Re: FREE virtualization - System Admin Discussion Boards

great philip Smile | :)

I didn't know virtual box has windows edition as well.. i thought it will only virtualize linux

Thanks,

I second VirtualBox. I use it at work (on a Windows host) and home (on a Linux host) and it does everything I need.

I recommend VirtualBox, too. I run it on a Mac without issue. Just be sure to install the kernel headers in Linux before you install the guest additions.

use hyper-v, its part of windows server 2008

Virtual box - hyper-v doesnt allow for all the different flavors of linux you might want to install.

PlutoX

I use VMware player, not all the features some product have, but it works great for a free product.

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/[^]

I am already using Virtualbox now and it's good except one issue..

Serial port is not working on the guest..

I am connecting a serial to the server to read the PBX data and I want to collect it from the guest linux machine but it doesn't recognize the serial?

From the VirtualBox help file:

3.9. Serial ports
VirtualBox fully supports virtual serial ports in a virtual machine in an easy-to-use manner.[16]

Ever since the original IBM PC, personal computers have been equipped with one or two serial ports (also called COM ports by DOS and Windows). Serial ports were commonly used with modems, and some computer mice used to be connected to serial ports before USB became commonplace.

While serial ports are no longer as ubiquitous as they used to be, there are still some important uses left for them. For example, serial ports can be used to set up a primitive network over a null-modem cable, in case Ethernet is not available. Also, serial ports are indispensable for system programmers needing to do kernel debugging, since kernel debugging software usually interacts with developers over a serial port. With virtual serial ports, system programmers can do kernel debugging on a virtual machine instead of needing a real computer to connect to.

If a virtual serial port is enabled, the guest operating system sees a standard 16550A compatible UART device. Both receiving and transmitting data is supported. How this virtual serial port is then connected to the host is configurable, and the details depend on your host operating system.

You can use either the graphical user interface or the command-line VBoxManage tool to set up virtual serial ports. For the latter, please refer to Section 8.7, “VBoxManage modifyvm”; in that section, look for the --uart and --uartmode options.

In either case, you can configure up to two virtual serial ports per virtual machine. For each such device, you will need to determine

what kind of serial port the virtual machine should see by selecting an I/O base address and interrupt (IRQ). For these, we recommend to use the traditional values[17], which are:

COM1: I/O base 0x3F8, IRQ 4

COM2: I/O base 0x2F8, IRQ 3

COM3: I/O base 0x3E8, IRQ 4

COM4: I/O base 0x2E8, IRQ 3

Then, you will need to determine what this virtual port should be connected to. For each virtual serial port, you have the following options:

You can elect to have the virtual serial port "disconnected", which means that the guest will see the device, but it will behave as if no cable had been connected to it.

You can connect the virtual serial port to a physical serial port on your host. (On a Windows host, this will be a name like COM1; on Linux or Solaris hosts, it will be a device node like /dev/ttyS0). VirtualBox will then simply redirect all data received from and sent to the virtual serial port to the physical device.

You can tell VirtualBox to connect the virtual serial port to a software pipe on the host. This depends on your host operating system:

On a Windows host, data will be sent and received through a named pipe. The pipe name must be in the format \\.\pipe\<name> where <name> should identify the virtual machine but may be freely chosen.

For forwarding serial traffic, you can use a helper program called VMware Serial Line Gateway, available for download at http://www.l4ka.org/91.php . This tool provides a fixed server mode named pipe at \\.\pipe\vmwaredebug and connects incoming TCP connections on port 567 with the named pipe.

On a Mac, Linux or Solaris host, a local domain socket is used instead. The socket filename must be chosen such that the user running VirtualBox has sufficient privileges to create and write to it. The /tmp directory is often a good candidate.

On Linux there are various tools which can connect to a local domain socket or create one in server mode. The most flexible tool is socat and is available as part of many distributions.

In this case, you can configure whether VirtualBox should create the named pipe (or, on non-Windows hosts, the local domain socket) itself or whether VirtualBox should assume that the pipe (or socket) exists already. With the VBoxManage command-line options, this is referred to as "server" or "client" mode, respectively.

For a direct connection between two virtual machines (corresponding to a null-modem cable), simply configure one VM to create a pipe/socket and another to attach to it.

You can send the virtual serial port output to a file. This option is very useful for capturing diagnostic output from a guest. Any file may be used for this purpose, as long as the user running VirtualBox has sufficient privileges to create and write to the file.

Up to two serial ports can be configured per virtual machine, but you can pick any port numbers out of the above. However, serial ports cannot reliably share interrupts; if both ports are to be used at the same time, they must use different interrupt levels, for example COM1 and COM2, but not COM1 and COM3.

Mike Poz

VMware player here as well - It's crashed less than Virtual Box for me, and 100% free!

-= Reelix =-

You can use VMWare Server http://www.vmware.com/products/server/overview.html[^]
I use it and it works great.
I run it on a win7 x64 PC (AMD quad core, 12 GB RAM) and it hosts my virtual Win2008R2 server - x64, (where I have my web server, ftp, email server, sharepoint server), a Linux server, a Linux Ubuntu (which I use as a virtual linux desktop) and a virtual WinServer 2008R2 (configured as a desktop development machine). It works 24/24, 7/7, for almost 18 months now, and had no problems with it.

Definitely VirtualBox. I've used it for years to write Linux code on a Windows machine. It's easy to install the guests OSs on it. The Guest additions (which I highly recommend) are pretty easy to get goign in the last year. The one gotcha is that you need to do a separate install of the VirtualBox Extension Pack. Documentation is OK, too.

I've mostly used Ubuntu and Fedora on it.

Hello I used Vmware Virtual Machine,And it Work Good For Virtualization.... Wink | ;)

I wish it was that easy my friend!

I have tried all the options with the serial but it's still not working...

Ok.. could you please guide on this..

My host is WINDOWS SERVER 2008 and my guest is Debian Squeeze.

1. I have gone to the Serial Port Setting in VirtualBox.
2. Enabled Serial Port is checked.
3. Port Number : COM1
4. Port mode is : Host Pipe.
5. (Create Pipe) is checked.
6. Port File/Path: \\.\pipe\COM1

In Debian
7. I started Putty.
8. Choosed Serial Mode
9. In Serial line : \\.\pipe\COM1
10. In Speed: I tried 9600 and 115200

BUT...

I am getting the following error when I click Open in Putty to open the connect:

Unable to open connection to:
Unable to open serial port

Thanks,
Jassim

Depends on how you intend to use the machine. If it's a server, and what you want virtualized inside is also a server, use VMWare. If it's a desktop, use VBox.

Hi all,

My problem comes from one of the users at the company I work for, he has developed a access database which will be used to generate reports instead of them currently using paper and handing it back and forth between departments. He wants them to be able to simply click a button when they are finished and it send an email to the next person in the chains email address. (the email address is just a generic one that everyone will use for this and will be sent to personal company email address)

This can be done easily with a macro and outlook but unfortunately my companies ISA Server blocks all POP3, IMAP and HTTP from internal sources to external sources and this cannot be changed, thought HTTPS is allowed. This means Outlook will not allow us to send or set up email accounts on it, annoyingly this seems to be because it cannot bring in emails from the server (which is a gmail server) even though we don't want this feature, we just want to send emails.

I have also tried to use Mozilla thunderbird but had the same problem.

Any help or ideas would be great. If you need anymore information just ask.

Thanks Big Grin | :-D

If you have an internal mail server (Exchange, zimbra...), you could use its SMTP service since it should be authorized by ISA Server.

We don't unfortunately all are emails are with Google/Gmail and its all administrated from the company HQ in France. I have thought about setting up an email server but to be honest its not something I have ever done and wouldn't know where to look or start.

Thanks for your reply Smile | :)

You can setup an smtp service easily on a linux box, for instance, but it won't prevent you from asking your sysadmin to open the firewall for this service.
Thus I can't see a solution for you, sorry Frown | :(

No memory stick has been harmed during establishment of this signature.

If I read correctly, you want to send e-mails but can't because of system limitations. This is not an Access problem.

Why not FTP the document to a server, then allow the users to come get it? Send a G-Mail to all users (manual creation, probably) telling them the new report is available for review, click this link, and they can download it from there.

Not much you can do, e-mail wise.

Gary

My system shutdown automatically.But when i start it again and again ,It works for 2 to 10 minutes and then shutdown again.
What is the problem?
is it hardware problem or windows problem.

Given that we cannot see your machine or what is on the screen or in the event logs, there is no way we can answer.

Try starting in safe mode and see if you can get to the event logs.
Check any messages that appear when you boot or when it starts to shut down.
Have you recently installed any new hardware or software?
etc ...

Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff

E pluribus unum:
Dirt has accumulated around the fan and the heatsink causing the CPU to overheat. The system shuts down the computer to prevent the CPU from dieing of heat stroke. Big Grin | :-D

Honestly, without any additional information there is not much that we can do for you.

Regards,

—MRB

"With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine."

Ross Callon, The Twelve Networking Truths, RFC1925

Try this

Windows shuts down after 10 minutes[^]

Lobster Thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce, served in a Provençale manner with shallots and aubergines, garnished with truffle pate, brandy and a fried egg on top and Spam - Monty Python Spam Sketch

have you checked for viruses? a number of them take pleasure in shutting down the system.

Smile | :)

Luc Pattyn [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum
iSad

sometimes it shutdown within 10 seconds after pressing start button of CPU cabinet.
with above condition,Is it possible for viruses?