[opensuse] Windows virtual machine - KVM vs XEN vs Virtualbox
Hi All What are the pros and cons between KVM, XEN and Virtualbox for setting up either WinXP or Vista in a VM? The guest system would only be used occasionally for Windows-only applications (3D graphics editors) Thanks for any comments Dylan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 9:59 AM, Dylan wrote:
Hi All
What are the pros and cons between KVM, XEN and Virtualbox for setting up either WinXP or Vista in a VM? The guest system would only be used occasionally for Windows-only applications (3D graphics editors)
VirtualBox/VMWare Player is easier to set up and use, and you can run it on any modern hardware without any issues. Performance on the software emulators is pretty good. The only gotcha I've had to deal with is they won't do high end gaming very well. I've found that VMWare Player has slightly better performance than VirtualBox for 3D accelerated graphics, but VirtualBox is easier to manage (because it's in the openSUSE repos). KVM/XEN are harder to set up because they are bare metal hypervisors - ie you set up your XEN/KVM install, and then into that you install all your other OSes. The advantage is better management and control of your VMs, along with better performance. There are more hardware restrictions though, and depending on what you want to do, you may need to buy new a CPU just to deal with it (eg, Intel VT-x or AMD-V is a minimum and on most current CPUs, but if you want PCI passthrough, you have to have a CPU with Intel VT-d or AMD IOMMU, and on Intel as an example, VD-t is not available on the i7 "K" processors such as the 4770-K). KVM/XEN really comes into its strengths when you need multiple concurrent OSes running on a single machine. For simplicity, especially if it's only occasional use, I'd recommend the VirtualBox/VMWare solution. Your host machine should have at least 4GB of system RAM, but 8GB or more is better. More system RAM means your VM can have a little more virtual RAM to work with. eg on a host system with 4GB, you might want to only allow 1.5Gb of virtual RAM, but on a host with 16 GB you could easily allocate 4GB to the guest. The rule of thumb is to try not to allocate more than 50% of system RAM to the VM or disk swapping can start to really impact the performance of host and guest. Best thing you can do is set up a VirtualBox of VMWarePlayer install, and test your application. If the performance is good, then you're done :-) C. -- openSUSE 12.3 x86_64, KDE 4.11 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Mon, 2013-08-26 at 08:59 +0100, Dylan wrote:
Hi All
What are the pros and cons between KVM, XEN and Virtualbox for setting up either WinXP or Vista in a VM? The guest system would only be used occasionally for Windows-only applications (3D graphics editors)
Thanks for any comments
Dylan
Hi Check to see if the BIOS supports virtualisation. e.g. Acer have it disabled. You have to flash it. The advantage with Vbox is that you can be up in a few minutes but again, if you want a 64 bit VM, your bios must support it. win7 in a 32 bit vBox with the extensions and guest additions active is fine here. If you want USB for the guest, get it from Oracle. I can't get it going with the 12.3 version. Sorry, a bit disjointed but HTH L x -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 26/08/13 09:49, lynn wrote:
On Mon, 2013-08-26 at 08:59 +0100, Dylan wrote:
Hi All
What are the pros and cons between KVM, XEN and Virtualbox for setting up either WinXP or Vista in a VM? The guest system would only be used occasionally for Windows-only applications (3D graphics editors)
Thanks for any comments
Dylan
Hi Check to see if the BIOS supports virtualisation. e.g. Acer have it disabled. You have to flash it. The advantage with Vbox is that you can be up in a few minutes but again, if you want a 64 bit VM, your bios must support it. win7 in a 32 bit vBox with the extensions and guest additions active is fine here. If you want USB for the guest, get it from Oracle. I can't get it going with the 12.3 version. Sorry, a bit disjointed but HTH L x
Thanks, I'll check that out... There's also an IOMMU option which looks like it might be relevant? Dylan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Dylan
On 26/08/13 09:50, Hans Witvliet wrote:
In your case, doing 3D grapics, i wonder: 1) are you needing the power of your graphics card? if so, you can delegate the full control of tha card via XEN towards one virtual machine. AFAICR this is something you can not do with KVM. However, this is not documented/supported within SuSE, you for further info you gave to look in the XEN-documentation.
2) No possible to use 3D editors under linux, like blender?
I use blender in Linux for most of the work (it runs much faster than in Windows on the same h/ware) but also need to use materials/texture generators and figure editors which are either Windows-only or broken/flaky in Linux. All the actual 3D rendering is done in Linux where nvidia's CUDA system Just Works. Dylan
Hans
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On 8/26/2013 12:59 AM, Dylan wrote:
Hi All
What are the pros and cons between KVM, XEN and Virtualbox for setting up either WinXP or Vista in a VM? The guest system would only be used occasionally for Windows-only applications (3D graphics editors)
Thanks for any comments
Dylan
What ever you choose... Stay the hell away from Vista. If all you need is a light weight windows platform look to Windows 2000. (Failing that, use XP with the Legacy look for better performance). -- _____________________________________ ---This space for rent--- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 26/08/13 18:54, John Andersen wrote:
What ever you choose... Stay the hell away from Vista.
If all you need is a light weight windows platform look to Windows 2000. (Failing that, use XP with the Legacy look for better performance).
If it was my choice, I'd go for XP, but we have to work with the available resources... Dylan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 08/26/2013 09:20 PM, Dylan wrote:
On 26/08/13 18:54, John Andersen wrote:
What ever you choose... Stay the hell away from Vista.
If all you need is a light weight windows platform look to Windows 2000. (Failing that, use XP with the Legacy look for better performance).
If it was my choice, I'd go for XP, but we have to work with the available resources...
Dylan
my past experience : Windows 2000 on VMware ran perfectly also Windows XP on VirtualBox ran perfectly .................... best regards -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Mon, 2013-08-26 at 22:33 +0300, ellanios82 wrote:
On 08/26/2013 09:20 PM, Dylan wrote:
On 26/08/13 18:54, John Andersen wrote:
What ever you choose... Stay the hell away from Vista.
If all you need is a light weight windows platform look to Windows 2000. (Failing that, use XP with the Legacy look for better performance).
If it was my choice, I'd go for XP, but we have to work with the available resources...
Dylan
my past experience :
Windows 2000 on VMware ran perfectly also Windows XP on VirtualBox ran perfectly
.................... For true lean and mean, it doesn't get more bare bones than 2003 R2 before you configure anything. OK on vbox 32bit too.
-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
participants (6)
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C -
Dylan -
ellanios82 -
Hans Witvliet -
John Andersen -
lynn