Virtually lost!
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Thursday, November 24, 2011 3:01 PM
Dear all,
I have a reasonably powerful laptop running Windows 7 Ultimate and I would like to create a virtual environment to study Sharepoint (and PowerPivot, SSRS, etc).
Which virtualisation should I use?
The two options I have heard of are "Virtual PC" and "Hyper V" (I was told there is a free version) but I have no clue why choosing one or the other, as well as costs implications...
I subscribe to Action Pack so I think I can get the server licences from there.
Is there a simple answer to that question?
Eric
Eric Mamet _ MCDBA, SQL Server 2005 MCTS, MCAD .Net
All Replies
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Thursday, November 24, 2011 3:34 PM
Hi,
- Hyper-V and Virtual PC differs: Hyper-V is an enterprise Hypervisor and offers maximum performances, i can say excellent. Virtual-Pc is an application hypervisor and gives you possibility to run virtual machines but not for heavy operations or workloads.
- Virtual PC is free, Hyper-V need license*.
* You can have Hyper-V by:
1- Installing Windows server 2008 R2 and enable Hyper-V, for that you need a license
2- Install Hyper-V server 2008 R2 for free. But it will give you just the possibility of using Hyper-V hypervisor and clustering. Difficult to manage
Look into this thread: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverhyperv/thread/fb591394-6fab-4e48-9d9d-c3a373e3f39f
- Note that you can't install Hyper-v over Windows 7 and for that, your unique possibility is to use Virtual-PC
- If you can acquire a Windows Server 2008 R2 license, this will be very interesting since you can transform your Windows Server 2008 R2 into a Workstation like Windows 7: Aero themes, Desktop experience
http://www.win2008workstation.com/
Consultant Infrastructure
Regards, Samir Farhat Infrastructure Consultant- Marked As Answer by Vincent HuModerator Tuesday, November 29, 2011 3:25 PM
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Thursday, November 24, 2011 4:03 PM
You can use either hyper-v or virtual box on your laptop.
with the hyper-v there are two way(one is hyper-v server 2008r2 and windows 2008 r2 )but with the hyper-v server you need another pc or laptop for manage the server because it doesnt have gui.i think in your case virtual pc is more suitable product.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/
Darshana Jayathilake -
Thursday, November 24, 2011 4:06 PM
Or maybe you have to wait for Windows 8 shipped with Hyper-V client. We can say November 2012
Regards, Samir Farhat Infrastructure Consultant -
Thursday, November 24, 2011 4:09 PMModerator
Hi,
Note: If you want to run Hyper-V, please ensure that your computer is Hyper-V compatible.
By the way, you can try to download the 180 days’ evaluation copy of Windows Server 2008 R2 and install it as a dual boot on the laptop.
Windows Server 2008 R2 Evaluation (180 days)
You can try to use native boot if you don’t want to install Windows Server 2008 R2 on the physical hard drive.
Understanding Virtual Hard Disks with Native Boot
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd799282(WS.10).aspx
In addition, Microsoft Virtual PC is not supported on Windows 7, however, you can try to use the Windows Virtual PC available with Windows 7. However, according to the following link, it seems that only Windows Server systems are not supported guest operating systems.
Description of Windows Virtual PC
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/
Best Regards,
Vincent Hu
- Marked As Answer by Vincent HuModerator Tuesday, November 29, 2011 3:26 PM
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Thursday, November 24, 2011 4:16 PM
Indeed, I was looking at Windows Virtual PC and could not see Windows Servers as guest OS.
I think I do need a Windows Server OS because I want to test Sharepoint 10... so maybe the dual boot is my only option if I want to keep my laptop as my main workstation as well...
Eric Mamet _ MCDBA, SQL Server 2005 MCTS, MCAD .Net -
Thursday, November 24, 2011 9:36 PM
Windows Virtual PC isn't going to work for you, it only allows for 32bit OSes. You won't be able to run 2008 R2 on Virtual PC.
Your options from Microsoft is only Hyper-V and as mentioned will not work with Windows 7, it is either a stand-alone installation or a role on x64 Windows 2008 and 2008 R2.
For desktop virtualization with 64bit guest OS support you have three third party options: Virtualbox, VMware, or Parallels. Virtualbox 4 is open-source and free in most cases, except very specific enterprise deployments, VMware offers a free VMware Player 4 and sells the more powerful Workstation 8, and Parallels sells Workstation 6.
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Friday, November 25, 2011 12:04 AM
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Friday, November 25, 2011 9:41 AM
I have started installing Windows server 2008 R2 as a dual boot.
Thanks god, I was able to shrink my main partition (welcome improvement on earlier windows versions...). It looks like this will work but it's so painful because the install did not detect most of my hardware and I have to reboot each time I want to find anything from the workstation side...
I think I'll give a shot at Virtual Box.
Many thanks for your help!
Will be back if stuck... :-)
Eric Mamet _ MCDBA, SQL Server 2005 MCTS, MCAD .Net -
Friday, November 25, 2011 9:41 AMthanks
Eric Mamet _ MCDBA, SQL Server 2005 MCTS, MCAD .Net -
Tuesday, November 29, 2011 4:01 PMJust for the record... Virtual Box was dead easy to use and solved my problem :-)
Eric Mamet _ MCDBA, SQL Server 2005 MCTS, MCAD .Net
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