Topic: VirtualBox, free vmware alternative

[guest22]

Hi all,

Just wanted to point out the availability of VirtualBox,  which comes with a FREE FOR PERSONAL USE or GPL license. the FFPU version comes in a binary form with full USB support, the GPL version comes as source code without USB support.

VirtualBox supports Windows and Linux hosts (and MAC) as well as guests, and on both platforms VirtualBox 'feels' (or is) faster then vmware and is less resource hungry. (and free )

I've been using it for a while now and SME 7.2 runs like a charm under VirtualBox. VirtualBox comes with all kinds of tools, including a powerful command line utility for moving virtual disks and even use vmware images.

It should even be possible to use SME 7.x as the linux host to e.g. Win XP and connect to these images from any connected PC through RDP. Nice spoiling of CPU cycles

Anyway, read all about the details on their website: www.virtualbox.org and especially RTFM (PDF manual)

Cheers,
guest

[cactus]

Hi all,

Just wanted to point out the availability of VirtualBox,  which comes with a FREE FOR PERSONAL USE or GPL license. the FFPU version comes in a binary form with full USB support, the GPL version comes as source code without USB support.

Well that is nice, but as far as I know there is a free versioon of VMWare Server (1.0.3) available as well, it is not GSX or ESX server like but it does the job. You only need to register to download the version.

[Paulus]

Thanks for posting about VirtualBox RequestedDeletion

I tried it on my Windows machine and found it better than the free VMWare Server. I also noticed it doesn't make new network adapters like VMWare Server does on your windows machine and my machine shuts down faster with VirtualBox installed. It use to take ages to shut down with VMWare.

I would recommend VirtualBox 

[jumba]

Well that is nice, but as far as I know there is a free versioon of VMWare Server (1.0.3) available as well, it is not GSX or ESX server like but it does the job. You only need to register to download the version.

Isn't is a huge difference? Just exactly how "free" is that "free versioon of VMWare Server"? (Besides free from cost of course)

I think we really should try to use and support free software as much as possible.

[Daniel B.]

Hi.
I just want to share my experience with virtual machine. I personnally use qemu to run virtual SME (and others OS). I never tried vmware nor virtualBox, so I can't compare perfomances. Qemu works quite well (with the kqemu module). I must admit I don't reach the native performances but it's working and it's full GPL. Most linux distrib comes with a qemu package (there's even one qemu rpm for centos in the dag repository, I haven't tried yet, I run it on my ubuntu desktop), wich make it very easy to install and to use

[marsa_matruh]

It use to take ages to shut down with VMWare.

Aha !!! That's why my PC takes usually 5 minutes to shutdown 

I will have a look at VirtualBox to...

[william_syd]

Are you using VMware-server on Windows XP ?

I thought that was a unsupported configuration.

[marsa_matruh]

Yes, XP Home SP2. I did'nt know that is was not supported 

[william_syd]

Yes, XP Home SP2. I did'nt know that is was not supported 

Windows Host Operating System Requirements

You must use a Microsoft Windows server operating system.

To use the VMware Management Interface, Internet Information Server (IIS) 5.0 or 6.0 must be installed.

NOTE Operating systems and service packs that are not listed are not supported for
            use as a host operating system for VMware Server.

64‐bit host computers can run the following operating systems for 64‐bit extended systems:

! Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, Standard, and Web Editions, R2
! Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, Standard, and Web Editions, Service Pack 1

32‐bit host computers can run the following operating systems:

! Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, Standard, and Web Editions, R2
! Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, Standard, Web, and Small Business Editions, including Service Pack 1
! Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Service Pack 3 and Service Pack 4
! Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Service Pack 3 and Service Pack 4

[Paulus]

  

I didn't know that VMWare Server wasn't support on Windows XP!! I was running it with Windows XP Pro SP2.

You learn something every day

[ewitsvcs]

As always, not supported doesn't mean it won't work, just means if you have issues, they are not obligated to help you fix them.  I have used VMWare Server on XP Pro SP2 as well. 

[imcintyre]

VIP-ire:

With your ubuntu you may want to look at automatix2. It comes with alot of nice things as well as virtualbox. I got it running right away. Have not been able to spend much time on it but it installed very easy and I got sme 7.2 running inside a box.

Ian

[SoftDux]

Has anyone used VirtualBox on a SME server to create virtual machines on the SME server?

Or any other Virtualization software like XEN or OpenVZ for that matter?

[imcintyre]

I got the advice that you could not setup vitual box on an sme server from this post http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=38805.0
I'd be interested in hearing about anything different.

[Arnie]

I've got VirtualBox working on SME and have an XP client running on it. Having said that, I also have KDE running on the server, so I don't think any comments I make here will be welcome. Before we get into a discussion about security etc, just remember that this is MY server and I can do what I like.

VirtualBox is easy to set up and runs like a dream. I find it is faster that VMWare and it plays nice with the rest of the system. The only nitpick I have is that setting up bridged networking is a hassle. VMWare is better in this regard.

When I loaded up the RHEL4 version, it said it didn't have a compatible vboxdrv module for my OS, but the module it came with loaded cleanly. I did, however, compile up a new module on a test SME box.