VMWare virtual machines). Now, to backup the INSIDE of the virtual machine you would need to do regular old backup from the running virtual machine. This method has some ups and downs. The ups are that you can literally move your machine to ANY other machine that has enough disk space to hold the VM files. Disk space is an important gotcha, however a fairly minor one. In fact the VM can run on a Linux host machine, or a Windows XP host, or a Windows server host etc. My understanding is that a Linux machine is actually the most efficient simply because it uses the fewest resources for the host, the smallest memory footprint, the least unnecessary junk etc. I for one would LIKE to go with a Linux host but am very hesitant to do so because of the familiarity issue. One other thing to keep in mind is that a VM has horrendous graphics because it emulates a very basic graphics controller. No 3D stuff etc. Games simply will not run on these virtual machines. But for doing your normal office / web browsing and even development stuff they are fine. Their overhead is amazingly minimal. And, you can run several VMs at once with sufficient host hardware and memory and a small enough VM Memory requirement. I have a fairly powerful server which runs a quad core processor and 8 gigs of RAM. I run Windows 2003 x64 on that machine and it will host two very powerful VMs simultaneously. Which does bring up another limitation of VMs however, that being that with VMWare VMs you can only assign two cores to the VM. With the windows stuff I believe you can only assign a single core. I am amazed and impressed with VMs and what they can be used for. In fact today I am looking at getting my laptop moved to a VM, then reinstalling XP onto the laptop and running my current environment inside of a VM from now on. To take my laptop as an example, it has a dual core processor and 2 gigs of RAM and a 120 gig hard drive. I could throw the entire machine into a VM with a 100g "virtual drive", and then run it on the same laptop running a very basic XP install. The 100g VM drive would fit in the 120g real drive, leaving about 20 gigs for the basic XP install. I could probably assign 2 cores and 1.5 gigs of ram to the VM, leaving .5 gigs to the host XP system. That is a pretty powerful system even inside of the VM. OTOH If I ever need to send the laptop in to be fixed I could copy off the VM onto my big server and run "my laptop" on the server with 4 gigs of ram and dual cores, leaving 4 gigs to the host to run the SQL Server instance I have running on it etc. BTW, each machine gets an IP address and can be seen on the internal network as a real machine. If you are running XP Pro you could remote desktop in to a VM running on the server from any other machine on the network. This gives you a great deal of flexibility on how to control your systems. I have a client who is looking at distributing a database using two virtual machines, pre setup "at the factory". Have a VM running a database FE and a VM running a database BE. The FE virtual machines can be delivered already set up, the Be machine already having SQL Server lite or MySQL or an MDB set up and functioning. The FE then has everything needed to run it. Drop the two VMs on a machine and "link" the FE application to the database running on the BE VM. This allows him to make changes to the FE VM and ship that new VM to the client. The BE is embedded in a BE VM and is not touched by him. To the network ADMIN it looks like two new machines on the network. Cool stuff really. John W. Colby Colby Consulting www.ColbyConsulting.com -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Max Wanadoo Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 12:23 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT:Backup and Restore Complete PCs Oh right, I think I see now. 1. install VMWare on the remote backup PC. 2. install VMWare on the working PCs. 3. Do a backup of each working PC onto the remote backup PC. Repeat this periodically. 4. Run all working PCs using the VMWare software every day as if it was the normal (direct) system. 5. If a new PC is obtained, install VMWare on it and the recover from the remote backup PC. 6. Continue at step 4. Have I understood that ok? Max -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 1:24 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT:Backup and Restore Complete PCs You don't. What you do is always run a virtual machine. When the current machine crashes, install the VMWare server software on the new machine, copy the virtual machine to the new hardware and launch the virtual machine. Voila, you are running your "old system". John W. Colby Colby Consulting www.ColbyConsulting.com -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Max Wanadoo Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 8:55 AM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT:Backup and Restore Complete PCs Gustav, I could kiss you! That sounds really great. I have read the details on the site but what I am a bit uncertain about is how do I get the details out of the remote virtual machine copy back onto the NEW PC once I have set it up? Ta Max -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 11:10 AM To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT:Backup and Restore Complete PCs Hi Max Forgot the link: http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/ >>> Gustav at cactus.dk 21-03-2008 11:58 >>> Hi Max One interesting option is to use the free VMware Converter to copy a physical machine to a virtual machine from time to time. That way you can have your "machine" up an running on any other decent hardware - not at full specs, of course, but identical with all applications, passwords, and settings. /gustav -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com