VMware vSphere Hypervisor & Windows Home Server 2011

[Coffee7]

Hello,

Sorry if this question might be posted somewhere else. If it is I couldn't find any info on this anywhere.

I want to run a small web/mail server on my desktop, mainly for private use. The machine configuration I have should be OK to run VMware vSphere Hypervisor. I confirmed this with the manufacturer [I hope they're right]. Here is the computer configuration - http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6076512&CatId=1889 [I have upgraded to 4GB RAM and 1.5TB HDD]

Anyways, I want to run two virtual machines, one Windows 7 64bit, and the other Windows Home Server 2011.

Does anyone have an experience with this kind of setup. What issues should I anticipate.

Thanks in advance.

[DSTAVERT]

vSphere Hypervisor is a bare metal operating system. It isn't something that you can run on your desktop or manage directly from the keyboard / monitor attached to the ESXi host machine. You would need to have a separate Windows machine to manage and view the Virtual Machines. You might want to consider VMware Workstation that can be installed on a Windows or Linux desktop and will run various Virtual machines. http://vmware.com/go/workstation

[weinstein5]

Welcome to the community - should not be a problem as long as the VMs are configured properly (single vCPU and a reasonable amount of memory) and the workload is not too resource intensive -  the only thing I see you might need is more memory because 4 GB is not a lot

[DSTAVERT]

I had a look at the spec's for the computer. There aren't enough real specifications for the computer to determine what issues you will run into but I am reasonably sure that the embedded network card will not be supported for installing ESXi. The embedded hard drive controller will not provide much performance since there is no onboard cache. As David mentions 4GB isn't much RAM for the aplications you want to run.

[Coffee7]

Now, I'm confused!

One user says I cannot do so, but another says it's possible.

Currently my desktop runs Win 7, which I hope to convert into a virtual machine using VMware vCenter Converter.

I would then format my HDD and load vSphere Hypervisor. Then create a virtual machine for Win 7 and load it from the VM instance. Then create another VM and load WHS 2011 onto it.

Would this not work?

I also plan to upgrade my RAM to 6GB.

Thanks for the replies.

[DSTAVERT]

Will you be converting your current desktop computer to run ESXi? Will you have another machine to manage and view the virtual machine from?

The basic motherboard should be fine to run ESXi. You will need to replace the on board network card with a supported one from the whitebox HCL at http://vm-help.com. ESXi will not even install without a supported network controller.

[Coffee7]

Hi,

Yes, I want to convert my current desktop computer to run ESXi. That was my intent yes. If I install a new network card that's supported, then I should be able to do what I want?

Thanks again

[J1mbo]

What David is getting at is that a completely seperate physical machine will be needed to do anything useful with the box once it's running ESXi, as all you'll see on its screen is a very simple text-mode screen enabling IP configuration for the ESX management interface and a couple of other bits.

Also you'll need vmware converter standalone, rather than the vcentre version.

Hope that helps!

[DSTAVERT]

So you do have another Computer to manage and view the ESXi computer from? Your current desktop will moved to a closet and the monitor and keyboard will be removed? It will only need a network connection to work as an ESXi host.

[Coffee7]

Hi,

Now I'm finally able to see the light. I guess it's not presented in a 'newbie' format on vmware product description.

I don't want to run the VMs like this as I thought that the hypervisor actually behaved as a switch for logging into one or the other VM instances which are both in running mode.

So what other options do I have.

And thanks again for the wonderful support.

Could I then use VMware Player to install Windows Home Server 2011 embedded on top of Win 7 Pro 64Bit? Or should I do the reverse and embed Win7 as a VM on top of WHS 2011.

[DSTAVERT]

It is hard to say which would be a better host for running Player. It might be advantageous to have Server as the host but I have not ever used it and don't know what limitations there might be. Since your Workstation will want to access network shares when it starts up, running on Server would ensure that all networking services were available from the start.  Access your Windows Desktop VM using the Remote Desktop Client for the best performance.

[bulletprooffool]

If this is just for a small home setup - where you are trying to run 2 OSes, you;d better off trying VMWorkstation on top of your Windows 7 Install and dropping home server on that, than trying to get ESXi to run on a host that does not support ESXi due to HCL issues.

[MGHolley]

I too am trying to navigate the various virtual machine offerings to determine how to make WHS 2011 work for me.  Its a good product, but it shot a little short in my opinion.  Possibly v3 a few years down the road will bring the necessary pieces together.

I have initially started playing with VMWare Server v2.0.2.  It wasn't until I found these forums that I learned the product was out-of-date.  I have a machine which I would like to turn into a combination home server and HTPC.  It seems like a no brainer to combine the two machines which would need to be on 24/7 into a single device, but the project is more challenging than I had hoped.  The single biggest issue is software related; media center extenders like my xbox require a media center "server" to connect to and WHS 2011 does not have it.  So, I have to run a copy of Windows 7 in addition to WHS.  There is a little bit of a chicken & the egg problem when it comes to determining the host and guest OS.  To get the best performance for the HTPC, Win 7 should have direct access to the sound, video card, and USB infared receiver.  To get the best performance for the server, WHS 2011 should have direct access to the storage controllers and the NICs.  The only hope would seem to be passthrough solutions.  So far, my experiments have been less than successful with the "free" versions of VM servers.

Rather than download and install several versions of software to try this out, I'm hoping to find a few quick answers here.  Possibly someone else has played this game to create the all-in-one home machine that combines multiple functions on a single device?

In case hardware matters, I have a Gigabyte P45 Dual-nic board with an Intel Q9550 CPU and 8 GB of RAM.  I have about 12 HDD in the machine (+ 2 SSD for OS)  I have been playing with different formats for RAID, including arrays setup on 1) The on-board Intel ICH10 2) The on-board JMicron controller  3) a couple of 3ware 8000 series controller cards 4) Windows software RAID5 (WHS 2011 aka Server 2008 R2)

My hardware issues thus far:

Passing through an HDD or RAID array sitting on the Intel ICH10 controller (VMWare Server 2.0.2...I'm guessing the newer products don't have the issue?  Is the Intel ICH10 NOT on the HCL?)

Passing through an infared receiver (USB)

General performance of HDD when they are "passed through".

I thought something like ESXi or Hyper-V would have been a neat compromise, but they don't actually hand off all the hardware.  Those server products are designed for headless operation and wouldn't allow me to log into the guest OS (Win 7 for the HTPC) from the "console".

I'm pretty set in using the existing software solutions (WHS 2011, Win 7, Windows Media Center) in part because my buddy at M$ gets me a great price, but also because the Xbox 360 is the media center extender and a good portion of my library has been built using the DVR capabilties of WMC.

Does anyone have further thoughts on this?  Since I'm not at all familiar with the VMWare suite, it could be that I'm just looking at the wrong product.  If I can get a paid version (educational pricing?) which accomplishes the passthrough tasks much better..that might be a viable option.

Thanks in advance for your further responses and the info provided thus far on the topic.  Let me know if I need to clarify anything or provide more info.