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Good virtualization software?

J

Jim Bancroft

Senior member
I have a Vista machine I'd like to install Ubuntu on using a VM. I've been reading about Parallels, Xen, QEMU....not to mention Virtual PC and VMWare.

Open source that allows Vista as the host would be ideal, but I don't mind paying $50 for good stuff too. Performance is a bit of a factor, though I realize that Linux hosted under Vista won't be as fast as native boot.

There's more of this software out there than I realized and I welcome your suggestions!
 
Originally posted by: QuixoticOne

Alternatively, VMWARE Server is free, though IIRC there may be problems with it and Vista.
Click to expand...

VMware Server is a pain with Vista64, not sure about Vista32.

 
Thanks for all the help everyone. I'm trying VirtualBox now (will give VMWare Player a look too), I have it installed, now it seems the 64 bit version of Ubuntu I downloaded isn't compatible with my chip. The Ubuntu install says sorry charlie.

I have a Quad Core 6600, but Ubuntu x64 only recognizes it as an i686-- are the 6600s not x64 chips? Or is there a VirtualBox setting I need to set?
 
Originally posted by: Jim Bancroft
Thanks for all the help everyone. I'm trying VirtualBox now (will give VMWare Player a look too), I have it installed, now it seems the 64 bit version of Ubuntu I downloaded isn't compatible with my chip. The Ubuntu install says sorry charlie.

I have a Quad Core 6600, but Ubuntu x64 only recognizes it as an i686-- are the 6600s not x64 chips? Or is there a VirtualBox setting I need to set?
Click to expand...

The Q6600 is x64 capable, but you need two things (at least in the VMware world):

1) Your host OS must be 64-bit
2) VT must be enabled in the BIOS

I just checked the VirtualBox manual & VT is indeed required to virtualize 64-bit guests. If you're running a 64-bit host I would check your BIOS to ensure that virtualization is enabled. Many OC/tweaking guides on the web have you disable it, but you need it for this.

Viper GTS
 
Originally posted by: Viper GTS


The Q6600 is x64 capable, but you need two things (at least in the VMware world):

1) Your host OS must be 64-bit
2) VT must be enabled in the BIOS


Viper GTS
Click to expand...


Ah, that must be it. I've got 32 bit Vista installed-- to maximize driver compatibility. No big deal, I'll snag the 32 bit version of Ubuntu. Thanks Viper.
 
Yes that should do it. Read up on installing the VirtualBox guest extensions for UBUNTU LINUX, install those once you get the Guest OS installed, and it'll perform a bit better and have better seamless mouse / window integration with the Host OS.

 
Originally posted by: XBoxLPU
I use MS Virtual PC no problems in Vista x64
Click to expand...

With a Linux client? I had issues running Linux clients under VirtualPC. I think it can be done, but with many hoops to jump through that I didn't feel like jumping.
 
Originally posted by: lxskllr
Originally posted by: XBoxLPU
I use MS Virtual PC no problems in Vista x64
Click to expand...

With a Linux client? I had issues running Linux clients under VirtualPC. I think it can be done, but with many hoops to jump through that I didn't feel like jumping.
Click to expand...

+1 I couldn't seem to get linux guests to work in Virtual PC. I've had the best luck with virtualbox. The only problem with that is you can only run 32bit hosts even if you have 64 bit hardware, limitation of the VM. That's why you get an error when trying to install a 64 bit OS into VBox.
 
I've been spending the last two weeks doing research on VM software to consolidate our servers ( windows ) so we can run our linux needs and windows needs on the same box.

Basically, for the Desktop I think VMWare Server 2.0 beta is pretty solid. I have it running on Vista 64 and have installed openSuSE 11 x64 on it and it works really well. I don't like VMPlayer much because you need to get VM images already made. Server allows you to create VMs as well as run.

For Server stuff, I've tried openSuSE 11 using xen as well as CentOS 5.2 and Ubuntu 8.04 Server LTS using Xen. All three work but all three have their hangups. I just took openSuSE 11 off our server after a successful install of Win2k3 on top of it. Trying ESX 3i from VMWare now on it. We are also thinking about just doing Windows 2008 Standard with Hyper-V and then using 2008 web for our ASP/MSSQL web guest needs and Debian 4.0 for our LAMP needs.

Either way, its not the easiest thing to setup especially on consumer hardware if you need that for development testing. So, for me I would use VMServer 2.0 as its been the easiest at creating OSs inside Vista from top to bottom and its free. For Servers it really depends on your needs based on hardware and scalability. Personally, I'd do OpenVZ if I didn't need windows support. Xen is really complicated and I have learned a lot but its still kinda quirky if you go OpenSource Distro's with xen support. Compiling it from source is truely the best way to go but it requires far more time than installing the binary OS's with their Xen packages.

Sorry if this is more than you wanted to know but it might help someone looking for Virt support.
 
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