Virtualization home server questions...

[LeperousDust]

Right it struck me the other day (reading daveys thread) rather than fooling around with one ubuntu install, and trying to get a printer to play nice with the other windows installations, couldn't i install for instance VMWare on a platform of my choice (probably server 2003 /XP Pro), then set up some virtual machines, one for just printer sharing (in a windows environment), an ubuntu one for file sharing etc...? This is a sound reason for virtualization yuh-huh? Plus it means i can test it out of other PC's and then literally just move them above and/or backup where needed?

[Mark]

Of course you can.

Wasn't the whole Ubuntu thing to do RAID though? I wouldn't run that in a VM, personally, but everything else should be fine.

[LeperousDust]

Yeah, well i'd run the VM on one hard drive, couldn't they have access to the other four there for raiding? Or is that asking for trouble/more hassle?

[Daz]

While you can do it, unless you have a real reason to you dont give VMs access to the raw disks - you give them virtual disks, ie, files on your current file system. You could give it 3 or 4 virtual disks and raid them, but there's no point really, as they'll probably be on the same underlying file system :)

[LeperousDust]

Could i give it 4 virtual disks that live seperately on each physical disk? My setup is:
2 * 40Gb (maybe mirror them, probably just use one to back the other up)
4 * 400Gb these are empty and want to be utilised. What kind of performance/penalty would get in terms of virtualisation with Ubuntu and VMware using virtual disks (or not?). I only ask because i'd love to use Ubuntu as my main OS on there, but the whole printer setup is crap. It does the job just about, but its severely slow and gets confused easily because the computers don't "talk" to each other. If my mate forgets to turn the printer on and tries to print (which you wouldn't believe how often happens) its a nightmare to get working (without resetting his PC) again, whereas within two windows environment apart from more access to the driver options its just quicker and easier, annoying but true.... Or could i run a VM inside my Ubuntu install? That sounds good, but like its going to be "fun" :p

[LeperousDust]

Yay/Nay on the virtual server on ubuntu idea? I need a little rassurance because i need to pull the server down and move it so i can get to work on it, where it is isn't very me friends plus the monitor it had plugged in has broken now :(

[Mark]

I've run Ubuntu as a VM, and run VMWare on Linux. Indeed I've run Gentoo -> VMWare -> Ubuntu (and still do).

However, Daz is right. You shouldn't give a VM direct disk access, and I don't see the benefit of filling physical disks with virtual disks. Virtual disks are (comparitively) slow, and can crash just as well as physical disks - I've had it happen (the physical disk was fine but the virtual disk fried itself). What you're proposing here sounds like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

My recommendation - run Ubuntu natively for the RAID as you do now. Run VMWare on top of that and a virtual Windows installation to do anything Windows-ish (like the printer sharing).

[LeperousDust]

My recommendation - run Ubuntu natively for the RAID as you do now. Run VMWare on top of that and a virtual Windows installation to do anything Windows-ish (like the printer sharing).

Cool that was my second plan, wish i'd done this ages ago! What should i be looking at software wise within Ubuntu though? Anything special out there?

[Mark]

VMWare Server. Not sure it's in the repositories but it's an easy-ish install if not.

[Daz]

VMWare Server. Not sure it's in the repositories but it's an easy-ish install if not.
It's in the repo's, enable partner, then install from synaptic or apt-get install vmware-server, done፡)

[Daz]

Oh, I'd suggest waiting for Hardy if you're planning this by the by. It's coming along really well, Alpha-5 was really good but having upgraded to Alpha 6 today things are really starting to slick up. Everything just looks and feels slicker and faster.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardyHeron/Alpha6

^ A6 release notes as to what's working and isnt :)

[LeperousDust]

Hardy is out soon right? I may just do that, whats it like upgrading from within Ubuntu, or tbh since i've got frig all on the install, is it better to do a fresh install?

Ooooh Hardy is LTS too isn't it? :D Good good good!

[LeperousDust]

Hmmmm bit of an issue it seems, so VMWare server install went swimmingly, everything seems to be working fine, installed XP prof and have it up to date. Downloaded windows printer drivers, but i can't get my virtual XP install to "see" the usb printer, is this gonna be a task? I've added USB to the devices on the VM theyre installed in the task manager. But when running the driver installation it asks to turn the printer on and plug in and wait for automatic port detection... Nout happens i can't see the printer labeled as a removable USB device in the VM menu :(?