[dba-Tech] FW: Your Blueprint: Optimizing Your Desktop Using VirtualBox

Hi Lambert

I don't think so. The ESXi is extremely tight and is intended for nothing else than serving the VMware environment. Note too, that it runs on certified hardware only which mainly is newer brand named servers:

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

/gustav

>>> Lambert.Heenan at chartisinsurance.com 25-09-2009 21:01 >>>
Thanks for that Gustav.

I wonder, can one 'dual boot' a vmware system. What I mean is can you have a native OS (Say XP) on one partition that boots normally, and be able to optionally boot the VMWare environment instead. That way I could install it on another partition to check it out.

Otherwise I'd need some 'naked hardware' to check it out on.

Lambert 

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: Friday, September 25, 2009 2:45 PM
To: dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com 
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] FW: Your Blueprint: Optimizing Your Desktop Using VirtualBox

Hi Arthur and Lambert

You are looking for the VMware ESXi Hypervisor:

http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/features.html 

As for MS Virtual PC, it runs on Windows only. However, it is said to "reuse" a lot of the resources of the hosting OS, thus the sum of ram and resources consumed by a host OS plus a guest OS might be lower than that for, say, a Linux OS hosting a VMware guest with Windows OS. 
Thus, if you plan to run a setup with Windows guest OSs only, it might be a good combo having Windows 64-bit running as host OS for a collection of Virtual PCs with various Windows OSs. I having investigated this further, so I have no real life figures. 

/gustav


>>> Lambert.Heenan at chartisinsurance.com 25-09-2009 20:27 >>>

 In theory I'd say you are right, but the problem is probably that there has to be some sort of reasonably proficient OS to run the thing on top of as *something* has to provide the underlying services: you know dull stuff like disk access, screen updates, port management etc.

So I guess it boils down to which base OS has smallest footprint: Windows, OS X, Linux, or Solaris which are the major OS platforms that VirtualBox will run on (though there are no guest additions for OS X).


Lambert

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
Sent: Friday, September 25, 2009 11:38 AM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] FW: Your Blueprint: Optimizing Your Desktop Using VirtualBox

Although I have made everything work satisfactorily, I still am mystified and concerned that things are inverted. It seems that I must run a basic OS, whether Ubuntu or XP or Windows Server, and then run VirtualBox inside this OS. This seems to be fundamentally backwards: the first thing that boots ought to be a minimal OS + VirtualBox or any similar VM manager: the lowest level ought to be just that -- no applications at all, save the VM manager, thus preserving the max RAM for the VMs. Given such a layout, I could then create a dozen VMs and stuff only the apps of interest into each of them, e.g. Vista in one, XP in another, Ubuntu in another, etc.
This is pretty much what I do anyway, despite the overhead of the first OS, but I currently live with it (and also with my impecuniousness -- would love to cram 8GB in this sucker!). Ah well, another day....