Virtualization in (Free) Hyper V

[bman289]

Hi Guys,

Congrats on the job you're doing - this is EXACTLY the sort of thing the Linux community has always needed to get "real" users interested.

I want to install Amahi and am curious if anyone has experimented with running it in a virtual environment (in my case I've dloaded the (free) MS Hyper V). I'm occasionally interested in trying another op system, etc, and virtualization would allow me to test something without dedicating yet another separate box for it. Of course Amahi would be prioritized with respect to memory/storage, but this added flexibility would be great (imagine running Amahi HDA, Ubuntu Server, MS Server 2008, XP, etc, all on the same box).

I know lots of guys have successfully run Windows Home Server in a virtual environment and I figure Amahi may work even better. The main features I'm interested in with Amahi are:

-Simple Samba Shares
-Remote Access
-Streaming Audio

At this time I don't necessarily want to use it as my DHCP server.

Thanks guys!
Brian

[moredruid]

Not sure if it works fine in a Microsoft product. Microsoft has a name of hampering (or downright blocking) the install of a non-MS operating system.
You'd be better off with free VMWare server (download here: http://www.vmware.com/download/, which runs all OS-es fine as far as I know.

For your points:
- simple Samba shares: Amahi provides this
- remote access: Amahi provides this (openvpn/webvnc/standard ssh in linux)
- streaming audio: Amahitunes provides this

However for disabling DHCP in Amahi you need to dabble in the database (look around here in the forums, that question has been answered, also why it is better to have Amahi run your DHCP - in your case perhaps in a complete virtual LAN).

[bman289]

Hi MoreDruid,

I'd actually considered VMware first but heard it was Intel only (system is AMD 64bit CPU). Turns out there is some support for AMD so maybe it would work on my AMD system.

If anybody's familiar with Linux and VMware (or Hyper V) please chime in. VMware offers ESX Server 3i and ESX Server 3.5. it looks like both are free but not sure which would be better for virtualizing Amahi.

It sounds like this has been done before with Amahi? I don't want to buy myself a load of problems, I just think the virtualization route sounds really flexible. So much the better if Amahi gives me a GUI to avoid the Linux command line for Samba and setting up shares.

I'd rather not rock the boat with my router/DHCP settings if Amahi will still allow me to get shares/remote access/audio. Will check the forums for more on skipping the DHCP aspect.

Thanks!

[moredruid]

VMWare is not Intel only, AMD has licensed the x86 architecture from Intel, and Intel have crosslicensed the 64bit technology from AMD. However there are differences in architecture so the way both Intel and AMD chips handle the 64 bit instructions are different (for example: AMD has the northbridge (or south, I always forget which) on die and Intel has a separate chipset for this). The result for the end user however is the same. The performance of both stacks is sometimes different, depending on the software & OS you're using. For desktop use this difference is negligable.

here you can find the supported processors, short matrix without the extra info from that pdf here:
• AMD™ Athlon™ 64, revision D or later
• AMD Opteron™, revision E or later
• AMD Turion™ 64, revision E or later
• AMD Sempron™, 64-bit-capable revision D or later (experimental support)
• Intel™ EM64T VT-capable processors (experimental support)

I've run VMWare server (not ESX Server, because that's a completely different beast) in Windows & Linux on Intel, and before on AMD64 without any issues.

Note: ESX Server is a host OS in itself, like Windows or Linux - it's built on a Linux codebase IIRC with a very nice administration shell around it... this is not the home/test use product! For that you can use VMWare Server (registration required to get a free serial number).

Some other virtualization platforms are Xen, KVM and Virtualbox

[relrobber]

northbridge...the southbridge doesn't have a bus link to the cpu. it handles peripherals (pci, isa, etc.)

[salava]

I know I am posting to very very old thread, but ...
Are here any new ideas on real hypervisors?
-----
I had similar plans. Therefore testing M$ Hyper-V r2.rtm, VMware ESXi Server 4 and Xen Server 5.5.
Xen Server failed to install on both Intel/AMD for me becuase of lack of drivers - just not able to test anything
ESXi Server runs only on "authorised" hardware not on my "home made" - the same result - nothing for me
So I was able without problems to install only Hyper-V (on both Intel/AMD platform).
But to install OS layer over Hyper-V you need remote computer running Windows XP?/Vista/Seven with installed
M$ System Center Virtual Machine Manager or similar manager. Only SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 officially supported. And a need of two physical network controllers on Hyper-V machine...
But still planned to test something, if some free time.

[cpg]

some people run vmware server.

also virtualbox (though i am not sure if it's on their HDA or on a client machine).

[salava]

some people run vmware server also virtualbox ....

I was using vmware server within MS Windows Home Server for torrents, and sun virtualbox for some old games.
But - I hope little bit about different idea - to have independent systems on bare bone hypervisors (Hyper-V and not Windows Server2008 or ESXi Server not old VMvare server etc.).
Now I am (relativelly) sutisfied with Amahi HDA as basis and I will try to use virtual systems for such applications which I am not able to incorporate to Amahi server, to have own IP, configuration etc. etc.
The only need to have Amahi server WITHIN virtual machine is possibility to "play" very easy with snap shots ... if something getting wrong you can very easy return back. But it could be solved different way.

[salava]

I've just installed Amahi HDA server (4.0-2) into Sun VirtualBox (3.0.4). Host OS is Windows 7 (MSDN RTM 64bit), hardware is "home assembled" with ASUS P5Q-L motherbord, Intel Q955 processor, and 8GiB RAM.
Respose on Amahi site control panel - running, ssh running, etc. Installed webmin and it works.

[cpg]

awesome!

for the next version we will have localization support. maybe you can help us translate amahi to your language?