linux as host, Vista as guest

[mikeo1313]

I just started fresh with 64bit Vista on my quadcore desktop since I wanted to be able to atleast allocate ample ram to various server apps for testing and actual use.

Though it may tax resources aero, some MS apps, dreamscenes desktop, dock, xm & other vista gadgets are non-negotiable for my personal desktop use.

HOWEVER,

I noticed some people use a linux host to guest all their server apps because it supposedly hardly takes up any resources.

Then I began to think it might be intelligent to follow.... Not to mention I plan on using a samba server & it seems putting it as a VM is ridiculous.

So, that considered, I wonder:


1. How would my Vista os desktop expereince be as a guest VM ????

2. Anyone ever try Samba as a guest VM?? wouldn't that provoke terrible IO/performance problems ??? Or is there a way to get around that with certain type of drive config??

3. Is there an actual limit to how many server VM's you can run on a quadcore machine /w VMware workstation or Server???

[lewmur]

-{ Quote: "I just started fresh with 64bit Vista on my quadcore desktop since I wanted to be able to atleast allocate ample ram to various server apps for testing and actual use.

Though it may tax resources aero, some MS apps, dreamscenes desktop, dock, xm & other vista gadgets are non-negotiable for my personal desktop use.

HOWEVER,

I noticed some people use a linux host to guest all their server apps because it supposedly hardly takes up any resources.

Then I began to think it might be intelligent to follow.... Not to mention I plan on using a samba server & it seems putting it as a VM is ridiculous.

So, that considered, I wonder:


1. How would my Vista os desktop expereince be as a guest VM ????

2. Anyone ever try Samba as a guest VM?? wouldn't that provoke terrible IO/performance problems ??? Or is there a way to get around that with certain type of drive config??

3. Is there an actual limit to how many server VM's you can run on a quadcore machine /w VMware workstation or Server???" }-

I don't know how well Vista's Aero would work as a guest. If those Vista gizmo's are really important to you, I would suggest you do it the other way around and use Vista as your host.

As to having multiple servers, that's a definite yes. Severs don't require a lot of memory or other resources other than disk space for the files they are serving. The only thing I'd suggest for that is that you consider getting an additional ethernet card to service the servers. That way you won't slow down your Internet access if the servers are busy with file transfers.

I'd also suggest you use one of the "lite" distros for your servers and definitely don't use KDE or Gnome. Even though the "lite" distros are normally intended for laptops, they also work well as server distros because they don't have all of the bells and whistles normally loaded in desktop distros and therefore won't take as many resources away from the host.

[Gez]

I have a Windows Server 2003 guest, a couple of XP guests and one Vista guest running on a Proxmox host. Very fast, native speeds. I also have a Debian guest on the same machine purely for Samba - no GUI, very lightweight installation. I have up to ten users accessing some or all of the guests at any one time. CPU - Core 2 Quad 6600; memory 8GB. 2 x 10,000 rpm Western Digital Raptors.
Proxmox is a Debian 64-bit bare-metal virtualisation solution based on KVM. Highly recommended.

[mikeo1313]

How did you configure the samba VM disk btw ????

When I mapped a drive vs using network share for XP p2p vm the difference in performance was dramatic.