Lab Setup Opinions

I have obtained a newer tower for my home lab.

Specs: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz, 750GB Sata, and 6GB DDR2.....

I have a legal copy of Win7 Pro 64-bit.

Would you recommend using the Win7 as the base OS and use Virtual PC / Virtual Box for Win Server 03 and XP Pro VM's?

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Comments

UnixGeek

If the server is going to double as a workstation, then that would be one way to go. If your intention is to dedicate it to being a lab server though, I'd load a ESXi, or another bare metal hypervisor of your choice (Xen, Hyper-V...). Any of those should outperform Virtual PC / Virtual Box for labs.

RobertKaucher

I would suggest a second hard drive with VMWare ESXi installed. I assume you have another computer you could use to manage the system from? You could use the other virtualization systems, but I don't think anything really matches something like Hyper-V or ESXi.

CompuTron99

In order to keep costs down...

Are there Trial or Free versions?

bwcarty

If it's going to be a dedicated server for your lab, I'd try VMware ESXi first. You'll save a lot of overhead, especially RAM.

If you only have one licensed copy of Windows 7, it makes even more sense to build your server on ESXi and upgrade your desktop/laptop to 7.

[edit]
Heh..when I first started this, there were no responses...I got distracted, clicked submit a few minutes later, and several people had already suggested about the same thing.

ESXi is free... http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi/

brad-

If this is 'your' pc that you will be doing any number of other things on, I wouldnt use a baremetal hypervisor, i'd go with Win7 + Virtual PC.

Does anyone know if there are other free virtualization programs out there like Virtual PC that run on an OS and are not baremetal? I just remember Virtual PC being so useful for temporarily bringing machines up - like in the case of training or disaster recovery.

CompuTron99

brad- wrote: »

If this is 'your' pc that you will be doing any number of other things on, I wouldnt use a baremetal hypervisor, i'd go with Win7 + Virtual PC.

Does anyone know if there are other free virtualization programs out there like Virtual PC that run on an OS and are not baremetal? I just remember Virtual PC being so useful for temporarily bringing machines up - like in the case of training or disaster recovery.

Yes.. I picked up this system to keep in my basement for lab testing / training. My older PC is using Dual-Boot WinXP Pro and Ubuntu. It was too slow to keep working with.

Hyper-Me

I would suggest getting an eval or full version copy of Server 2008 R2, and run it out of a VHD boot. That way you can use hyper-v and keep the server OS contained while also using your 7 install for whatever else. Once you are done with the Server OS you can just delete the VHD file and remove the boot entry and voila, its gone.

EDIT: Throwing ESXi on another hard disk is fine too, but if you dont have the cash for another drive then what I said above will work as well.

UnixGeek

CompuTron99 wrote: »

In order to keep costs down...

Are there Trial or Free versions?

ESXi is free. You can even install it onto a USB flash drive if you'd like. My lab's ESXi box is booting off a Compact Flash card.

Hyper-Me

UnixGeek wrote: »

ESXi is free. You can even install it onto a USB flash drive if you'd like. My lab's ESXi box is booting off a Compact Flash card.

Now thats pretty bitchin'