WHS as a VM

KlinkEYE · **20th November 2007, 02:14 PM**

Anyone successfully running WHS as a virtual machine in either Vmware or Microsoft Virtual Server?

I have far too many standalone servers at the moment, my 2nd bed/server room is going to reach critical mass soon if I dont stop adding to the amount of heat being generated inside it!

So... hoping if anyone has any experience with WHS as a virtual machine.

Matt · **20th November 2007, 03:23 PM**

WHS has a 2003 server codebase, I'd try installing as such on VMware. Let us know how you go

Actually did a quick google search and there were a couple of links to people having success with it in a virtual session. Only real caveat seemed to be that the VM session have a minimum of 512Mb RAM otherwise the WHS install will barf.

Cheers,

Matt.

scotto74 · **22nd November 2007, 09:13 AM**

During the beta testing phase, I was running the pre-release versions under VMWare with no problems.

(From memory, you need to base your VM on the Windows XP template for it to work....which is odd given that it's a 2k3 based OS).

mcopas · **24th November 2007, 05:58 AM**

How many hard drives will your WHS have if it is running in a virtual environment?

scotto74 · **26th November 2007, 08:07 AM**

The number of hard drives is a moot point when you run inside a VM (unless of course you setup your VM to use physical disks instead of virtual disks).

The whole folder duplication thing doesn't really make any sense in a virtual environment (again, unless your virtual HDs are stored on separate physical HDs); so the determination of how many disk is really up to what sort of logical partitioning you want (eg. all of your recorded TV on one disk, all of your music on another etc...)

mcopas · **26th November 2007, 08:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by scotto74

The number of hard drives is a moot point when you run inside a VM (unless of course you setup your VM to use physical disks instead of virtual disks).

That's my whole point.

What is the point of running Windows Home Server, which pretty much focuses all of its features around massive amounts of storage space, in a virtual machine?

I could see it being useful for developers testing add-ins they are creating, but that's about it...