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I have two computers which are always on at home, an old laptop running Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Exchange and a Win7 PC which runs MediaCenter. Neither really do anything else.
I'd like to combine them, by having the Win7 machine run some sort of VM which would host Server 2008 (which is required for Exchange). I'm currently looking at VirtualBox.
But, my specific requirement is that the VM would boot when the host does and ideally run as an unobtrusive service or something.
Any suggestions - cheap ones?
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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You could use Windows 8 Professional, and do this with Hyper-V.
Fairly certain you can get it to boot any virtual machines when the host OS boots, completely unobtrusively.
Edit: Can confirm in Hyper-V this is known as an Automatic Start Action, just tick the box that says Always Start this Virtual Machine automatically and you're done.
modified 12-Aug-14 5:03am.
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Nice! Thanks I'll take a look. Only slight issue with that is they dropped MediaCenter in Win8, although I believe you can buy it as an add-on.
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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You don't likely want to try to VM your media center. First of all, you want to "see" your media center full-screen (which you can only do via a hyper-v window or RDP, which I doubt you want to do), and video/audio drivers are limited to the Hyper-V integration tools. If your trying to use WMC as a media server and not a media client you're likely fine, but if you are expecting to use it as a client, you probably won't get the results your looking for.
Windows 7 Virtual PC will not support x64 (if I remember correctly), so you won't be able to run the NOS necessary to run Exchange using Virtual PC. This means updating to Windows 8 (but then dealing with the lack of media center as you had mentioned), or using another VM tool. I ran VMWare on Windows 7 with a Windows Server x64 and it did the job.
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This might help.[^]
It can run VirtualBox as a Windows service, launching VMs in headless mode.
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
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Interesting. Sound ideal, I'll take a look. Thanks!
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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Why not host the Win7 under Hyper-V in Server 2008?
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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I guess I could, but running media center with all its funny drivers etc. in a virtual machine sounds like it'd be a headache!
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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You say they "Neither really do anything else."
Are you always around to keep an eye on them?
They could be conspiring against you for enslaving them night and day.
Especially that exchange server. They seem to be the most bitter about their existence.
Just sayin' dude.
Ya can't be to smug around them these days.
They're all connected up to the net and know more than you about the microsecond-ly goings on of any given hour in a day.
I have a server in my basement.
Every time I go down there to visit it it's right where it was the last time.
That gives me little assurance however.
:Ron
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I use VirtualBox and I quite like it, I think that you would have to use Hypervisor to make the VM's automatically start though. I'm assuming that you do have a license for Server 2008 and Exchange?
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Hi,
I'm using this kind of configuration for years.
I started actually back on XP time, with the host running XP Media Center edition, with MS Virtual Server 2005 installed, which hosted a Win Server 2003 (for web server, ftp, SVN, mail server, etc).
Currently, my configuration is host running Windows 7 Ultimate (with Media Center) and VMWare Server, running VM with Win Server 2008R2
As a suggestion on VM server, it has two VHDs - one for OS and applications, and one for data, (where I have actually stored the FTP server root, the web sites, SVN repositories and mailserver root folder)
HTH
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Is a VMware server something service like. ie. Runs unnoticed in the background, starts itself automatically etc.?
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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Yes.
It has an administrative website where you can use to manage the VMs, start a VM console, schedule startup for VMs, allocate resources, etc.
In case of a host unexpected restart (like power failure), VMWare Server automatically restart VMs that were running before.
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Nothing to do with your query. Virtual Box does not play at all when HyperV or VMWare are running. In fact, you will get BSOD. VMWare and HyperV don't play together either. VMWare and Virtual PC play together.
What peripherals do you need to share? Some VM engines want exclusive access to perihperals; others are willing to share.
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Yes but that's because they're all 3 trying to do the same thing with the same hardware - i.e. opening it up for a virtual machine inside themselves. It would be just as silly to use the same port number across IP for ftp, smpt, pop, http, etc. You'd get corrupt data whenever something sends while something else is also sending, or a timeout.
Only with VM's it's much worse than a network port - stuff like shared resources (CPU cores, RAM areas, Discs, etc.) will not be handled in a consistent manner. DO NOT install 2 or more of those on the same machine, and NEVER run 2 together, pick one and make several VMs inside it.
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I just read that on a book.
Just read that.
Quote: The Windows Runtime is the API developers use for building Windows Store apps, sometimes
called WinRT. Don't confuse it with Windows RT, the ARM version of Windows 8. The Windows
Runtime API ensures apps can meet the design goals around portability, performance, and
trust and with it Microsoft can also ensure ...
I think we are left with just one option there : Get Confused
Starting to think people post kid pics in their profiles because that was the last time they were cute - Jeremy.
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Nope.
We are prepared: we survived Javascript having nothing to do with Java.
THESE PEOPLE REALLY BOTHER ME!! How can they know what you should do without knowing what you want done?!?!
-- C++ FQA Lite
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And we also had JScript and Script# and other nice things...
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is. (V)
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Great! And we should include J# in the list.
Starting to think people post kid pics in their profiles because that was the last time they were cute - Jeremy.
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This is a brilliant parallel ! It was indeed a source of confusion in the first ten years.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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 So true! Al most every JavaScript book the first introduction paragraphs starts with "Please don't confuse it with Java"
Starting to think people post kid pics in their profiles because that was the last time they were cute - Jeremy.
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Yeah, and the java books say : this has nothing to do with dance.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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Java is to JavaScript like Ham is to Hamburger.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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