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Lowest Resource OS For Virtualization Lab

Hash_Immutable_1337x

Hash_Immutable_1337x

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Going to try to prep to study for one of the exams in the MCITP track (70-640)..

Currently trying to analyze a solution for a virtualization solution to run on my system, to aid in preparations for my studies....

Now, I am familiar with virtualization as far as ESX and VMware vSphere and how it is a bare-metal hypervisor, etc...

My environment at home will be one machine, only, so my choices will have to be virtualization on top of the OS (VMware Workstation, etc...)
Ideal would be minimal resource use as possible...

Of course my system is not idea, but its all I have at the moment (unemployed).. I have a laptop:

i7 2670QM cpu (quad with HT)
8 GB ddr3
500 GB Seagate 7200 rpm hdd (the hybrid one)

Possibilities are:

VMware Workstation (on top of Windows 7.... what about compatibility with XP as the host)

VMware Workstation (on top of a flavor of Linux.. I assume the potential for lower resource usage over Windows 7, with this route)

Oracle Virtual Box .. on either Windows as a host... or Linux

I've heard of Xen.. Can it be managed, directly from my host machine?
I've played with it a while back.. installing it on an OpenSuse distribution, and from what I remembered.. when Xen was to be used, you had to reboot the host, and select the Xen - OpenSuse option.. not sure if that is how it works with the latest releases..

What other solutions are viable for what I'm trying to accomplish?
Greatly appreciated
 
Since the laptop is going to be used as your daily I would suggest just leaving Win 7 on it (assuming Win 7 is on it) and run VMWare workstation on the laptop. You may notice that RAM being taken up if you have too many VMs open or too much RAM provisioned to them, but you should be fine getting 3 of so up w/o issue. You could use Virtualbox but I prefer the VM Workstation of it due to the higher levels offerings it has.
 
@OP - if you are unemployed ..may want to stick with free products, no?

VMware Player or VirtualBox should suit you fine.

Your laptop seems perfectly capable to accomplish your study goals.
Your 8GB memory is the only "negative" if anyhting.- should be able to run the 2+ Windows Guests needed for the labs.
(Can always run each guest at 1GB memory)
 
That is what I stated in my post. You could use Vbox, but I prefer VM Work.
 
Well if you are testing Microsoft products, it might be a good time to try Windows 8. That has the hyperV client built in. Plus you'll be familiarizing yourself with the next OS release.

Also, I can't recommend a technet subsctiption enough, if you are studying for the MCITP. This will legally give you access to any MS license you need to use to study/test.

8GB of ram is PLENTY to study for the MCITP. You could have 3-4 VMs running no problem with that ammount of ram. This is for testing, and the servers will have 0 load on them. Your HDD is going to be the bottlekneck on that system thouhg. I would at least get a second external drive and store the VHDs on that.
 
Biznatch said:
Well if you are testing Microsoft products, it might be a good time to try Windows 8. That has the hyperV client built in. Plus you'll be familiarizing yourself with the next OS release.

Also, I can't recommend a technet subsctiption enough, if you are studying for the MCITP. This will legally give you access to any MS license you need to use to study/test.

8GB of ram is PLENTY to study for the MCITP. You could have 3-4 VMs running no problem with that ammount of ram. This is for testing, and the servers will have 0 load on them. Your HDD is going to be the bottlekneck on that system thouhg. I would at least get a second external drive and store the VHDs on that.
Click to expand...

Is the Hyper-V client part of the latest "consumer release" version that is out for Windows 8?

From what I've gathered, the Hyper-V client will only be available with Windows 8 Professional (once its RTM, that is)
 
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I threw openSUSE on my system lastnight and have been trying to get Xen to work..
Stuck at a point about some error of not being able to connect to a bridge (vif0) when I attempt to create a VM

I definately might explore the Windows 8 / Hyper-V option

Free is always good :)
 
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