Your main VM purpose?

K

kompulsive

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 11, 2008
Messages
355
I know a lot of people out there now are using virtual machines for a number of different reasons. My question is, why do you need a VM? Do we really need them or are we just caught up in the craze and think that it's really neat?! Please share. Maybe some of us will discover uses we hadn't thought of before.
 
I run virtual machines for programming and learning purposes.
 
Do I need VM's? no

But it makes playing with a beta OS or learning a new OS a breeze and is completely risk free.
 
I have to check email, submit time, do training and all kinds of other junk on my "secure" company laptop. I imaged the stupid thing and threw it on a VM on my home pc so I don't have to drag it in and out of the car every night (I hate that laptop).
 
Grimham said:
I have to check email, submit time, do training and all kinds of other junk on my "secure" company laptop. I imaged the stupid thing and threw it on a VM on my home pc so I don't have to drag it in and out of the car every night (I hate that laptop).
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I did that too....the laptop they gave me was the biggest piece of shit. Now its way faster and I have a real keyboard mouse screen.
 
Porn browsing. Keeps the real OS virus free and I can nuke it if it gets fucked up.
Its also good for allowing me to play some old games that vista x64 doesn't like.
 
Porn, keygens, software I only need for 2 seconds, school uses them to teach Vista, Server 2003+08, Linux, etc etc.
 
I run the diskless Folding @ Home client in two different VMs at once. I also have a copy of Server 2k8 installed in a VM to mess around with, though I haven't really touched it at all, yet.
 
owkia said:
I run the diskless Folding @ Home client in two different VMs at once. I also have a copy of Server 2k8 installed in a VM to mess around with, though I haven't really touched it at all, yet.
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diskless F@H? can you point me to some more info?
 
testing liveCD's of different distro's
doing a sandbox'ed install of different distro's
having VM's of different distro's that friends used so I can give them distro-specific commands (ie todo with package managers - where distro's really only differ)
 
i use a VM WHS to use for imagebased backups while running vista media center for recording tv
 
I have Workstation 6.5 setup with a team consisting of Windows Server 2008 R2 and 3 Windows 7 x64 machines on a virtual LAN to play with R2 and AD. 1GB of RAM to the server and 512 to the Windows 7 machines.
 
I have to run a Cisco 32bit XP client to connect through our ASA when I am on the road, or working from home. My laptop has a core2 Q6600, 4GB of RAM, and an 8800M GTX 512. It would be utterly stupid to run that hardware under 32bit XP, IMO. So, I run VMWare workstation on the laptop, and have RHEL 5.3, Windows XP, and Ubuntu VMs for accomplishing different tasks, and for learning new OS's.

Also, I am VCP certified, going for VCDX at the end of March, and am my company's VMWare and general virtualization subject matter expert. Part of my job is to be able to sell my consulting time to clients in a technical and certified subject matter expert.

I also built several ESXi and ESX boxes and environment in a box setups at home. Of course, working for a High Performance Computing integrator and consulting firm grants me access to a lot of toys normal folks don't have at home. Well, no one else I know has dual Fibre Channel switches and a tray of 73GB FC disks.

It is somewhat of the "boom" affect of cheap virtualization techology that has caused this, but it;s also the advent of desktop systems that are more powerful than clusters of dozens of machines from 10 years ago. Those two things converging have caused a very large audience to suddenly rise to the surface on this issue.

VMs are great for having a very fast backout solution for datacenters. For instance, I can get a "gold"image of an OS, pre-app installatino, but totally updated, with no unique identifiers, and no customization, copy it to a template, and store that to roll out new vms. If part of the install or upgrade on an existing vm blows up, as long as you have a template of it, pre-upgrade...just nuke the screwed one, and bring the template back online.

Just yesterday I added 3 new ESX hosts to our cluster, and I was running around doing all sorts of stuff, zoning switches, creating new LUNs, installing ESX 3.5 Update 3, configuring NICs and VLANs, getting a new license file from VMWare, adding the new hosts into the datacenter view of the VCServer in VIClient, configuring DRS and HA, and then VMotioning servers to the newly commissioned blades...all during business hours. No downtime incurred.


...That's why I use VMs.
 
Mainly for compatibility. I run mainly linux at home but theres just some things I can't do without Win XP. I don't like dual boot (don't like to reboot) so I make VMs.
 
Doing anything that can compromise the security on my host
Running games and software that'll no longer run in XP or later (I wish somebody could create a 3D accelerated video driver for a virtualized Win98 machine with DX8, OpenGL, and Glide support.)
 
I use Xp as my host, virtual box as my VM.

I use my VM's for testing OS's / running Linux for my special torrent app.
It makes it easy to test OS's, and if i hate the OS, i can delete it and try another. I've probably been through 8-10 *nix distros with VM's
 
I run a Vm that is frozen with deep freeze, I do all my surfing thru it, test software etc, I have a VM for both xp and vista, both frozen. I never have to worry about virus' or anything, once I reboot, its a fresh OS again. I dont surf with the host OS. I am typing this thru my VM right now.
 
Boostage said:
I run a Vm that is frozen with deep freeze, I do all my surfing thru it, test software etc, I have a VM for both xp and vista, both frozen. I never have to worry about virus' or anything, once I reboot, its a fresh OS again. I dont surf with the host OS. I am typing this thru my VM right now.
Click to expand...

Paranoid much? That's a bit ridiculous. Running a computer inside a computer just to surf...
 
What sabregen said. Good luck on the VCDX.

I consulted as an VMWare guru for a few years, got the VCP in 3.5. Moved onto an internal position at company big into conserving energy and am consolidating their entire data center(Exchange, Oracle, Citrix, app servers, ect.) to a VMWare DRS/HA cluster. Still in the planning and budgeting stage, so there's a good chance I'll be going with vSphere (ESX 4.0, new stupid name). Looking forward to that, good timing.
 
good luck on your ESX 4.0 implementation Taco. VCDX sounds like a bitch, but as a company we really need it if we want to run a NOC based on ESX deployed VMs, for the management capabilities (AD authenticated groups/roles). Xen just doesn't cut the mustard when it comes to those requirements. I am getting ready to roll out our hosted environment host deployment, which will consist of a FC SAN implementation, and iSCSI SAN implementation, and 6x BIM x3755's with 64GB of RAM and 4x8214HE's each (that's 64GB of RAM, and 8 cores per server x6, + iSCSI SAN for VMFS storage, and FC SAN for host boot/RDM mappings.

I'm having a ball with all of it, but I really do hate the tests. Love the classes, travel is usually alright/entertaining...tests suck.
 
criccio said:
Paranoid much? That's a bit ridiculous. Running a computer inside a computer just to surf...
Click to expand...

Comcast interrupted my service Jan 8th, just the other day. because in December last year I exceeded the 250gig Bandwidth limit. apparently I used 850gigs of Bandwidth. what percentage of the stuff I downloaded had Viruses, rootkits,Malware etc? I dunno, because I was protected the whole time. I may be paranoid, but Hardware failure is the only thing that will take my rig down because of how I am setup.
 
criccio said:
Paranoid. Sorry man, but that's insane. Back me up here guys. :)
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LOL i agree but whatever works for the guy. I recommend staying away from the shady sites and no downloading off sites that you require a keygen to install the software.
 
I use VMs mostly for learning.

Lately I've been using XP VMs in my Cisco lab to simulate IP phones with Cisco IP Comm.
 
Boostage said:
Comcast interrupted my service Jan 8th, just the other day. because in December last year I exceeded the 250gig Bandwidth limit. apparently I used 850gigs of Bandwidth. what percentage of the stuff I downloaded had Viruses, rootkits,Malware etc? I dunno, because I was protected the whole time. I may be paranoid, but Hardware failure is the only thing that will take my rig down because of how I am setup.
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850?? Wow you far exceeded my record of 600GB and I thought I did a pretty good job. I also use comcast but this was prior to them setting a hard cap. I got a call from them saying I downloaded too much and that I'd get a 1-yr ban if I used more badwidth even though they advertised unlimited at the time.
 
I use a VM for compatibility. My laptop runs Vista64bit with a XP Pro 32bit VM. Most of the software I use for work requires either 32bit or XP Pro (or both).
 
Great Thread!

And I use it for many things.

Windows VM's
I used nLite to strip down XP to a barebones install, no driver packs, unneeded services, apps or anything that I could describe as other. I boot them with 8GB C drives, and depending on the VM, from no secondary drive to 100GB secondary drives and with only 512 RAM. They are fast and light for thier purpose.

Real LifeXP - Run MS Money and that's really it. I keep copies of important notes that change over time, i.e. what my wife needs to do with my computer equipment if I die. (It's not that I love my equipment that much, it that there are things like our digital photos, MP3s. and a few other things that she will want/need to keep and since I work in security, there are things that will need to be destroyed. It also lists some trusted friends who will follow the directions I laid out since she doesn't do "the Unix", and help her unload the 30K of equipment that I have without getting robbed.). I also keep a backup of my paperless office here. I bought a two-sided sheetfeed scanner and all documents/bills get scanned and stored. I sync this VM directly to her laptop and she has the password incase things go bad for me.

VideoXP - Runs a few video apps that don't play well with Vista.

MusicXP - Runs iTunes and Zune software, so I never have to lose my settings/playlists/purchased items/libaries etc. Loading 50K MP3's in iTunes once is plenty.

FullXP - Full version of XP, for testing, whatever...I snapshot this after every update.

FullVista - Nothing gets installed on my Host-Vista until I know it's works in the VM and is safe. This also gets a snapshot after every update.

Beta7 - Title of the VM says it all.


LinuxVM's
To many to really list here, multiple versions (around 40) of Cent, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Slack, Mint, etc. Used for various reasons. from building firewalls, doing forensics, to just testing out a LiveCD...Some with GUI, some without, some server, some desktop.


P2V VM's
When ever I am upgrading a machine OS, like from XP to Vista, I P2V it and keep it a round for a while, if I haven't touched it in a year, I dump it and re-apply the license to a new XP build.
 
i like the idea of using a VM for itunes and zune purchaes.... never thought of that...

what kind of hardware are you running
 
Adidas4275 said:
i like the idea of using a VM for itunes and zune purchaes.... never thought of that...

what kind of hardware are you running
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I'm kind of in between homes at the moment when it come to hardware. I was running 2 Dell T105's for all my VM needs but I am in the process of decommissioning and selling them. (they handled almost all of my Linux and my P2V machines).

All my windows VM's I've been running on a NCCH-DL with dual 3.0Ghz Xeon's, 4GB of ram and about a 1TB of storage. This desktop is going to become my new home server, I'm just going to convert it to Linux and add in 6TB of storage in RAID 5.

My new desktop machine that replaces my T105's and my current desktop will be an i7 system, 2TB of storage in RAID 5, and 12 GB of RAM
 
I use VMs primarily for software development. I'm self employed and have a number of part time, on-again-off-again clients. One of these clients I built an Outlook add-in for that has to support XP and Vista, and Outlook versions 2000, 2002/xp, 2003 and 2007. Just to test that add-in, I need XP Pro with Outlook 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007 and Vista with Outlook 2003 and 2007. Since it isn't possible to run multiple instances of Outlook, I need SEVEN PC's just to test that application for all combinations listed above.

I also need to test instances where a user upgrades their version of Outlook and the impact that has to our add-in. Outlook is notorious for not upgrading well.

Also, that product has three third party add-ins for Visual Studio that would be "in the way" of all my other work. So it is very helpful to have a dedicated virtual machine just for the development of that add-in. Right now I only have one, but may need to have both an xp and a vista dev machine.

And that is just one of my clients... imagine supporting that without virtualization.
 
I have a full domain with clients and my entire Altiris environment virtualized on my desktop. I can run all 3 servers and a couple of clients to test software distribution, agent upgrade and so forth. But the one main VM that runs on my box 24/7 is my VM converted desktop image of our standard image here at work. The genius' that put this masterpiece together have it so screwed up that I refuse to run it on my desktop. So I virtualized it and I use it when I have to troubleshoot image related problems. It also has the dreaded full Novell client as we still run Novell here and I'd rather eat glass than install that thing on my normal desktop.

Yes that's how I really feel. :p
 
Boostage said:
I run a Vm that is frozen with deep freeze
Click to expand...

Am I the only one to think this doesn't make any sense? VM has snapshots that can be configured to always revert back when turned off/reboot, what is the point of deep freeze? If your deep freeze is unlimited free trial torrent edition, might as well use it i guess.

I use virtual lamp for development testing purpose before it's deployed.
 
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