On Sat, 07 Aug 2010 13:47:10 -0400
Sam Varshavchik <mrsam(a)courier-mta.com> wrote:
I'm planning on taking a plunge into virtualization. I need to
retire
an ancient server, and I'm about to order a new kit to replace it.
Given that it's new hardware, I expect to get something that supports
hardware virtualization (it's going to be a real server, and not some
consumer-oriented kit from OEMs that bastardize the BIOS into
disabling hardware virualization), so rather than setting aside a
separate partition for Windows, I think I want to try to run it in a
virtual instance.
Sounds reasonable. ;)
Hopefully, nobody will tell me that for some reason or another there
would be some compatibility problem loading the original CD of Win XP
Home, then updating it to the current SP3+all patches. Also, can
someone clarify for me how the virtual display works -- would the
virtual machine run in an ordinary window, or does it take the entire
display, with a hotkey to flip between the virtual machine and the
host OS.
It can do either, depending on which virtuilization product you use and
how you have it setup.
With libvirt you can use a virt-viewer/virt-manager program that lets
you view it in a window, or go full screen.
Also, how does networking work. I'm guessing that the virtual
machine
would have an IP address on a separate netblock that the host OS sees
as a virtual network interface, so the Fedora host will need to have
IP forwarding enabled, and other machines on the real LAN segment
will need an appropriate routing table entry.
Yes, you can do a routed setup, or you could do a bridged setup (so the
guest has an IP on the local network and appears just as another
machine).
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Virtualization_Quick_Start
and
http://wiki.libvirt.org/page/Networking
are a good place to start. ;)
kevin