Virtual/sandbox programs

RustySpoon

Just wondering what Virtual/sandbox programs people use when setting up study labs?

I have a W7 64 desktop at home with loads of poke and was looking to setup a couple of virtual server 2008 r2 boxes for testing and studying.

What would you recommend?

(I would do this on a spare server but I've just had to use a spare or two for something else)

NullZer0

VirtualBox FTW
http://www.virtualbox.org/

VMware Workstation is good too but I like to keep it open source if I can.

doopa

There is a free version of VMware for windows (never used it) but if its anything like the other VMware products it will be rock solid. Its more likely that if you work in a corporate environment you'll have to use VMware products.

That said I've started using virtualbox myself and it seems pretty good. Slightly quicker to boot up if anything.

You'll still need licenses for the windows server installations btw.

Wompa1

doopa wrote: »

There is a free version of VMware for windows (never used it) but if its anything like the other VMware products it will be rock solid. Its more likely that if you work in a corporate environment you'll have to use VMware products.

That said I've started using virtualbox myself and it seems pretty good. Slightly quicker to boot up if anything.

You'll still need licenses for the windows server installations btw.

It's VMWare player. It's not that great to be honest. VMWare Workstation is a great tool but it's not free. Try Virtualbox OP

RustySpoon

In order to run VirtualBox on your machine, you need:

•Reasonably powerful x86 hardware. Any recent Intel or AMD processor should do.

I am assuming this won't run on my 64 bit W7 desktop?

Kinetic^

It will. I have it on my home PC that's running W7 64 bit.

NullZer0

Wompa1 wrote: »

It's VMWare player

Its VMware Server... [the free VMware product for Windows]
You could always dual boot ESXi (bare metal hypervisor) on your desktop.
XenServer is nice too

Wompa1

iRock wrote: »

Its VMware Server...
You could always dual boot ESXi (bare metal hypervisor) on your desktop.
XenServer is nice too

VMWare player would be my suggestion since he just wants to set it up at home. Server if he's planning on building from a distribution point or something. I'd imagine ESXi and XenServer are probably a little more OTT than needed but sure maybe he wants something like that. Hyper-V would be a good one to look at too then. Or VSphere

ronkmonster

RustySpoon wrote: »

In order to run VirtualBox on your machine, you need:

•Reasonably powerful x86 hardware. Any recent Intel or AMD processor should do.

I am assuming this won't run on my 64 bit W7 desktop?

What processor do you have?

Some processors are missing hardware virtualisation instructions so you can't run 64bit guest os on a 64bit host. But you can still use 32bit guests.

NullZer0

Wompa1 wrote: »

VMWare player would be my suggestion since he just wants to set it up at home. Server if he's planning on building from a distribution point or something. I'd imagine ESXi and XenServer are probably a little more OTT than needed but sure maybe he wants something like that. Hyper-V would be a good one to look at too then. Or VSphere

Sorry I wasn't very clear.
I meant "VMware Server" is the free product while ESXi is the vSphere Hypervisor.

Yup its a little OTT but if you want to run "a couple" of Server 2K8 machines you can squeeze more out of your resources with this.