Howto - Server Virtualization

[teethdood]

What does virtualization mean? In short, it means a computer(s)-within-a-computer
In a typical dental office, you may have 7 computers running, including 5 computers for each op and 2 in the front. These can all be "client" computers. Normally you would need an 8th computer designated as a server to host the OD database, the A-Z images folder, and X-ray imaging. The downside to having a physical server is that it can get stolen, flooded, files deleted by unscrupulous employees, or just plain dies on you as any piece of electronics would. By virtualizing the server, it essentially never dies. You just designate any of the client computers to host another instance of windows running on top just as a program, the 8th computer aka server. If you so choose, you can move that virtualized instance of windows to ANY of those 7 computers and it will run just the same. It's like transferring your soul to another medium so you can live on forever.

So, virtualization lets you:

- Backup your server easily (drag and drop 1 folder/directory to your external hard drive). Notice that this includes not only the OD database, but the A-Z folder, X-ray imaging, all your installed programs, EVERYTHING.
- Restore your server easily (drag and drop said directory to another computer and boot up your copied server). Heck you can boot it straight off of your external hard drive. You do not have to call anyone or reinstall anything. Everything remains the same like before the disaster.
- Create snapshots so you can go back to any moment in time. Ever afraid of your employees slowly delete patient data or other files on you? Accidentally misplaced that important file 3 months ago? No worries, just go back and copy it out.
- Did I mention that despite all these advantages, it is dirt cheap to achieve?


What you need for a basic/inexpensive setup:
1) One computer preferably with Corei3 processor, 4GB of RAM, 500GB Hard Disk Drive, Windows 7 Home preinstalled. It will run on lesser specs however. ~$400
2) One copy of Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate $130-200

For this howto, I suggest the popular free program called Virtualbox (http://www.virtualbox.org). Other options include VMWare, Xen, etc. I will assume that you do have some computer knowledge and like to mess around. I will only give general directions here, not step-by-step.

Download both the main program and the Extension Pack. Install and run. Then create an empty Virtual Machine, allocating all your processors, half your RAM, and give it a huge fixed size hard disk drive like 2TB. Don't worry, the actual size of the virtual image will be a lot smaller. It will grow (or shrink) with your office. My virtual image size is also 2TB, but actual image size on disk is ~60GB which like I mentioned holds everything. Under Network Settings, use "Bridged Adapter" to piggyback off your host's physical adapter. Now install windows to it. Install virtualbox extension pack. Install antivirus. Install Trial OD. Install whatever. Transfer your files. Give the virtual server a permanent IP. Go wild.
Then for testing purposes, copy the virtual image directory to an external hard drive. Install virtualbox in another computer. Copy over or point to the external HDD using "Add existing machine". The same server should pop right up.

If you want to convert your physical server into a virtual server, you can use Disk2VHD (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... s/ee656415) to convert your physical hard drive to a virtual image, then convert the resultant VHD file to a VDI file that virtualbox likes better using CloneVDI (https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=22422)

For a more complex setup, consider RAID. You can google/search this forum for more info.

Q/A session: mainly from Jay
1. Do the Open Dental files and folders reside within the virtualized image that you restore? If so won't the image get pretty big with Xray, scans files etc.
Everything is included in the virtual image. It will get big. Aren't you supposed to back those things up anyway besides OD itself? In my newer 1.5 year-old office, the file size is 60GB

2. Does the virtualized server appear on the workgroup/domain with its own IP address?
Yes it does. It is just like a physical server. No difference.

3. Doesn't it affect performance? It is another layer. Parallels had this issue.
It potentially does affect performance. However any decently newer computer with more than 2GB of RAM, preferred 4GB of RAM, will run it like a champ

4. How stable are VMWare and VirtualBox? I mean don't they freeze or crash occasionally? Parallels also had this issue.
Freezing or crashing is due to windows itself, not virtualbox/VMWare. Windows 7 is pretty solid. I had reboot perhaps twice in the past month to finish installing security updates

[Hersheydmd]

Sounds too easy. Must implement.

[Jay]

Wow Phil. This is great! Thank you. Cant wait to try out.

A couple of questions/observations since I am a virtualization noob. Sorry if I am making no sense:

1. What about the 32/64 bit issue. If the physical server is running 64 bit must the virtual server also be 64 bit and vice versa?

2. If the server PC has two NICs can the 'server' and virtual server each use one? if so, how.

3. You mention RAID. We have a functioning RAID 0 (mirrored) setup to guard against hard disk failure with two partitions respectively for system and data files. Do you foresee any issues for example, if we restore to a non-RAID setup?

4. I assume the backup software (if any) runs on the physical server and periodically backs up the folder where the virtual server is installed. Can the virtual server or OD or both be running during this copying process? What about open database and system files? if not, MS SyncToy combined with Scheduler might be a good solution for this one.

Thanks again.

[teethdood]

1. What about the 32/64 bit issue. If the physical server is running 64 bit must the virtual server also be 64 bit and vice versa?
The virtualbox binary runs on both 32/64 physical. Within virtualbox itself, you can select which OS, 32 or 64 and type, you're going to be installing into the empty virtual image. To further clarify, if your physical is 64-bit, your virtual can be 32 or 64. If your physical is 32-bit, your virtual must be 32-bit as well.

2. If the server PC has two NICs can the 'server' and virtual server each use one? if so, how.
Let's call the physical computer the HOST and the virtual image the GUEST. If the HOST has 2 NICs, you can select which NIC is attached to the GUEST. The GUEST NIC is just a generic fake NIC that is bridged to the connected HOST NIC.

3. You mention RAID. We have a functioning RAID 0 (mirrored) setup to guard against hard disk failure with two partitions respectively for system and data files. Do you foresee any issues for example, if we restore to a non-RAID setup?
No, no problems restoring to a non-RAID. RAID has nothing to do with virtualization. I mentioned RAID because I am lazy and I don't even want to lift a finger when a hard drive dies. If you think about it, virtualization is a massive RAID because if you copy your virtual image to the other computers in your office, you would have multiple redundancies.

4. I assume the backup software (if any) runs on the physical server and periodically backs up the folder where the virtual server is installed. Can the virtual server or OD or both be running during this copying process? What about open database and system files? if not, MS SyncToy combined with Scheduler might be a good solution for this one.
Both can remain running during the copying process. Remember the Snapshots feature? Before you copy it over or at the end of the day, create a snapshot which flash freezes everything at that moment in time. When restoring, boot up that last snapshot. All running programs at the snapshot-creation time will come up still running. It is simply amazing the first time you see it. No data corruption can occur.

[Jay]

Thanks for the detailed responses.

If you think about it, virtualization is a massive RAID because if you copy your virtual image to the other computers in your office, you would have multiple redundancies.

This is good but my only concern here is security. Server rooms are usually physically secure but a copy of the virtual folder on every office pc means anyone who walks off with an Operatory PC it can restore the whole setup. I know it is probably overkill but do you keep these copies encrypted or password protected.

Remember the Snapshots feature? Before you copy it over or at the end of the day, create a snapshot which flash freezes everything at that moment in time. When restoring, boot up that last snapshot. All running programs at the snapshot-creation time will come up still running. It is simply amazing the first time you see it. No data corruption can occur.[/i]

Do you mean VSS? While I know that certain backup software packages are able to invoke it to avoid these issues, I didn't know users could make manual snapshots before copying using command line or GUI. If this is what you mean, what command are you using and have you been able to automate the process using Windows Scheduler or some other means.

Thanks again. I think this thread promises to be quite a nice resource when more people have clarified their doubts. I think I am ready to give it a shot.

[teethdood]

Thanks for the detailed responses.

This is good but my only concern here is security. Server rooms are usually physically secure but a copy of the virtual folder on every office pc means anyone who walks off with an Operatory PC it can restore the whole setup. I know it is probably overkill but do you keep these copies encrypted or password protected.

I am merely exaggerating for effect. Why would I copy it all to every computer in the office? The RAID comparison comes in the form of you being able to bring your external hard drive containing the virtual image to any computer in the office and quickly getting it up and running. I use TrueCrypt to encrypt the external hard drive.

Do you mean VSS? While I know that certain backup software packages are able to invoke it to avoid these issues, I didn't know users could make manual snapshots before copying using command line or GUI. If this is what you mean, what command are you using and have you been able to automate the process using Windows Scheduler or some other means.

No, it is simpler than that. The Virtualbox program itself has a Snapshots feature. You can create snapshots at any moment in time. Sort of like an instantaneous picture of the moving world. When resumed, everyone continues on with what they are doing. Walking guy continues walking, skydiver continues falling at the same moment. You get the idea.

By the way, I just added a small section in the initial post for converting a current physical drive to a virtual drive.

[Jay]

No, it is simpler than that. The Virtualbox program itself has a Snapshots feature. You can create snapshots at any moment in time. Sort of like an instantaneous picture of the moving world. When resumed, everyone continues on with what they are doing. Walking guy continues walking, skydiver continues falling at the same moment. You get the idea.

Can this process somehow be automated and put on a schedule? If not, we should explore the VSS route?

By the way, I just added a small section in the initial post for converting a current physical drive to a virtual drive.

So you mean I wont have to setup everything from scratch. That's beautiful.

[mdemps9190]

So by doing this you were able to virtualize your entire office and have it run off of one windows 7 computer? So the server is virtualized but how do you keep it synced up between all of the computers in your office?

You aren't virtualizing any computers are you (i.e. turning your office into a thin client setup)?

[teethdood]

Read my first post more carefully.

You still need physical computers in each op, front desk, etc. The only thing that is virtualized is the server. The server OS just lives as a program (called virtualbox) running on top of windows in a physical computer. You can choose any computer to host virtualbox. If that computer should break down, you just move the virtualbox image to another computer and the server will run just the same. It just makes it so much easier to back up and/or get up and running again should a catastrophe occur.

[Hersheydmd]

Phil,
1) If I understand it correctly, you are using Win 7 inside the virtual box as your "server" OS.
What about using an actual server OS, such as Windows 2008? Can it be done? Is there any advantage or disadvantage?

2) What about using the virtualbox server but keeping all your data on an external drive, NAS, or DROBO?

3) What about encryption? Do you encrypt your virtual box? What about using a self-encrypting drive?

[teethdood]

Phil,
1) If I understand it correctly, you are using Win 7 inside the virtual box as your "server" OS.
What about using an actual server OS, such as Windows 2008? Can it be done? Is there any advantage or disadvantage?

That is correct.
I'm using 2008 R2. My brother-in-law is using windows 7. Both work fine. Don't spend money getting 2008 if you're not going to be using Domain Controller. Less choices on 2008 server antivirus. I considered using 2008 server as a DC but ended up not using it, so it's a waste.

2) What about using the virtualbox server but keeping all your data on an external drive, NAS, or DROBO?

You can run the virtualbox image off of an external drive/NAS etc. Just remember that the USB speed is slower and the external drive tends to go to sleep, so it would be even slower with the wakeup time added. We're talking a second or so.

As I mentioned above, in case of emergency, I'd just install the program virtualbox on another computer, plug in the backup USB drive, and boot up my server image without missing a beat. For long term use, I'd recommend moving the image over to the HDD.

3) What about encryption? Do you encrypt your virtual box? What about using a self-encrypting drive?

You can do whatever you want. You can set up the Host OS to encrypt folders (only possible with Win 7 Ultimate as Host). You can set up the Guest OS (aka the server image) to encrypt its folders. You can also use TrueCrypt to create an encrypted container into which you would install the Guest OS.

Cheapest and most flexible way to go:
Windows 7 Home already preinstalled
Truecrypt to create an encrypted file
Virtualbox to create an image in the truecrypt encrypted file
Install Windows 7 (version depending on your taste) or windows 2008 R2 into the virtualbox image. Install mysql/OD/X-rays/etc as usual
For existing offices, you can create a virtualbox image off of your currently running server.

I cannot describe everything. My best advice is to just grab yourself a free copy of virtualbox and play with it. Other very popular virtualization software includes VMWare and Windows Hypervisor. Have fun.

[Hersheydmd]

Thanks Phil. Great info.
I still have a few more questions.

1) I've never set up a domain before. Is there any advantage to setting up a domain as opposed to working in a workgroup?

2) If I am purchasing a new computer with Win 7, do I need to purchase a second copy of Win 7 to install in the virtualbox, or can I use the OEM CD that comes with the computer.

3) You set up TrueCrypt and you create the virtual box with your OS and all your data. When you back up to an external storage device you are backing up static images of the encrypted TrueCrypt file, right? In the event of a system crash is there any problem moving the encrypted image to another computer. Will it work on a different machine? I read somewhere that it won't, that it is tied to the Bios of the machine it is on.

4) Does TrueCrypt work the same as BitLocker that comes with Win 7 Ultimate?

5) In terms of security and HIPAA, & HITECH, is there any difference between hardware encryption and software encryption (entire hard drive encrypted vs. just the virtual box being encrypted)?

[teethdood]

Thanks Phil. Great info.
One last question. I've never set up a domain before. Is there any great advantage to setting up a domain as opposed to working in a workgroup?

Active Directory Pros:
Same users across all computers, same desktop, same files etc. You can log into any computer on the domain and your desktop would remain the same across all of them.
Much better security (Group Policy) restricting what each user can or cannot do, who can join, etc.
Push software upgrades out to each computer (think about not having to walk to each individual computer to upgrade antivirus, adobe flash, windows updates etc.)

Active Directory Cons:
Complex setup process
You lose the Domain Controller, you lose pretty much everything (better have redundant controllers!)

After playing with Active Directory, I've gone back to keeping things simple. I know that I will have associates/partners/sell the office in the future that don't know a thing about computers, much less complex topics like Domains. I know Jordan's network is AD-based, but his people are the best in the business. One-man IT teams like most dentists shouldn't mess with AD, IMHO.

[Hersheydmd]

If I am purchasing a new computer with Win 7, do I need to purchase a second copy of Win 7 to install in the virtualbox, or can I use the OEM CD that comes with the computer.

[teethdood]

You have to purchase a boxed copy of windows 7. Home Premium is around $80. Even if you manage to install the OEM CD into virtualbox, most likely it will ask you to activate sooner or later.

[bcpayne]

I have read in many forums that the OEM windows versions (ie the $80 version) frequently run into activation and "authenticity" check problems when running virtually. Especially if you have to move the virtual machine to another physical machine (one of the biggest advantages of using a virtual machine from my perspective). Does any one else have experience with this? I mostly run linux on my virtual machines but wanted to set up a virtual windows machine for certain situations. I am getting ready to buy a full retail version($200-300) that is less likely to run into this problem, unless others can re-assure me otherwise.
Once an OEM copy of windows is registered on a machine (virtual or physical) you can't use it on another machine...ever. So even if it activates okay originally, it may become useless if you have to move it.

[pna]

Well, for those who are not linuxophobic, it might be better to use virtualization with a Linux server, such as Ubuntu. I'd also recommend putting OD A-Z folders and MySQL database on a different virtual disk than rest of the OS, for easier backup and upgrades. For those wanting to try a (free) linux headless server, check out http://www.amahi.org/. Although Amahi's marketing pitch will tell you its a great home media server -- which it can be -- but it also comes with MySQL, Samba and VPN support built-in to get you started with opendental.

I like virtualization -- just not crazy about using windows for server side applications. Maybe it's time to bundle an Opendental server appliance using virtualization.

[teethdood]

3) You set up TrueCrypt and you create the virtual box with your OS and all your data. When you back up to an external storage device you are backing up static images of the encrypted TrueCrypt file, right? In the event of a system crash is there any problem moving the encrypted image to another computer. Will it work on a different machine? I read somewhere that it won't, that it is tied to the Bios of the machine it is on.

Ok here's how TrueCrypt works: you create an encrypted container file called "Hersheydmd" using truecrypt of 1TB in size on your HDD. It doesn't matter that the file is completely empty or is containing your virtualbox server OS, it will still take you hours to copy that 1TB file to your external HD for backup. That is a big downer.
Instead, you should create the 1TB Truecrypt file in your external drive. When you want to back up the virtualbox image, decrypt that file with a password, which will then present you with a new drive letter. You can then drop the much smaller virtualbox image into that (few GBs instead of 1TB).
If you do that, you can always open up that Truecrypt file since it is just a file on your external drive. If you use Truecrypt to encrypt the drive as a whole (full disk encryption) then you possibly might run into some trouble since you have the option of tying it to the BIOS.
So to answer your question, it will work on another machine just fine. Always test it out.

4) Does TrueCrypt work the same as BitLocker that comes with Win 7 Ultimate?

I don't use BitLocker so I can't answer this.

5) In terms of security and HIPAA, & HITECH, is there any difference between hardware encryption and software encryption (entire hard drive encrypted vs. just the virtual box being encrypted)?

I don't think so. Encryption is encryption.

[teethdood]

I have read in many forums that the OEM windows versions (ie the $80 version) frequently run into activation and "authenticity" check problems when running virtually. Especially if you have to move the virtual machine to another physical machine (one of the biggest advantages of using a virtual machine from my perspective). Does any one else have experience with this? I mostly run linux on my virtual machines but wanted to set up a virtual windows machine for certain situations. I am getting ready to buy a full retail version($200-300) that is less likely to run into this problem, unless others can re-assure me otherwise.
Once an OEM copy of windows is registered on a machine (virtual or physical) you can't use it on another machine...ever. So even if it activates okay originally, it may become useless if you have to move it.

The $80 version is actually the full retail boxed version. The OEM version is the disc that is included in your new computer. If you install that OEM (call it D*ll) disc into virtualbox, of course it will ask "where the heck is the D*ll hardware?!?"
The $80 will work just fine since virtualbox will present the same set of virtualized hardware to the OS, which then gets activated. If you move that virtualbox image to another computer, virtualbox will present the same virtualized hardware to that image. Nothing changes. I do this all the time to test the effectiveness of my backups.

[bcpayne]

I do wish a legit retail copy was only $80, but unfortunately it is about 180. If you find it for 80 it is likely an OEM version that is made to be sold with a pc, but often sold alone. If you find a legit full retail version at that price, please share the link. Ill buy it right now.
I had a loss of activation with an oem version but i am thinking it was because i switched the machine from vmware to virtualbox. Maybe i haven't a reason to worry if i stay on one platform.

I agree with pna. Linux is the way to go for an OD virtual server. If there was an easy to use distro with mysql5.5 preinstalled(ubuntu comes with 4) it would be cake. Does amahi fit the bill?

[pna]

Latest version of Ubuntu (12.04 LTS) does support MySQL 5.5 http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ubuntu

Amahi is something you install on top of either Ubuntu or Fedora. I'd definitely recommend Ubuntu 12.04 because it's an LTS (long term support - 5 years) version . Main advantages that Amahi offers you on top of bare Ubuntu are minor, but quite handy even for experienced linux users. Amahi offers built-in Samba server to store your A-Z folders and simple Web based administration of your headless Ubuntu server.

[teethdood]

bcpayne,

http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Premium-6 ... me+premium

I didn't spend much time looking for a cheaper deal. This one from amazon is $90. I'm sure if you look around you can find it for even cheaper.

[bcpayne]

Teethdood,
If you reference the link you posted, that is the OEM version. Im not saying you cant use it for virtualization, but when activated it will be permanantly tied to that "hardware" and some people have had problems moving it to another host computer.

[Rickliftig]

One question about virtualization - how does this work with licensed programs and site licenses? Say Microsoft Office?

best,

Rick

[bpcomp]

Licensing on virtualized platforms can be sort of a grey area. All of the advice that follows is my own opinion and I am not a lawyer. In most regards, a virtual machine is considered to be a "seat" and so if you have a site license for 20 seats... you can have any mix of real and virtual machines. Once you meet that maximum you may not install that software on to any more machines, real or virtual. They grey area comes from cloning and snapshots mostly. If I make a clone of my server every night and keep the last 5 nights, how many licenses have you used? You may only intend to run one at a time but could feasibly be running 20 copies plus the 5 backups.

The wording of most site licenses allow for simultaneous installation of 20 copies. Not that you could have 40 copies installed (if you had 40 computers) but only run up to 20 copies at once. You may only install it 20 times. If you got a new computer and wanted to put the software on it, you would need to uninstall it from one of your other computers first. This is where it gets grey. Are the clones just backups or fully functioning computers. The clones are used as backups and would only be booted for testing or recovery yet the fact remains that they have copies of the software installed. By the letter of the law you should remove a copy from another computer for every clone that you make. In the real world, computers that people actually use would be using a license but clones made for backup and recovery purposes would not get you in trouble.

This is also true for software that is only licensed for one machine. Generally the license would only be good for one virtual machine and any clone would be an invalid copy. In this case it is generally accepted that you would only run one virtual machine at a time. So how do you leave the "Main" VM running and take a clone to test some different configuration or updates? Technically you should have a second license for the test machine if it is powered on at the same time as the main virtual machine. In the real world most software vendors don't mind booting up a copy for quick testing, but if you have the machine on for long periods of time (stability testing) then you should probably get a second license for any software on that machine, including windows.

[Rickliftig]

I think I'm getting old - nothing is simple anymore! Thanks!

[Jay]

Rick. Don't feel bad. Its not you, its Microsoft which is notoriously hard to deal with unless you are a retail customer or a giant company. Whether it is their product adviser website or a live rep nobody really knows what is right for you if you don't fall into one of the aforementioned categories. There was a time when I naively called them and after long holds, the super-friendly reps would ask call back. They never did but invariably I would be invited to post a surveys (that I am sure no one reads) rating my experience. It felt a bit like the Ottoman Empire in its terminal stages.

Anyhow, this much is clear to me:

1. The best way to get Office on your machines is to buy them with Office installed or (if this is an option) get a trial version that you can later activate.

2. Same with Windows although some people (including MS employees) incorrectly claim that buying the OEM version for final use is kosher if you build the PC. Off lease PCs usually come with Windows installed.

3. Microsoft promotes the dealer/sales rep model for businesses so directly purchasing site licenses off an Amazon type website (except for the retail versions or in the case of Windows, retail and the problematic OEM versions) is in my experience impossible.

4. Retail versions are heinously expensive but might be the only way to go for below 10 PCs. Look at it this way, least upgrades will be cheaper.

If anyone knows better, I am willing to learn.

[Justin Shafer]

Server Virtualization is easy. There are a lot of ways to do it. I use VMWare Convterter as it makes life easy. It can take an acronis backup and convert it to a virtual machine, or you can take a windows bare metal backup and use the vmware converter to convert the vhdk file to Vmware Workstation...

I was going to make a video but I have been busy with intraoral cameras... I do it for my clients that have domains so we can easily get a working DC online.

Once its is VMWare, you can use VirtualBox... I prefer VMWare over VirtualBox at the moment.

One thing to watch out for. Once I saw a VM go nuts with the time.. The time on the Virtual Machine was going about 10 times faster then normal time. It was a bug, but watch out for those things.

What VMWare Converter can do, is this.

Lets say you backup your physical workstation to an acronis file. Okay... Lets say you create a virtual machine, boot an acronis cd, and restore the backup to this virtual machine. Lets say you then reboot. Often, the virtual machine when it goes to boot, will crash. Often its because of a driver no longer being present, or etc. What the vmware converter will do will go into the Virtual Machine file and configure windows for the virtual enviroment. When its done, you can usually boot without a blue screen! Much easier then doing a repair install or something else like mess with the drivers themselves like with WinPE.

USE VMWARE CONVERTER! ITS GREAT!

VirtualBox can use a VMware Machine file...

[bpcomp]

I am in the process of upgrading our office from Server 2003 to Server 2008. I'm also moving us to virtualization. I am using VMware Workstation with Linux as the host OS. I have written a bunch of batch scripts that backup the virtual machine every night to another computer on the network. Every nights backup for a week are kept, and once a week the backups are kept for a month. Everything is logged in a file. I have another script that will detect which of our two external drives are plugged in and will copy the last backup to that drive. I have another script that will initiate a secure connection to a computer at the Dr's home and copy only the changes since the last backup (if our server is 100GB including patient data, only the changes from yesterday are copied, not the whole backup again) over the internet. Having worked in IT I try to put as much backup in place as we can afford. Since most of this is free after hardware purchase, I'll do everything I can to make sure our data is secure. Because we have our server setup as a virtual machine, it is trivial to boot up that machine and see if our backups are good. Could easily be done once a week without much trouble. If anyone is interested in the scripts I've written and help setting up a similar thing in your own practice, just let me know and I'll offer what help I can.

[Hersheydmd]

I setup a Win7 VM with VirtualBox and moved all my office data to it.
I am confused about the various ways of backing it up.

1) Copy the files onto an external hard drive or another computer on the network.
Do you copy just the .vdi file or the entire "VirtualBox VMs" folder. What about the .VirtualBox folder that contains the logs & XML files?

2) Clone the VM using the VirtualBox Manager and move the clone to another drive or computer.

3) Export Appliance from the VirtualBox Manager and move to another drive or computer.

What is the advantages/disadvantages of these three methods?

I also read that each virtual machine is tied to a disk image by its UUID, which should not be changed.
If you’re changing the location of your virtual machines, you have to edit the xml tags in the XML file for “MachineEntry” and change the source path. If you’re changing the location of your virtual disk images, edit the xml tags for “HardDisk” and change the location there.

[bpcomp]

My personal preference is to clone the VM which usually includes any VM disk images in the clone and prepares the VM to be run on a different computer. I would recommend setting up a script that automates the backup overnight. I did this in linux with VMware workstation 8. In your setup I would look at creating a bat file (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/write-simp ... -bat-file/) and running it with Windows Scheduler (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... ule-a-task). For your bat file you call functions from VBoxManage (http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch08.h ... ge-clonevm).

Start with:
VBoxManage controlvm <vm> pause
VBoxManage clonevm <vm> --basefolder <basefolder>
VBoxManage controlvm <vm> resume


This will put your VM into a suspened state so that it can be cloned, then it will clone it to a folder you specify, then it will resume the VM. This can be set to run over night so you don't need to manually backup every night.

<vm> should be replaced by the path and name of your VM
<basefolder> is the path to your backup. I.E. a network drive.

We do not use windows 7 or VirtualBox in our office and I have not tested any of this, but that is the way it should work.

Another option is to automate your backup with autohotkey (http://www.autohotkey.com/)

[stjames70]

Talking about virtualization, I use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my system drive and to clone the drive containing the VM for Windows 7 to two separate drives every night. The cloned drives are fully bootable and up and ready to go in case the originals fail. Of course, you are running a virtual environment from a OS X machine. If your religion prevents you from buying a Mac, then stick to a Windows environment. But all in all, very simple to manage all of our computers from a central location through Back to My Mac or Remote Management

[teethdood]

I have been using Software Raid (Raid 1) on both windows and Linux on top of virtualization, thinking that this would give me more redundancy. Several hard drive failures later and lots of hair loss and nail biting, I cannot recommend software Raid anymore.

Case studies:
Case 1: windows server 2003 software raid mirroring drives. Primary drive failed. Secondary drive contains all current data, but would not boot up because the MBR points to the non-existent broken drive. Had to wipe and rebuild the MBR, edit the boot.ini to make it boot off the secondary drive. Whole day of down time.
Case 2: Ubuntu Linux server software raid 1 again, this time hosting a virtual server OS. Secondary drive failed. Linux just would not boot up even with a bootable CD, kept complaining, til I pulled the secondary out. (took me awhile to figure out that the secondary drive had failed.) Downtime of 2 hours. Granted I could have just set up another computer, install virtualbox and boot up my VM, the problem of doing so is that the network NIC is different, which makes the imaging program (XDR) refuse to run thinking I'm a pirate.

I now like stjames70's method much better. Just run a scheduled task to clone the drives every night. Drives do and will fail. Just give it time.

[bpcomp]

In my experience with a VM, your program inside the VM will not know what the host hardware is. It will just see the virtual hardware unless you setup some form of hardware pass-through (like you might do to use a USB device). Correct me if I'm wrong here but this is a major feature for us, that we can run our VM's on any hardware in the office without having to reconfigure or relicence.

[teethdood]

bpcomp,

Yes that is how it's supposed to be. However I configured the VM to use bridged mode, bridging the virtual NIC to the host's real NIC, instead of just using NAT. I did it that way because I wanted to run Active Directory (I switched to use workgroup instead of domain after awhile). Now the darn VM is tied to the NIC because of XDR. Oh well. Lesson learned. Don't use bridge mode.

[bpcomp]

Ah, so bridged mode does some form of pass-through on a hardware level. We are going to setup a windows 2008 server VM and I've tested moving it around a little. I don't think we have any program like XDR which is tied to the network card. You know it just occurred to me that you could get several of the same network card and then clone the mac address if you ever need to move to a different computer. Or just pull the card and move it with the VM.

[teethdood]

bpcomp,

Yeah that was my initial thought as well, cloning the MAC address with an identical NIC. I'm using the built-in NIC so I can't move the NIC around. I do have another identical computer with built-in NIC though so I will try that just for fun. Really though, I despise software that limits your ability, be it dongle or NIC or some other hardware tie-ins. Glad OD does no such thing.

[stjames70]

Strangely enough, I thought that bridged mode would cause less problems by separating the virtual machine from the host's own NIC. Of course in a OSX environment, the NIC for the virtual machine is virtualized itself, so that configuration travels with you any time you clone that VM. Personally we have not had any problems by bridging, and I hope we never do. We have had two iMacs whose drives did fail, but they were both up and running in about two hours. One hour to reload OS X, and then about one hour to copy the VMs back to those workstations. The process was slow because I had to clone a functional VM to an external drive, and then clone the VM back to the repaired workstations. The external drive was only USB 2.0 with a platter hard drive. Next time I will invest in an enclosure with at least Firewire 800 and a SSD drive. That should speed up things a bit. But most importantly, I did not have to change any settings within the VMs except for the computer name. The Windows networked computers definitely do not like computers with the same name, but that change takes about one minute, so no big deal. And just in case you were wondering, we did buy 20 licenses for Windows 7 (although we are still using Windows XP Pro even though we bought those Windows 7 licenses three years ago -- still have not found a compelling reason to switch to Windows 7 -- and somehow we were able to modify our Windows XP copies to allow for unlimited Windows XP machines to be networked together. Don't ask me how, because I don't think you can do it anymore because of security patches -- but I will send you a copy of our VM if you send me a drive!)

[KevinVan]

I think I'm going to give this a try... Good write up Phil!

[drmaximus]

Just went to a virtual server and I am using vmware player plus. I am using a dynamic disk in the virtual machine. How do you handle the encryption of the disk or do you not encrypt? Is their a way to password protect the virtual machine? I want to basically just satisfy the HIPPA req