Hey Techies ! - Whats a Bare Metal VM?

[14tokihorn]

There seems to be no explanation as to what this means, but I'm guessing it refers to a computer that has a m.processor where you set it up in BIOS for Virtualization (?).

Quick reading of VMLite or VirtualBox (one or the other IIRC) seems to indicate that some VM solutions don't need use the 'virtualization' feature of the m.processor... thats my only clue.

I ran across the term over @ PCWorld, but there's no more explanation for the middle-of-the-road tech savy person.

Help!!

 

[jmatt]

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[wherzwaldo]

"Bare-metal VM" is a bit of a misnomer since a virtual machine running directly on bare metal would technically not be a virtual machine. All VMs run within a hypervisor which creates the abstraction layer between physical and virtual hardware.

The term you may be looking for is bare-metal hypervisor which is a hypervisor that runs directly on the bare metal without an OS underneath it; in essence, they are their own OS. These typically do require AMD-V or Intel VT processor virtualization support. Examples of this would include VMware vSphere/ESXi and Microsoft HyperV Server, among others. These are advantageous to use because you don't have an OS using a lot of overhead on the hardware, leaving more for your VMs. However, I think with these you typically lose the local console; all of the VMs must be manipulated remotely using Remote Desktop or some similar technology.

This contrasts with desktop hypervisors that run within an OS and may or may not require AMD-V or Intel VT. These would include VMware Player/Workstation/Server, VirtualBox, MS HyperV (runs within Windows Server), and MS Virtual PC. I know VirtualBox and the desktop VMware products can use hardware virtualization but they don't require it.

BTW, I'm a big fan of VirtualBox.

 

[14tokihorn]

Thanks, yeah, I used a (misguided) search term.. hypervisor is better.

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[wherzwaldo]

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[14tokihorn]

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[wherzwaldo]

VirtualBox supports VHD, VMDK, and Parallels disks out of the box. You can also convert any of those formats to the native VirtualBox VDI format. If you have an OS installed on a VHD or VMDK I don't know how truly portable it would be between platforms though, since you are basically moving a (virtual) hard disk between two machines and booting it on completely different (virtual) hardware. It might take some driver installs and elbow grease within the VM to make it work right on both.

On the other hand, VHDs/VMDKs that only contain data (no OS installed on it) would probably be pretty easily transported between platforms.

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[wherzwaldo]

BTW I just upgraded to VirtualBox 4.0 and USB support seems to be much improved from previous versions. I have also noticed a number of enhancements here and there, and it also seems to run a bit faster.

 

[14tokihorn]

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[wherzwaldo]

This should point you in the right direction: How to migrate existing Windows installations to VirtualBox

Overall it seems pretty painless. You could also use VMware Converter (which is more automated than the VirtualBox equivalent) to convert your Windows install to a VMware VM, and then convert that to VirtualBox if you wanted.

VM or not, the only problem you might run into is reactivating XP. You may have to go the phone activation route, but I've had pretty good success with it in the past and the support agents don't usually ask too many questions.

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[14tokihorn]

So cool to this gheezer !

 

[wherzwaldo]

Fancy. Glad it worked without too many hitches, I'm assuming.

 

[utmck]

tired head......