Vista - Re: Managing virtual machine usage

04-03-2009

Virtual Server is the way to go. Check FAQ at Microsoft for info.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...zationfaq.mspx

04-03-2009

"Farouk" <Farouk@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:0CF3E2D2-CBEF-45DA-98B8-B0E1438C42E5@xxxxxx

Quote:

> I want to propose the virtualization of our developers workstations (80
> users with Visual Studio).

I'm primarily a developer, and I use Virtual PC all the time - but not to
develop on! Virtual PC is superb at what it does well but, like all software
virtualisation products, it has limitations. The main limitation is the set
of emulated hardware - this cannot be changed and is, generally, very
low-spec. E.g. the emulated graphics card in every VPC VM is a S3 Trio with
4MB RAM, which can be increased to 16MB after installing the VM Additions
and manually modifying the VM's vmc file. This means that technologies like
Direct3D etc simply aren't possible in a VM, no matter what physical
graphics card the host has...

Secondly, it's important to remember that as soon as you launch a virtual
machine you suddenly have two computers competing for the same resources -
the physical host machine and the virtual guest machine. E.g. if the host
machine has 2GB RAM and you create a virtual machine with software which
itself requires 2GB RAM to run with anything like acceptable performance
(e.g. Visual Studio.NET 2008 on Vista), then you're not going to get very
far...

Thirdly, apart from a handful of exceptions, virtual machines are considered
the same as physical machines when it comes to licensing. E.g. if you
currently have 80 workstations running Windows, and build 80 virtual
machines all running Windows, that's 160 Windows licences... Same with
Office, Visual Studio.NET, etc...

Virtual PC provides a superb environment for software testing but, IMO, an
extremely poor environment for the latest development tools - I would
strongly suggest that Virtual PC (or any other virtualisation solution) will
not meet your requirements...

--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

04-03-2009

>Virtual PC provides a superb environment for software testing but, IMO, an

Quote:

>extremely poor environment for the latest development tools - I would
>strongly suggest that Virtual PC (or any other virtualisation solution) will
>not meet your requirements...

I do a LOT of development in VPC actually, it's great if you want
different environments or you want to share an environment between
more than one workstation...

--
Bob Comer

On Fri, 3 Apr 2009 15:41:32 +0100, "Mark Rae [MVP]"
<mark@xxxxxx> wrote:

Quote:

>"Farouk" <Farouk@xxxxxx> wrote in message
>news:0CF3E2D2-CBEF-45DA-98B8-B0E1438C42E5@xxxxxx
>

Quote:

>> I want to propose the virtualization of our developers workstations (80
>> users with Visual Studio).

>
>I'm primarily a developer, and I use Virtual PC all the time - but not to
>develop on! Virtual PC is superb at what it does well but, like all software
>virtualisation products, it has limitations. The main limitation is the set
>of emulated hardware - this cannot be changed and is, generally, very
>low-spec. E.g. the emulated graphics card in every VPC VM is a S3 Trio with
>4MB RAM, which can be increased to 16MB after installing the VM Additions
>and manually modifying the VM's vmc file. This means that technologies like
>Direct3D etc simply aren't possible in a VM, no matter what physical
>graphics card the host has...
>
>Secondly, it's important to remember that as soon as you launch a virtual
>machine you suddenly have two computers competing for the same resources -
>the physical host machine and the virtual guest machine. E.g. if the host
>machine has 2GB RAM and you create a virtual machine with software which
>itself requires 2GB RAM to run with anything like acceptable performance
>(e.g. Visual Studio.NET 2008 on Vista), then you're not going to get very
>far...
>
>Thirdly, apart from a handful of exceptions, virtual machines are considered
>the same as physical machines when it comes to licensing. E.g. if you
>currently have 80 workstations running Windows, and build 80 virtual
>machines all running Windows, that's 160 Windows licences... Same with
>Office, Visual Studio.NET, etc...
>
>Virtual PC provides a superb environment for software testing but, IMO, an
>extremely poor environment for the latest development tools - I would
>strongly suggest that Virtual PC (or any other virtualisation solution) will
>not meet your requirements...

04-03-2009

"Robert Comer" <bobcomer-removeme-@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:vc9ct4tfmro1ciuvoqiprtsqm2gndtssai@xxxxxx

Quote:

>> Virtual PC provides a superb environment for software testing but, IMO,
>> an
>> extremely poor environment for the latest development tools - I would
>> strongly suggest that Virtual PC (or any other virtualisation solution)
>> will
>> not meet your requirements...

>
> I do a LOT of development in VPC actually, it's great if you want
> different environments or you want to share an environment between
> more than one workstation...

Fair enough.

--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

04-03-2009

Mark Rae [MVP] wrote:

Quote:

> "Farouk" <Farouk@xxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:0CF3E2D2-CBEF-45DA-98B8-B0E1438C42E5@xxxxxx
>

Quote:

>> I want to propose the virtualization of our developers workstations (80
>> users with Visual Studio).

>
> I'm primarily a developer, and I use Virtual PC all the time - but not
> to develop on! Virtual PC is superb at what it does well but, like all
> software virtualisation products, it has limitations. The main
> limitation is the set of emulated hardware - this cannot be changed and
> is, generally, very low-spec. E.g. the emulated graphics card in every
> VPC VM is a S3 Trio with 4MB RAM, which can be increased to 16MB after
> installing the VM Additions and manually modifying the VM's vmc file.
> This means that technologies like Direct3D etc simply aren't possible in
> a VM, no matter what physical graphics card the host has...
>
> Secondly, it's important to remember that as soon as you launch a
> virtual machine you suddenly have two computers competing for the same
> resources - the physical host machine and the virtual guest machine.
> E.g. if the host machine has 2GB RAM and you create a virtual machine
> with software which itself requires 2GB RAM to run with anything like
> acceptable performance (e.g. Visual Studio.NET 2008 on Vista), then
> you're not going to get very far...
>
> Thirdly, apart from a handful of exceptions, virtual machines are
> considered the same as physical machines when it comes to licensing.
> E.g. if you currently have 80 workstations running Windows, and build 80
> virtual machines all running Windows, that's 160 Windows licences...
> Same with Office, Visual Studio.NET, etc...

Mark:

Visual Studio licenses are per developer, not per machine.

--
David Wilkinson
Visual C++ MVP

04-03-2009

"David Wilkinson" <no-reply@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23H8UuHItJHA.5516@xxxxxx

Quote:

> Visual Studio licenses are per developer, not per machine.

Apologies.

--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

04-03-2009	#1 (permalink)
jorgensen n/a posts	Re: Managing virtual machine usage Virtual Server is the way to go. Check FAQ at Microsoft for info. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserv...zationfaq.mspx
My System Specs

04-03-2009	#2 (permalink)
Mark Rae [MVP] n/a posts	Re: Managing virtual machine usage "Farouk" <Farouk@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:0CF3E2D2-CBEF-45DA-98B8-B0E1438C42E5@xxxxxx Quote: > I want to propose the virtualization of our developers workstations (80 > users with Visual Studio). I'm primarily a developer, and I use Virtual PC all the time - but not to develop on! Virtual PC is superb at what it does well but, like all software virtualisation products, it has limitations. The main limitation is the set of emulated hardware - this cannot be changed and is, generally, very low-spec. E.g. the emulated graphics card in every VPC VM is a S3 Trio with 4MB RAM, which can be increased to 16MB after installing the VM Additions and manually modifying the VM's vmc file. This means that technologies like Direct3D etc simply aren't possible in a VM, no matter what physical graphics card the host has... Secondly, it's important to remember that as soon as you launch a virtual machine you suddenly have two computers competing for the same resources - the physical host machine and the virtual guest machine. E.g. if the host machine has 2GB RAM and you create a virtual machine with software which itself requires 2GB RAM to run with anything like acceptable performance (e.g. Visual Studio.NET 2008 on Vista), then you're not going to get very far... Thirdly, apart from a handful of exceptions, virtual machines are considered the same as physical machines when it comes to licensing. E.g. if you currently have 80 workstations running Windows, and build 80 virtual machines all running Windows, that's 160 Windows licences... Same with Office, Visual Studio.NET, etc... Virtual PC provides a superb environment for software testing but, IMO, an extremely poor environment for the latest development tools - I would strongly suggest that Virtual PC (or any other virtualisation solution) will not meet your requirements... -- Mark Rae ASP.NET MVP http://www.markrae.net
My System Specs

04-03-2009	#3 (permalink)
Robert Comer n/a posts	Re: Managing virtual machine usage >Virtual PC provides a superb environment for software testing but, IMO, an Quote: >extremely poor environment for the latest development tools - I would >strongly suggest that Virtual PC (or any other virtualisation solution) will >not meet your requirements... I do a LOT of development in VPC actually, it's great if you want different environments or you want to share an environment between more than one workstation... -- Bob Comer On Fri, 3 Apr 2009 15:41:32 +0100, "Mark Rae [MVP]" <mark@xxxxxx> wrote: Quote: >"Farouk" <Farouk@xxxxxx> wrote in message >news:0CF3E2D2-CBEF-45DA-98B8-B0E1438C42E5@xxxxxx > Quote: >> I want to propose the virtualization of our developers workstations (80 >> users with Visual Studio). > >I'm primarily a developer, and I use Virtual PC all the time - but not to >develop on! Virtual PC is superb at what it does well but, like all software >virtualisation products, it has limitations. The main limitation is the set >of emulated hardware - this cannot be changed and is, generally, very >low-spec. E.g. the emulated graphics card in every VPC VM is a S3 Trio with >4MB RAM, which can be increased to 16MB after installing the VM Additions >and manually modifying the VM's vmc file. This means that technologies like >Direct3D etc simply aren't possible in a VM, no matter what physical >graphics card the host has... > >Secondly, it's important to remember that as soon as you launch a virtual >machine you suddenly have two computers competing for the same resources - >the physical host machine and the virtual guest machine. E.g. if the host >machine has 2GB RAM and you create a virtual machine with software which >itself requires 2GB RAM to run with anything like acceptable performance >(e.g. Visual Studio.NET 2008 on Vista), then you're not going to get very >far... > >Thirdly, apart from a handful of exceptions, virtual machines are considered >the same as physical machines when it comes to licensing. E.g. if you >currently have 80 workstations running Windows, and build 80 virtual >machines all running Windows, that's 160 Windows licences... Same with >Office, Visual Studio.NET, etc... > >Virtual PC provides a superb environment for software testing but, IMO, an >extremely poor environment for the latest development tools - I would >strongly suggest that Virtual PC (or any other virtualisation solution) will >not meet your requirements...
My System Specs

04-03-2009	#4 (permalink)
Mark Rae [MVP] n/a posts	Re: Managing virtual machine usage "Robert Comer" <bobcomer-removeme-@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:vc9ct4tfmro1ciuvoqiprtsqm2gndtssai@xxxxxx Quote: Quote: >> Virtual PC provides a superb environment for software testing but, IMO, >> an >> extremely poor environment for the latest development tools - I would >> strongly suggest that Virtual PC (or any other virtualisation solution) >> will >> not meet your requirements... > > I do a LOT of development in VPC actually, it's great if you want > different environments or you want to share an environment between > more than one workstation... Fair enough. -- Mark Rae ASP.NET MVP http://www.markrae.net
My System Specs

04-03-2009	#5 (permalink)
David Wilkinson n/a posts	Re: Managing virtual machine usage Mark Rae [MVP] wrote: Quote: > "Farouk" <Farouk@xxxxxx> wrote in message > news:0CF3E2D2-CBEF-45DA-98B8-B0E1438C42E5@xxxxxx > Quote: >> I want to propose the virtualization of our developers workstations (80 >> users with Visual Studio). > > I'm primarily a developer, and I use Virtual PC all the time - but not > to develop on! Virtual PC is superb at what it does well but, like all > software virtualisation products, it has limitations. The main > limitation is the set of emulated hardware - this cannot be changed and > is, generally, very low-spec. E.g. the emulated graphics card in every > VPC VM is a S3 Trio with 4MB RAM, which can be increased to 16MB after > installing the VM Additions and manually modifying the VM's vmc file. > This means that technologies like Direct3D etc simply aren't possible in > a VM, no matter what physical graphics card the host has... > > Secondly, it's important to remember that as soon as you launch a > virtual machine you suddenly have two computers competing for the same > resources - the physical host machine and the virtual guest machine. > E.g. if the host machine has 2GB RAM and you create a virtual machine > with software which itself requires 2GB RAM to run with anything like > acceptable performance (e.g. Visual Studio.NET 2008 on Vista), then > you're not going to get very far... > > Thirdly, apart from a handful of exceptions, virtual machines are > considered the same as physical machines when it comes to licensing. > E.g. if you currently have 80 workstations running Windows, and build 80 > virtual machines all running Windows, that's 160 Windows licences... > Same with Office, Visual Studio.NET, etc... Mark: Visual Studio licenses are per developer, not per machine. -- David Wilkinson Visual C++ MVP
My System Specs

04-03-2009	#6 (permalink)
Mark Rae [MVP] n/a posts	Re: Managing virtual machine usage "David Wilkinson" <no-reply@xxxxxx> wrote in message news:%23H8UuHItJHA.5516@xxxxxx Quote: > Visual Studio licenses are per developer, not per machine. Apologies. -- Mark Rae ASP.NET MVP http://www.markrae.net
My System Specs

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