Revisiting virtualization

I dusted off some virtual machines today. They are experiments, to see how virtualization performs in different environments.

I use VMware and Oracle's Virtualbox. Both had updates; new versions of the virtual machine software.

The updates for Virtualbox ran a bit smoother than VMware. Both programs alerted me to the new version, and let me download them. Both updates were replacements and not patches. That is, both un-installed the old version and then installed the new version. And both new versions had new "inside helper" packages, utilities that install drivers inside the guest operating system to help the "outside" virtualization program.

It was the installation of helper utilities that Oracle beat VMware. With VMware, you have to run a script, answer several prompts, and let the script compile several modules for your system. (The questions have default answers, but they are sensible only to a sysadmin.) Virtualbox, on the other hand, installed the helper utilities without prompts or compiling.

For both VMware and Virtualbox, the improvements were evolutionary, not revolutionary: small improvements to the GUI, noticeable changes in support for devices.

And for VMware and Virtualbox, performance was acceptable. Virtual machines run a little slower than a "real" machine, but the difference is small.

I don't use Microsoft's Virtual PC, as it refuses to run on my hardware. My PC is a two-year-old SystemMax PC with a nice Intel processor and 4 GB RAM, but apparently it lacks something that Virtual PC needs. So I limit my tests to VMware and Virtualbox.

Fun with virtual machines

I spent some time with virtual machines today. It was interesting comparing the behavior of VMware's VMware Player against Oracle's Virtualbox.

I'm using VMware Player 3.1.4 and Virtualbox 4.0.6. (Microsoft's Virtual PC refuses to run on my PC. Apparently my hardware is not worthy of such a lofty program.)

I have VMware and Virtualbox running on Windows 7. I created virtual machines for Ubuntu and Kubuntu in each virtual environment, four machines in all. My experience has been good with both VMware and Virtualbox. I can install the guest operating system, configure it, get updates, and install new packages.

There are some differences between the two.

The machines under Virtualbox can use bridged networking to find my DHCP server; the machines under VMware cannot and must use NAT.

The installs for Ubuntu went well. The installs for Kubuntu were a little rougher for VMware. The VMware Tools package expects gcc and make, neither of which was installed by default. Running the Kubuntu Software Management package solved the problem easily.

Performance is acceptable but not stupendous. This is due, I am sure, to my equipment. The PC is a fairly recent one (about two years old) but it is not the datacenter-class server designed for hosting virtual machines.

Overall, I am pleased. I can work with the virtual environments, which is my goal.

Virtual machines

This morning I planned to spend some time at the co-working site. After reviewing the work before me, I decided to stay at home. Some things are possible at the co-working site, and some tasks are better at the co-working site, but some are best (and some possible only) at my home systems. So pragmatism ruled!

I attempted to use Microsoft's Virtual PC. The package is interesting: it's not a Windows Application. Instead of installing as a regular application, it merges into Windows. There is no entry in the "Installed Programs" list for Virtual PC. Shades of the old "Internet Explorer is part of Windows and cannot be removed" argument.

Despite it's merging into Windows, installing the thing is not particularly easy. You have to find the download site, then specify the version of your operating system (Home, Pro, or Enterprise) and the word size (32-bit or 64-bit), and the language. And then you have to go through a little ActiveX dance to ensure your Windows is genuine. Only then can you install it. And after installation do you learn that Virtual PC is fussy about hardware and requires hardware support for virtualization. When I ran it, it did nothing but display a little dialog that says, effectively, "I won't run, because your hardware is lame". And then you learn that you cannot un-install the beast.

Oracle's Virtualbox, in contrast, was easy to install and as a bonus it actually works. While Microsoft's Virtual PC supports Windows guests and only Windows guests, Virtualbox lets you run just about anything as a guest. So my experiments with virtualization can start.

I had lunch with former co-worker Don today, at the local burrito place. It was a good lunch and we talked about several things. At the (old) office, things have changed little.