This thread should be a lil step by step tutorial how you can create and edit a virtual machine. From time to time, i'll edit and add some more things (some parts are missing).
To improve the readability i added spoiler tags.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background
Not expensive != free
cheaper than cheap: for free!
Using VMWare Player
Create your own virtual machine!
Working on nets? Spiderman? nope just Networking...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To proof that it's not everything what i said above was completly bollox
, i wanna post a pic of my WinXP (Host) with FreeBSD 6.0 (using KDE 3.5) as virtual machine.
both are connected to the Internet:
hf
To improve the readability i added spoiler tags.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background
A virtual machine is a whole emulated computer environment (Slave) on a single real computer (Host). So one single computer (Host) can emulate many different slaves.
Nightmare scenario: Your holy PC system is damaged by a corrupt installation or virus. Your only chance is to reinstall windows. Even if you made a clone with a imagening software you lose time and possible many files.
This scenario shows pretty good why virtual systems are so handy, and there are quite some more pros, you should consider:
Well, like almost everywhere, you can find expensive (ESX Server), cheap and even free solutions for reaching the virtualisation "goal".
In this thread i gonna focus on the for free solution.
Nightmare scenario: Your holy PC system is damaged by a corrupt installation or virus. Your only chance is to reinstall windows. Even if you made a clone with a imagening software you lose time and possible many files.
This scenario shows pretty good why virtual systems are so handy, and there are quite some more pros, you should consider:
- Security: The Slavesystem is seperated from teh Hostsystem. If the Slavesystem is damaged the Hostsystem still runs.
- Backup: You can easily backup a whole slave System. You only have to save one file (The virtual Harddisk).
- Testing: You can create many clones of one slave system. so you can test different Updates or programversions as much you want, and dont be afraid to damage one and unique system.
- Gaming: You can setup more than just one dedicated (virtual) servers on your machine.
- infrastructur: Some Servers are used rarely or need not much power for their tasks (i.e. Printservers). Using a whole physical server could be waste of space, money and ressources.
- There's no hardware accelerated graphics inside the virtual machine, so games that use 3d graphics (such as UT), will not work or run via software rendering (that's very very slow).
- If you wanna emulate Windows, your Hostsystem has to be a good machine (esp. much RAM)
Well, like almost everywhere, you can find expensive (ESX Server), cheap and even free solutions for reaching the virtualisation "goal".
In this thread i gonna focus on the for free solution.
Not expensive != free
Before i gonna explain the "0€" VMWare way, i'll inform you, that there are two famous programs:
Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 is for free.
The fullversion of VMWare Workstation 5.5 cost money. Both can create/edit/publish virtual machines (slaves).
Only VMWare supports USB-ports (version 1.1) and 64-bit architecture.
With both programms Snapshots are possible. Special emulation drivers improves graphic and mouse performance on the slave system.
Personally i prefer VMWare Workstation 5.5, it has more features and better performance compared to Virtual PC.
But if you cba spending money for VMWare Workstation you can take MS Virtual PC or read on...
Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 is for free.
The fullversion of VMWare Workstation 5.5 cost money. Both can create/edit/publish virtual machines (slaves).
Only VMWare supports USB-ports (version 1.1) and 64-bit architecture.
With both programms Snapshots are possible. Special emulation drivers improves graphic and mouse performance on the slave system.
Personally i prefer VMWare Workstation 5.5, it has more features and better performance compared to Virtual PC.
But if you cba spending money for VMWare Workstation you can take MS Virtual PC or read on...
cheaper than cheap: for free!
VMWare released VMWare Player.
With this Player you can run virtual machines for free (similar to the Acrobat Reader from Acrobat).
For creating own virtual machines you need another programm.
It's called VMXBuilder and can be found here.
Hundreds of existing virtual Machines are available in teh WWW. Many different virtual machines for the VMWare Player
(mostly Linux ofc, but a Os called ReactOS looks pretty interesting. It's a real Windows clone and should be compatible to windows programs)
These two programs are enough to create/edit and run all VMWare virtual machines.
If you dont need any kinky features like Snapshots or special drivers for slave systems, those are enough. And they are for free!
With this Player you can run virtual machines for free (similar to the Acrobat Reader from Acrobat).
For creating own virtual machines you need another programm.
It's called VMXBuilder and can be found here.
Hundreds of existing virtual Machines are available in teh WWW. Many different virtual machines for the VMWare Player
(mostly Linux ofc, but a Os called ReactOS looks pretty interesting. It's a real Windows clone and should be compatible to windows programs)
These two programs are enough to create/edit and run all VMWare virtual machines.
If you dont need any kinky features like Snapshots or special drivers for slave systems, those are enough. And they are for free!
Using VMWare Player
You downloaded a vmx-file and wanna run it? ha, lets see how you can do that:
1) Download and unpack a virtual machine.
2) Start the program VMWare Player
3) Select the VMX file.
4) prolly an UUID message pops up. It's always adviceable to select "create".
UUID are used in many OS and protocols to communicate in networks. There every machine should have an unique UUID (like the IP-adress btw). Otherwise that can cause problems.
5) The virtual system will boot like a normal machine.
6) Click in the Player window to use mouse and keyboard in the virtual machine
1) Download and unpack a virtual machine.
2) Start the program VMWare Player
3) Select the VMX file.
4) prolly an UUID message pops up. It's always adviceable to select "create".
UUID are used in many OS and protocols to communicate in networks. There every machine should have an unique UUID (like the IP-adress btw). Otherwise that can cause problems.
5) The virtual system will boot like a normal machine.
6) Click in the Player window to use mouse and keyboard in the virtual machine
Create your own virtual machine!
1) Start the program VMXBuilder
2) Create New virtual Machine
3) Follow Instructions and select details (select OS, memory size, amount of Harddsiks, etc)
4) Start virtual machine with clicking on the green arrow in the symbol bar.
5) Be sure that the Floppy/CD of the Operating system is in your Computer and the Device is mounted.
6) click into the VMWare Player window and install the OS as usual (f you wanna go back to your hostsystem, just press Ctrl+Alt).
2) Create New virtual Machine
3) Follow Instructions and select details (select OS, memory size, amount of Harddsiks, etc)
4) Start virtual machine with clicking on the green arrow in the symbol bar.
5) Be sure that the Floppy/CD of the Operating system is in your Computer and the Device is mounted.
6) click into the VMWare Player window and install the OS as usual (f you wanna go back to your hostsystem, just press Ctrl+Alt).
Working on nets? Spiderman? nope just Networking...
After the installation of VMWare Player you'll find two new network connections: VmWare1 and VMWare8.
Both are virtual switches and are used for communitcation between Host/slave system (although that is pretty much "easyfied")
To connect the slavesystem on a network, you've some possilities:
(So from outside it looks like two computers)
NAT: uses the Host IP-adress and (TCP/IP) network connection. From outside it will look like as if the host machine send a request.
For testing i used NAT to surf with the slave system via my Host system. It worked quite well, incase you've a router it may cause problems. Then you've to use bridged networking.
Both are virtual switches and are used for communitcation between Host/slave system (although that is pretty much "easyfied"
)To connect the slavesystem on a network, you've some possilities:
- Bridged
- NAT
(So from outside it looks like two computers)
NAT: uses the Host IP-adress and (TCP/IP) network connection. From outside it will look like as if the host machine send a request.
For testing i used NAT to surf with the slave system via my Host system. It worked quite well, incase you've a router it may cause problems. Then you've to use bridged networking.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To proof that it's not everything what i said above was completly bollox
, i wanna post a pic of my WinXP (Host) with FreeBSD 6.0 (using KDE 3.5) as virtual machine.both are connected to the Internet:
hf
Last edited:
