Learning to Virtualize...

[skimask]

Virtualization newb here...
Surfing various forums, gathering info, Google'ing here, reading there, and so on...
Attempting to learn everything I can about virtualization, both on the hardware, and the software side, for free...or as close to it as I can get...
And this is just for play to see what's what, how things work, how far you can make things to stuff (yes, those are technical terms)...

On the main server side, for hardware:
Picked up an older server chassis for free, Intel SC5650DP, Intel SE7520BD2 motherboard, dual 2.8Ghz Xeon's installed, 16GB DDR2-ECC installed, using motherboard SATA with 2x 2TB drives in RAID 1 (has a RAID card installed along with the 6 drive bay for decent RAID 5...maybe later on).
Running freebie Xenserver 7 from xenserver.org, and using various flavors of Ubuntu for the VM's. 8 total VM's installed and running, although I don't have enough hardware (or hands) on the back end to try to load down all 8 VM's at once.

For remote play...
Running all the networking thru a 16 port gigabit switch.
My "play" laptops are a couple of old Gateway's running Ubuntu, a couple of semi-old Dell's running Ubuntu, and a newer Dell laptop running Windows 10 (using TightVNC) and Virtual Box to access a couple more VM's.

As far as I can tell, everything works just fine. I can start any individual VM on the Xenserver box from any individual laptop (or VM on the new laptop), but I have to know which VM to start, it's name/IP, etc. Doesn't work so well if you try to access a VM that's already running and being accessed from another laptop.

Problem/Question #1 - For all practical purposes, each one of these VM's doesn't know about the other ones, and none of them knows about any of the files the other ones are accessing. I think I have to create one more VM on the Xenserver that acts solely as a file server.....Correct? Haven't tried it yet, but seems like the logical choice. I can map "drives" between running VM's "manually", but of course, that info can change each time a VM starts/stop, maybe depending on DHCP, or maybe depending on which client is accessing the VM remotely. Doesn't matter. Point is, each of the VM's needs a central repository for data files.

Problem/Question #2 - (I'm above my head here.....either that or I don't know the right terminology for the correct question)
My wife sometimes does remote work. She fires up her laptop, 'dials' into work, gets her screen and goes. And according to her, so do another 100 or so people.
What is that called? The bit where the server would basically create a VM at will depending on how many users are dialed in? Or does it actually create VM's at will? Maybe each server has exactly as many VM's are required by the end users, and each VM is basically sitting on the drive waiting to be run. But if that were the case, each end user would need a specific name/IP to log into, and that could change since maybe each end user doesn't use the same PC each time (different MAC) or remotes in from a different place (different source IP).
Again, I don't know. Thinking it's boiling down to asking the right question...which I don't know how to ask...yet...

 

[koolaidkitten]

Not an expert but...

1. Yeah a fileserver is usually the easiest method. You could also do something like a NAS.

2. She could be using either a Terminal Server, or possibly XenDesktop. From what I seen Xen doesn't fire up VMs at will they are pre-created and a user is just assigned to a specific one, or possibly randomly assigned to one at login.

 

[Jaymzkerten]

For issue 1 you would need either a DNS server that they all point to so they know how to contact each other if they are getting addresses through DHCP leases (and somehow not the same address each time), or you could statically assign IPs to them.

 

[PGHammer]

Actually, if you are going to tackle multiple operating systems, you have three choices - vmWare (the original standard), Oracle VirtualBox, and Hyper-V - the first and the last are not unique to servers, though that is the bread and butter for both.
vmWare is the business standard and the oldest of the three - if you are thinking about taking your skill into the business world, start here.
Oracle VirtualBox is the odd duck in that it costs exactly squat - it also supports several odd-duck OSes virtually that have largely fallen by the wayside (such as OS/2 itself and various clones of OS/2 - such as eComStation).
Hyper-V started as the core of Windows Server 2003 - however, it certainly didn't stay there. It has been part of Windows 8 (the original) from the beginning - Hyper-V is also one BIG reason why Extended Processor Table support has invaded the portable space (starting NOT with Celeron, or even AMD's APUs - the battering RAM was from AMD, but was the second-generation AMD mobile Athlon II). My original virtualization platform is, in fact, a mobile Athlon II-driven HP Pavilion in (literally) white running Windows 10 Pro - which is primarily used for Android development and build compiling - literally, nothing less than a compile platform for mobile devices that is, in fact, mobile itself. That last, is, in fact, why I have largely concentrated ON Hyper-V - you don't need Godzilla if you're compiling for yourself.