Virtual Machines

Tekno Venus

Tekno Venus

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Hello,

Looking for some ideas for VM software. Currently using VMWare player 5 but that doesn't support snapshots which I would like. I now have a DreamSpark Premium (student equivalent of TechNet) account from my school and I can download Win8, 7, Vista, XP and more. I want to run the OS's on VM's but have snapshots to revert back to if I mess it up.

Using VMware Player for Win8 Release Preview from a while back. Good performance but no snapshots.

Looked a Virtualbox but apparently the performance is slow.

I only have one download/license key of each OS from Dreamspark hence the reason I want snapshots. I also looked a VMware workstation but far too expensive. Anyone have any thoughts/ideas/experience? Dual boot is a no due to faff and rebooting.

Thanks in advance!

Stephen
 
VirtualBox meets my needs in most cases. I have Ubuntu running Windows XP and 7 in virtual environments for security reasons. Ubuntu doesn't have a registry for the virtual system to tap into, so viruses have nowhere to go and are stuck in the VirtualBox environment.

As long as you allocate enough RAM and install Guest Additions for VirtualBox, it actually tends to run Windows faster than a system will on its own. You can't use it for gaming or highly graphics intensive applications due to the graphics RAM restrictions, but it's great for doing blue screen analysis and forum work. I have managed to use Autodesk Inventor in it, and that is fairly graphics intensive, but I still avoid it for anything but the most common Windows browsing and simple application tasks.

If you are running it on the system you have in your specs, I think VirtualBox would work well. What tasks do plan on doing on the virtual machines?
 
If you're running Windows 8, you'd have Hyper-V support if your CPU is SLAT-capable. Hyper-V is server-grade and does support snapshots (and should not cause undue performance hit on your client installation as well). Just a thought.
 
Totally agree with writhziden about VirtualBox. It's a great system. There are some software packages that require VMWare Fusion such as Flight Simulators, etc. but most software will run just fine and never know they are not on a native Windows installation.

BTW: Not sure about Windows 7 or Windows 8, but for Windows XP, it's best to have about 512-768 MB RAM or the system loads slowly on my Mac (which only has 2GB RAM maxed out). Just something to think about. You might not experience that with Windows 7 or 8. Not sure. But play with settings to optimize it for your scenario.

There is another side to why another, totally unrelated OS should be used as a host; particularly if you are using Windows as Guest OS(es).

With Linux as noted no registry to hook into but it can't run .exe files anyway. There are totally different types of executables between these two OSes.

I would suggest taking a look at VirtualBox again. I use it in Linux (running a Guest OS Windows XP) and on a Mac (also running a Guest OS Windows XP Pro).

VirtualBox works very well with most Guest OSes, but if you are using Windows, I would suggest using a Linux or Mac Host, or at the VERY LEAST, not using ANY of the interaction between the two oses, such as shares, etc., if you are using a Windows Host. Just in case. I have no worries sharing folders/files/clipboard between Linux or Mac Hosts and Windows Guest OSes. I am very careful regardless though.

If you must use a Windows Host as well as a Windows Guest, STRONGLY suggest totally isolating the Guest from the Host if you are trying to test malware on the Guest OS (this is something I would never do BTW). See my Sig quote for my reasoning about that.

And yes, very nice snapshot capabilities with VirtualBox.

Hope that makes sense.
 
Thanks everyone for the input so far.

Just a quick post - I think I'm going to give Virtualbox a try and see the performance. I don't really want to use Ubuntu as a dual boot since I don't really want to reboot when I want to use the VM.

Cluberti - Thanks for the info on Hyper-V but unfory I'm using Win7 as the host on a laptop. It is avalible to me through dreamspark though so it might be a future option.
Mike - yes, the system is the one in my specs.

Right, just arrived at school and need to go. :)
 
Last edited:
Back from school now, some more info about what I'm looking for.

I have more software than I thought to download! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DreamSpark_Premium

Anyway, the reason I wondered about Virtualbox performance was due to the amount of issues users have reported.

http://www.daitengu.com/2011/09/09/virtual-machine-showdown-vmware-vs-virtualbox/
http://www.turnkeylinux.org/forum/support/20120414/performance-issues-using-virtualbox
http://www.itworld.com/virtualizati...n-smackdown-parallels-vs-vmware-vs-virtualbox
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2410322,00.asp

I use VMWare player at the moment. It seems fast, it boots my old Windows 8 RP install in about 45 seconds to 1 minute. Also works well, except for the last of snapshots. The only workaround I can see if copying the VM folder to an external drive as soon as I install the OS, so I can delete one and replace it with the backup.

I am using the system in my specs. Reasons for having the VM's? I just want to delve deeper into the Windows core, kernel and BSOD analysis with NotMyFault etc. I don't really want to reboot and dual boot just for this. Whilst I can clearly see why you use Ubuntu for the host OS for security but I don't really want to faff around with that. However, I will ensure it is isolated, no shared folders, correct networking set-up etc.

I looked at the student version of VMware workstation, which would be the best solution for everything -performance, ease of use, versatility and snapshots, but it is £95. :(

@Cluberti -- Looking again, I can download Hyper-V from DreamSpark. I saw this - http://social.technet.microsoft.com...r-v-how-to-run-hyper-v-on-a-laptop-en-us.aspx but it looks very complex. Any thoughts?

Do you agree/disagree with what I am saying?

Thanks! :)
Stephen
 
You might think about at least trying VirtualBox. It may pleasantly surprise you. For what you intend, speed isn't that much of an issue; besides, Windows 7 boots on my system in ~15-20 seconds through VirtualBox, which is nearly half what it takes through the dual boot.

I can't guarantee VirtualBox will be as fast on your system. Could be that my setup in Ubuntu gives me an advantage, or it may be that I lucked out with the hardware interface being cleaner than other systems. I just think it's at least worth trying to see what you think before you dismiss it based on others' experiences.

If you go back to VMware Player, you could always create your own snapshots using Macrium Reflect or just copying the virtual drive image to a backup drive. I move my VirtualBox machines around on an external drive and backup that way. Haven't really looked into the snapshot feature that much since I usually have a backup sitting on my external drive as part of my Ubuntu backup, anyway.
 
Yeah, I also use Virtual Box for lots of VPCs. Never had a problem with performance and networking often works out of the box, whereas Microsoft VPC usually requires quickly bridging a connection (I never managed to get NAT to work!)
 
Thnks all! I was never discounting virtualbox, I just wanted to see what other people thought of it. I'll give it a whirl when I get a chance.

Thanks for the idea of Macrium, thanks! :)
 
Tekno Venus said:
@Cluberti -- Looking again, I can download Hyper-V from DreamSpark. I saw this - http://social.technet.microsoft.com...r-v-how-to-run-hyper-v-on-a-laptop-en-us.aspx but it looks very complex. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
I would run Windows 8 instead of trying to run a server. Windows 8 Pro and Enterprise both have Hyper-V built in if your CPU is SLAT-capable (basically most AMD chips in the last 2 or so years, and almost all I-series Intel CPUs and newer), and you thus wouldn't need a server for Hyper-V.
 
I have been using Virtualbox since Sun took them over. It is a pretty good product. But it needs some work to catch up to Vmware. I have found though it has problems with USB connectivity from the the host.
 
Cluburti/John -- Hyper-V client looks perfect on Windows 8, only issue... I'm not running Windows 8 as my main OS, don't want to upgrade for now and don't really want to dual boot. Is there any way to get client Hyper-V on Windows 7 or will I have to wait until I update to Windows 8? Thanks!

BTW, I do have Virtualbox installed and will try it when I get the chance.
 
To get Hyper-V without installing a server, your option is Windows 8. If you want to stick at Windows 7, you'll have to stick with type-2 hypervisor software like VMware workstation and VirtualBox. If you want your VMs running directly on the hardware (type 1 hypervisor) and not using a client pass-through layer (type 2 hypervisor), you need to run something like Hyper-V. That will require a server OS (not recommended for desktop use), or Windows 8.
 
Ok, thanks Carl! That makes sense. I might upgrade to Windows 8 in the future, so when I do, that'll be what I will do. Thanks for clarifying that! :)
 
Just FYI - I was convinced the Win8 was a lousy OS and that it would be a failure at launch.
Yet I upgraded to it so that I could have experience with it (in order to help others)

Now that I've been using it for about 6 months, I'm impressed by it.
Although I still hate the "tiles" and have seen the failure at launch (the local BestBuy didn't have anyone in line on launch day) - it is a great OS and has many significant improvements over Win7
Ya just gotta get used to the silly "tile" interface and then all is well!
 
I had the same misgivings about 8 when I first installed it. I've gotten used to it and how snappy everything runs. It's amazingly fast to load just about everything. Like you, the only thing that still bothers me is the start page and tile interface. I also was surprised by the windows themselves reverting back to Win3.2 rectangles, but the speed makes up for the lack of flashy graphics windows. A very lightweight architecture is always a good thing.
 

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