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Virtualization @ Home, uses?

S

s0rce

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
Messages
495
I virtualize windows on my laptop (running ubuntu) to use some MS and Adobe apps but I was wondering what people use numerous VMs for, especially on ESXI servers or equivalent.

What do you run in the VMs, is it for work, for fun?

Mostly just curious?

Thanks,
s0rce
 
2 Windows 2008 R2 Domain controllers so I can fiddle with AD, DNS, Group Policy, WSUS, MDT, etc.
1 Windows 7 Media box running Playon so I can stream internet video to my TVs
1 Windows XP VM I use for VPNing into client networks from home
1 Windows 2008 R2 server running vCenter
1 Debian Linux VM running Milkyway for folding
1 VMA
1 VMware Data Recovery Appliance
1 Windows 2008 R2 Veeam Backup and Recovery server
2 Windows 2008 R2 VMs for playing with various Microsoft apps and roles (Exchange, Sharepoint, etc.)
 
1 Ubuntu server (mail and web)
1 OpenVPN appliance
1 Proxmox mail gateway
1 pfsense firewall
2 Windows XP
2 Windows 7
1 OpenIndiana SAN
 
2 windows 2003 domain controllers,
1 VCVA for 5.0 testing,
2 esx5.0 vms for testing / validation,
4 LHN VSAs for SRM testing,
2 ESX4.1 vms for patch testing/validation
1 SQL2008 vm for VC/UM/SRM/composer DB
1 Oracle 11.2 VM for cloud testing
1 cloud cell
3x VDR appliances for vdr testing
1 windows 2008 play box
1 windows 2003 play box
2x LHN FOM
1 thinapp-repo
15 view desktops
1 windows 2003 lab manager machine (testing/validation)
1 CentOS linux webserver
1 CentOS linux development box
2 vShield Managers (for cloud)
1 VCOPS server.
2 windows 2008 vc
1 windows 2003 view connection server
1 UCS sim


It's my mixed home/work lab :) Don't have boxes at home right now.
 
12 x Windows 2008 R2 - domain controllers for various test domains
2 x Windows 2003 - app servers
2 x Windows 2008 R2 - app servers
24 x Windows 2008 - various roles like SCCM, SCOM, SQL, Oracle, App-V, File & Print, Symantec Backup, AV server
1 x Vista x64 - to laugh at
5 x Windows 2008 - various roles, Exchange 2007 primarily
2 x Citrix XenApp 5
1 x Ubuntu
1 x OS X Snow Leopard
1 x OS X Snow Leopard Server
1 x Windows 95 - Heroes of Might and Magic Test
1 x Windows XP - Stars! host
1 x Trixbox
 
haileris said:
12 x Windows 2008 R2 - domain controllers for various test domains
2 x Windows 2003 - app servers
2 x Windows 2008 R2 - app servers
24 x Windows 2008 - various roles like SCCM, SCOM, SQL, Oracle, App-V, File & Print, Symantec Backup, AV server
1 x Vista x64 - to laugh at
5 x Windows 2008 - various roles, Exchange 2007 primarily
2 x Citrix XenApp 5
1 x Ubuntu
1 x OS X Snow Leopard
1 x OS X Snow Leopard Server
1 x Windows 95 - Heroes of Might and Magic Test
1 x Windows XP - Stars! host
1 x Trixbox
Click to expand...

How many hosts do you have and specs? :eek:
 
1x domain controller
1x torrent machine
1x Mac OS machine (Since I dont wanna actually buy a mac)
2x xp boxes for testing acquired things
1x box to stream MP3's
 
2 ESXi 5.0 Virtualized Hosts w/nested VM's below:

2 x Uber VNX VSA's
vMA
vCMA
View Connection Server
vCenter
Few Web/App/DB Servers running 2008 R2
Domain/DNS running 2008 R2
Couple of Windows 7 VM's for VDI testing
Cisco UCS Simulator

Soon adding:
vCloud Director
vShield Manager
 
I'll echo the most of the uses already posted, but one major item for me is encoding DVD's and blu ray rips. While my workstation is faster, I prefer to push the task to a VM running on a box that is on 24/7 anyways, letting me shut off my workstation. I can queue up a dozen plus jobs and just monitor the output folder throughout the day.
 
adi said:
I'll echo the most of the uses already posted, but one major item for me is encoding DVD's and blu ray rips. While my workstation is faster, I prefer to push the task to a VM running on a box that is on 24/7 anyways, letting me shut off my workstation. I can queue up a dozen plus jobs and just monitor the output folder throughout the day.
Click to expand...

this is brilliant.
 
Currently a really simple setup:

Single ESXi 5 host running

1 WHS 2011
- With this I do Pytivo and manage downloads

Various Linux distros to play and learn. Centos in particular.

Nothing fancy as this is simply a home lab. At work we're small enough where virting doesn't yet make sense, but I've plans to try putting ESXi 5 on our development box.
 
Home:
1 ESXi server .. running
1xSlackware linux for web/mail/dns
1xSlackware linux for sabnzbd, couchpotato, sickbeard, torrentflux (20TB space),
1xCentOS for freepbx + asterisk

Work: ESXi 5
1xSlackware for web/mail/dns
1xCentOS for freepbx + asterisk
1xCentOS for testing changes to above system
Soon: 1xXP or Server not sure yet to replace our current Server2008 system.

Desktop Slackware system running Workstation 8 w/ one each XP, Vista, 7, OSX so I can repair other systems easily.
 
My home vSphere environment is a 3-node cluster with a total of about 30GHz of CPU and 36GB of RAM. Storage is a pair of Synology boxes. DS1010+ just for my vSphere lab and work and a DS1511 for the lab (testing multi-datastore things) and media, backups.

I use it for all sorts of things. It's a learn and test environment for my work plus I have personal workloads on it. It runs my Sabnzbd+Sickbeard download management system... A VM I use for BitTorrent. I also sometimes have to crunch a lot of data when sizing storage arrays which can takes hours (and even sometimes days). I have a tools VM that I'll use for that if it's going to take a while. That way I'm not doing it on my main iMac.

It's just nice to be able to spin up systems as needed to test something or try it out. Usually one of the three hosts is powered down via DPM so only two stay active on a normal day. Third one wakes up as needed.
 
2 Domain Controllers
1 SQL Server
1 Windows XP client
1 Windows 7 client
Backtrack 4

All within VMware workstation on my school laptop....nothing fancy like some of you guys.
 
Still working on getting everything migrated, and I need to build another host, but I will have...

OI VM for storage
WHSv2 VM for PC backups/web interface/file server (storage vmdk files on the OI VM)
VCenter VM
Untangle
Win7 box for PVR software (SageTV)
Win7, WinXP, Ubuntu boxes for testing

and

probably a couple extra WInXP boxes for my wife to clutter with coupon garbage (all the toolbars, download managers, etc) that I can blow out and reload at any point when she gets them infected with viruses...
 
ESXi 4.1
14.4GHz total
24GB ram

Ubuntu mini => Web/Subsonic
Ubuntu mini => F@H
Ubuntu Desktop => where I do work for systems and OS programming classes
OpenIndiana => ZFS storage
Windows 7 => Mostly to manage ESXi

Thinking of moving pfSense to a VM

I also have Virtual Box on my Desktop, nothing 24/7 though
 
Just a cookie cutter XP virtual machine that is copied to every desktop and laptop.
Fires up just dandy with 384MB (or 512MB depending on the host system) allocated to it and is perfect for browsing questionable sites, testing new software, etc.
 
AMD_Gamer said:
How many hosts do you have and specs? :eek:
Click to expand...

I'm only really running one at the moment for most of this stuff, its a dual socket X8DTN, 2 x Xeon 5504 with 60GB RAM. The Apple stuff is on a ProLiant 585G2 with 32GB RAM and I have some minor boxes hosting Lefthand VSA's for ISCSI storage.
 
Thanks everyone for all the responses, really interesting to see what people use virtualization for.
 
I'm running a single Hyper V box w/ an i920, 24GB of memory, and 4x1TB in RAID 5. I use it for:

My "lab"
11 Domain Controllers (2008 R2, 2003, and Win8)
Web environment (SQL Server and IIS)
Storage Server (iSCSI Target)
Win7 client
Offline CA and Issuing CA
File Services cluster
Routing and Remote Access
WSUS/Utility box

Home Server 2011 - My tuner (Ceton InfiniTV) is in my desktop machine and archives recordings to the Home Server VM.

I built the machine primarily as a server for running my lab and demo VMs. The Home Server part is a nice bonus.
 
I just streamlined my virtual forest a lot in preparation for a new hypervisor build, but here is what I have

2x 2008 R2 DC boxes (Both DC DNS and RADIUS, one has DHCP).
1x Ubuntu LAMP
1x 2008 R2 IIS
4x Ubuntu game servers (Valve games)
2x Windows game servers (BF2, CoD, UT)

Physical Box Windows Storage server (Torrents, 10TB of storage, and PS3 media server).

Once I get my new boxes built I will be putting pfSense back onto a virtual box, adding a Untangle box for gateway AV, and starting my exchange servers back up.
 
3x2008 R2 servers (2x DNS/DHCP/AD, 1x File Server)
1xUbuntu 11.04 LAMP
1xWindows XP for testing
1xCentOS6 for testing
 
haileris said:
I'm only really running one at the moment for most of this stuff, its a dual socket X8DTN, 2 x Xeon 5504 with 60GB RAM. The Apple stuff is on a ProLiant 585G2 with 32GB RAM and I have some minor boxes hosting Lefthand VSA's for ISCSI storage.
Click to expand...

What kind of temperatures do you see on your Supermicro X8DTN system and are you using active of passive cooling? Reason why I ask is I have a similar setup but during burn-in periods my X8DTN would shut down due to overheating. I'm trying to decide if I should get the air shroud for the Supermicro chassis or go with active cooling.
 
Right now I am away from my desktop but I have on my laptop:

2x 2003 DC
1x 2003 FS
1x 2003 EX
1x Win7
1x ESXi 4.1

Once I buy my T310 I will probably have about twenty VM's, mainly for studying purposes while I pursue my VCP.
 
Wow, you guys are ridiculous. I feel insufficient... My file server at the house is an older Core 2 Duo with a 2TB RAID-5 (which was huge when I built it a few years ago), but it works fine with Hyper-V:

Host = Server 2008 R2 (AD, DNS, DHCP, File and Printer)
VM = Ubuntu LTS (LAMP, Mumble)
 
Forefront TMG / Exchange gateway
Exchange 2010
AD/CS 2008
SQL 2008 R2
DPM 2010 sickbeard/sabnzbd/couchpotato file server
Sharepoint 2010
SCOM 2010
W7
W8


All of these VMs are running on my dual Opteron 8346HE server with 32GB ram in a Norco 4020. But Im a systems admin so i need to do testing / keep current. Plus im working on my MCITP cert.
 
Yeesh, where do you guys get all your MS* keys? I'm assuming the majority are from MSDN subscriptions of some sort or another?
 
1 pfSense
1 Astaro Security Gateway
1 Citrix Access Gateway
1 2K8 vCenter
5 2K8 R2 Domain Controllers
1 2K8 R2 MS SQL Server
1 2K8 R2 WSUS
1 2K8 R2 WDS
2 2K8 R2 Exchange 2010
1 2K8 R2 XenDesktop Controller
1 W7 golden image
1-10 W7 Clients (depending on CAG logins)
1 Ubuntu 10.04 LTS seedbox
1 Ubuntu 10.04 LTS SMTP relay
1 Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Unifi controller
1 Ubuntu 10.04 LTS OpenVPN server
1 Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Webserver
1 Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Rancid
1 Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Puppet
1 Ubuntu 10.10 Nessus
1 CentOS CactiEZ (probably provisioning my own on Ubuntu soon)
1 OpenIndiana NAS (this will be dedicated box soon)
 
Nowhere near what some of you guys are doing:

2x 2008 R2 Domain Controllers
1x SQL Server 2008
1x IIS dedicated sandbox
1x 2008 sandbox for development purposes
1x App server (for mirroring special third party apps I need to test against)

Thats it right now. Got a pair of Xeon E5220 processors and 16gb RAM running these guys. More than enough horsepower. Wish I had more need to run VMs.
 
s0rce said:
What do you run in the VMs, is it for work, for fun?
Mostly just curious?
Click to expand...
I run a single Windows 7 VM in workstation on Windows 7 just to keep Visual Studio and assorted junk from cluttering my main OS.

Other than that I run zero VMs at home anymore. When I step out of the office at the end of the day I am done with work 90% of the time. In younger years I'd go home and put another 5-6 hours into work, not anymore. Home is home and work is work, I try hard to keep those separate for my mental health and for my family's sake.
 
I've got an Ubuntu VM on my laptop that I rarely use anymore.

I still haven't had time since we moved to get my ESXi stuff set up again yet, but it will be running:

*OpenIndiana as a NAS to provide storage to the VMs (4x250GB RE in RAID10 plus a couple mirrors for storage)
*IPCop
*Ubuntu LTS LAMP for basic web-serving duties
*OS X
*XP
*Vista

I've also got a couple keys (DreamSpark) for 2k3, 2k8, and 2k8R2 that I'd absolutely love to start playing with.

I also want a VM to automate torrent downloads.. ideally I want to be able to send an email with either a .torrent link or a .torrent attachment and have it begin downloading without any interaction.

My 20-year-old brother-in-law may be moving in with us soon, and I'll likely throw together a VM to let him RDP into for web-surfing. I don't want to have to deal with constantly re-imaging the laptop he'll be using.
 
1xWin2k8R2 Domain Controller
1xWin2k8R2 with Exchange 2010
1xUbuntu Server x64 running my website and webalizer
1xUbuntu Server x64 running my DNS, DHCP, PHPMyAdmin, MySQL, Webmin
1xUbuntu Server x64 running sabnzbd+ and sickbeard for NZB downloads
1xXP VM for remote access to my system

Have a HP Microserver taking care of storage with 4x2Tb drives running FreeNAS (soon to be moved to an all in one solution using napp-it hopefully). Electric cost is a bit high running 2 PC's 24x7!
 
I'm running a Hyper-V system

1xWin2k8R2 DC
1xWin2k8R2 File/Print Server
1xWin2k8R2 Exchange 2010
1xWin XP
1xWin 7

All the above are just a test environment

1x Windows Home Server 2011
 
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