Choosing a server OS...

I'm going to suggest an alternative solution here - as this isn't a production environment (please correct me if I am wrong) then I would simply run Server 2008 R2 natively on the hardware. This will give you the best performance and easiest path of hooking up printers, scanners etc... into and still be able to use a KVM combo to control it rather than relying on software management only (ie rdp / vmware client) and configuring vmware pass through options.

Then I would run, using a guest hypervisor (ie hyperv, vmware workstation) then the guest linux OS inside that.
 
Hmmm, I'm tempted to do it like that for the ease of setting it up but think I'm going to do it "properly" so I can back up the images. Cheers for the input though!
 
Muel said:
Hmmm, I'm tempted to do it like that for the ease of setting it up but think I'm going to do it "properly" so I can back up the images. Cheers for the input though!
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HyperV on server 2008r2 is a proper solution for virtualisation. Oracle box, or vmware workstation etc.. are fine for development needs but out the box they need work to function akin to ESX.

You'll get the best possible performance with 2008r2 native against a virtualised instance on your hardware.
 
ecksmen said:
HyperV on server 2008r2 is a proper solution for virtualisation. Oracle box, or vmware workstation etc.. are fine for development needs but out the box they need work to function akin to ESX.

You'll get the best possible performance with 2008r2 native against a virtualised instance on your hardware.
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The overhead is tiny, certainly nothing noticeable. If there was performance issues do you really think any one would use it?
I have a HP Microserver running ESXi. It works great. I have a Windows 2008 R2 DC, 2008 R2 Exchange 2007, Windows 7, Windows XP, Arch Linux x2.
The benefit of using a hypervisor means if I see some new OS online I can just install it without disturbing my other OS's. Windows 8 maybe? If your running Intel you can also get OS X to unofficially install.

oldbag said:
Can you backup images on free esxi ?
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Of course.
 
Swarfega said:
The overhead is tiny, certainly nothing noticeable. If there was performance issues do you really think any one would use it?
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Did I say performance issues? I said you will see the best possible performance running 2008r2 on dedicated hardware. I am not saying performance will be so dire in any other configuration... I am quite familiar with performance characteristics of server 2008 r2 within physical and virtualised environments.

ESX is an amazing bit of software, but its not always the right solution.
 
Why did you mention performance at all then?

It's the right solution when the OP wants to benefit from Windows and Ubuntu at the same time.
 
Calm down lads! Yes it might be slightly slower, but it seems like more fun when I've never used a hypervisor before. Installing ESXi now. Cheers for all the advice. :)

It's probably about time I got myself a gigabit switch...
 
Just butting in here but does the free VMware ESXi have any kind of disk duplication so duplicate a VHD across to physical disks?

I did try ESXi inside a parallels virtual machine but couldn't see anything like that in the admin app (and no OSX client is annoying to!)
 
Anyone fancy recommending which version of WS 2008 I should go for? I've got options for web, datacenter, essentials or something... Then there's an R2 and a not-R2 version.

I've gone with R2 datacenter for now because it had the highest max specs on wikipedia. Smart move?
 
Yeah you probably won't use the feature differences between Standard and Enterprise/Data Centre. At least you'll have a cool "Data centre" background though :p
 
Well, if it's free... :P

Yeh, E6300 1.8ghz dual core powered datacenter. :D

The uni system is so useless for actually downloading the .iso though... On the 3rd attempt now.
 
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