VMware Communities
binfitbox
Contributor
Contributor

IDEA: VMware Player in a Linux VPS as backup and movable workspace solution to run Windows 10

Hello

 

I would like to know if it is feasible to run VMware Player in a Linux VPS like Contabo where its base VPS has the next specs:

  • 4 vCPU cores
  • 8 GB RAM
  • 50 GB NMVe SSD

I need to know if the user experience would be smooth in a scenario like that, to run Windows 10 and a software that will be running 24/7 except to make a restart on Weekends etc.

 

All this is with the purpose because I have the idea of having a kind of movable workspace where I can have VMware Player running maybe in Ubuntu 20.04 for example and that VMware Player running the Windows workspace I mention above. And one of the purpose of all this would be to be able to easily do backups periodically (maybe weekly) and also be able to move the whole VMware Windows workspace to a local Windows VMware installation, or to another VPS if needed in case of upgrade or just because using another VPS service etc.

 

I understand a VPS is already a Virtualized environment and that maybe a nested virtualization may not be the more efficient way to do what I need. I understand some of you would recommend a Dedicated Server to install VMware directly as a main virtualization, but actually I’m starting with a very small project and I need to keep the expenses as low as possible, so for the moment what I can afford is a VPS in a range of cost between $7-$15.

 

As reference:

  • Reasons why a Linux VPS (Ubuntu, or other recommended here) instead a Windows VPS:
    • I think Linux is less resource-consuming than Windows, and it is to only run VMware and a server monitoring tool. I think that’s all for now.
    •  A Linux VPS has a lower monthly price, in my case around half of the price, and this is something what counts month by month.
  • Reasons why to use Windows in the VMware installation:
    • The software I need to run is only Windows based and there is not Linux alternatives. It runs critical process and for that reason wine is not an efficient alternative.
  • Reasons why the local VMware installation mentioned above is in Windows and not in Linux as it would be in the VPS:
    • This is just because I need Windows to run some local windows software

 

 

I hope others users have been in similar situation could provide their feedback, experience or alternatives for the specific needs I have.

 

Thank you in advance

Reply
0 Kudos
14 Replies
RaSystemlord
Expert
Expert

Not sure what you are after. Why don't you just run VMware in Linux or Windows and alternate between them as you see fit. Works very well and there are no issue copying VMs over to the other OS. VM computer can be Windows or Linux or whatever from all the common choices and some more. Backup of the VM is a 100% backup while the VMware software is not running the VM. There are no hardware issues in normal use for the system that you detailed.

You could even run from a removable USB-III disk as well, without copying between OS's. Unfortunately, since Ubuntu 18.04 LTS NTFS-location does not work in Ubuntu (or other Linux, I tested a few and think it is a kernel thing). However, newer Linux kernel has rewritten NTFS-drivers - have not tested them. Previously, I was sometimes using just that, using external USB-3 disk on both OS's to run the same VM - cannot anymore, because there is no common, working filesystem, as stated above. Just for clarity - you can still copy(/move) to the native filesystem of the OS and use the same VM like that (NTFS-filesystem does work for normal copying in Linux).

binfitbox
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you for your reply @RaSystemlord I really appreciate the time you took to reply in my 2 post yesterday, doing extended and useful replies J, and I would need to clarify some point please.

 

About “There are no hardware issues in normal use for the system that you detailed”

Could you please confirm you are talking about to run VMware Workstation Player/Pro in a VPS with Linux OS? And when you say “There are no hardware issues in normal use” it is in a VPS scenario?

I would like to confirm this well because this is one of the critical points due the fact a VPS is already in itself a kind of Virtual Machine, so a VPS is already in itself a virtualized environment, and a possible performance “problem” would be the hardware for the VPS don’t be optimized for nested virtualization, or the hardware don’t have the features to run a Virtual Machine efficiently, and the main purpose of my post here is to know details about this is exact situation, working with a VPS and to know it won’t have system crashes, or malfunction or abnormal operation.

In my case the Task Manager into the Virtual Windows workspace says all processes actually I need to run take around 2.1GB-2.5GB of RAM (this is without a server monitoring tool because now this is running in a local VMware Windows installation), and that workspace doesn’t have a high CPU usage, e.g. observing that Windows Task Manager while I write this reply, the total processes use 11%-20% from a 2-cores vCPU taken from a quad-core i7-6thGen-@2.6GHz (in a local laptop). So as I mention in the main post, a good and reliable VPS service like Contabo that offers its more basic VPS with 4 vCPU cores and 8 GB RAM, then I think that if a Contabo’s Linux VPS could run VMware Workstation Player even with a slight over-provisioning of hardware resources comparing it with what it would use being installed in a standard local PC, then It could work well with what I need, that is not a heavy process as briefly described here in this paragraph about the hardware usage the whole process takes. But this is what I need to confirm, the performance, stability etc. And I would like to know about others users experiences with a similar situation running VMware Workstation in a VPS.

 

About “Why don't you just run VMware in Linux or Windows and alternate between them as you see fit”

The idea is more or less that, but to alternate mainly when needed, so at least in a first instance it wouldn’t be done frequently, and mainly in case it could be a problem in the VPS (data loss, etc.), or in case to migrate to a new VPS with different specs, or also in case a VPS is not needed anymore and want to migrate to a local VMware Windows installation. The idea is to be able to relatively quickly migrate from a Linux VPS to a Windows PC or vice versa without being a complex process, so that what will take the longest time may be uploading the VM folder data to a cloud drive being in the VPS, to then download the data in the other side, to once downloaded then put the VM file/s in the correct path, then maybe doing a minimal file configuration like to modify any file name or any specific line into a specific file etc. then selecting the "I moved it" option and done, everything running just like its last state in the VPS/Previous_Maqchine. That be a “mechanical process” that doesn’t take a lot of time.

 

Finally, about:

“You could even run from a removable USB-III disk as well, without copying between OS's. Unfortunately, since Ubuntu 18.04 LTS NTFS-location does not work in Ubuntu (or other Linux, I tested a few and think it is a kernel thing). However, newer Linux kernel has rewritten NTFS-drivers - have not tested them. Previously, I was sometimes using just that, using external USB-3 disk on both OS's to run the same VM - cannot anymore, because there is no common, working filesystem, as stated above. Just for clarity - you can still copy(/move) to the native filesystem of the OS and use the same VM like that (NTFS-filesystem does work for normal copying in Linux).”

 

I don’t understand well what you explain about NTFS. I know NTFS is a disk format where for example the Windows C partition is in this format, but I don’t understand if there is problem to move a Virtual Machine from a Linux VPS to a Windows local PC, or if the problem comes in the case I want to run the same VM at the same time in the 2 described systems, because one is Linux and the other is Windows. I don't understand well if the problem is about the capability to run 1 VM at the same in Windows and also in Linux simultaneously. And now you mention this, is interesting and important to clarify this part well, because I just thought in a good scenario where would be useful to run the same VM at the same time in the 2 sides as just described, to have one of the VM running as normal while using the other to do improvements and tests etc. So that it will be important to know about this aspect in addition

 

Really thank you

Reply
0 Kudos
RaSystemlord
Expert
Expert

Thanks @binfitbox !

Sorry, I think I positioned my answer in a not-clear way. The entire post was for using VMware, only. In my understanding, none of the workflows that you have, require VPS on the side - I may be wrong of course, since I don't know your whole story.

VMware is a very good workstation virtualization platform, second to none, I think.

So, I will be brief in my answers since most of your questions concern VPS, which I didn't comment at all. I also don't know anything about it.

 

About hardware issues:

VMware doesn't really add much overhead to performance requirement for the VM. In many cases, VM is faster than the physical computer, because physical computers are loaded with stuff that has nothing to do with the actual task in hand, which VM computer is running. Especially this is true with corporate PCs.

Obviously, Host needs the power to run two computers, physical and VM, at the same time. With decent memory, with i7 or better, it is never a problem nowadays.

The biggest performance issue, after sufficient RAM of course, is the disk where you run your VM. Hard disks are very bad in comparison, worse than their nominal performance suggests. Any SSD gives a huge benefit. For external, USB-2 is very bad, too. USB-3 is very good, newer generations even better, but I haven't bothered fiddling with them too much, just use whatever USB-3 port there is available. (Incidentally, a new generation 6 TB hard disk isn't that bad, if performance requirements aren't high, that's what I use for my tests, because there IS space enough for anything 🙂 ).

 

About moving/copying

With VMware, you don't need to worry about the target location. You just start it from wherever you want. No changes to configs/settings are necessary because of a move or copy. The difference between answering move/copy has been discussed in length elsewhere. (There is an optional index/library view to your VMs that you have used - you can just delete obsolete ones from the view, when your locations change. Index/libray view is just a shortcut for starting VMs quickly without browsing their location each and every time).

 

About NTFS

I tested with Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04, Fedora 33, Mint and perhaps something else. None of them were able to use NTFS as a VM location. I mean, if your host is those Linuxes (probably anything with the same kernel versions), you CANNOT put your VM on NTFS - it is intolerably slow and probably, in the end, does not start at all (I never got it until the end of start, could never even log into Windows VM).

So, you need to run VMs from ext4 (or older), if your Host is Linux.

As briefly mentioned, Ubuntu 16.04 has no such problem. I have used NTFS for 10+ years with Ubuntu and thus it took a LOT of testing to find out what the problem was, because it is a very odd and unexpected bug. If you have followed Linus Torvalds blogs, you know that newly written NTFS-drivers are coming to Linux, but I'm not sure exactly when and will that help this problem.

I also tested Linux, current NTFS-drivers in a simple copy test. There is nothing wrong with them in that regard. I tested with 2 TB dataset. Just the VM-use is the problem.

---------

Let me know, if you need more clarifications.

wila
Immortal
Immortal

That's a lot of text.. so I skimmed and might have missed some detail.

But I didn't see "Why on a VPS" .. what's wrong with running locally?

Running nested on a VPS isn't going to work well unless your VPS provider has very good support for it.
It might or might not work ... hard to say as it depends on many factors such as the actual hardware as well as the virtualisation software used for the VPS. Ask them!

re. Running of a USB disk. On a Linux host you probably should stay away from hosting a VM on the NTFS file system as it is not a native file system and that might trigger things like instability and poor performance. If you even manage to mount the disk read/write.

However you can use FAT32 if your virtual disks are under 128GB and you use split disk files. In that case each disk slice will stay under 4GB.
Note also that the exfat file system is not really recommended (instability & poor performance is common with that one, seen it cause a lot of trouble)

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
RaSystemlord
Expert
Expert

@wila  . Sure lots of text because the questions were rather diverse.

As for VPS
I replied in principle the same, but I asked why would you need it? From the questions I could not deduct any reason and the end result can only be worse, if there is no specific reason.

As for NTFS, external or internal disks.
Since Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (and probably similarly aged Linux kernels), NTFS just does not work as a location for a VM computer - this was discussed in length Jan 2021 in here. Before that version, it worked fine. NTFS as such works rather well in Linux (tried with 2 TB copy on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS). For possible error correction of the disk, it was best done in Windows - so, to have an internal NTFS disk is awkward, external disk not so much (because you can always do it in Windows - if you cannot, why have NTFS in the first place). Latest Linux kernel has newly written NTFS-drivers, but I'm not sure when and where that kernel is delivered as a default AND will that fix it for VMware.

As for Fat32, vFAT (or whatever they are named).

Stay away from them. The performance can be awful, in just a file copy, and file size limitation will definitely hit you later on, even if you think that "I will never have a 4 GB file". FAT/vFAT/exFAT/FAT32/whatever is a relic that I hope would be killed fast (just like WAV, Paint, Notepad and other inferior Windows "inventions" - I'm optimistic in that since IE is killed and Paint will be soon).

wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,


@RaSystemlord wrote:

@wila  . Sure lots of text because the questions were rather diverse.

I was trying to reply to the topic starter.. not your reply and explaining that I might have missed some details.

AFAIK there is no threading in the forum. At least none that works. With the "new" forum I always reply to the last item in a thread nowadays because of that.

FAT32 is fine and if your virtual disk is under 128 GB then your disk slices WILL BE under 4GB.
That's how VMware has designed it on purpose.

No, FAT isn't as robust as NTFS, or ext3/ext4 etc.. No argument there.

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
RaSystemlord
Expert
Expert

@wila  . Yes, I understand that.

My comments were not opposing your views, quite the contrary.

However, I can EXTEND your comment on FAT32 - when doing file copy, it can be 3-8 times slower (if not more) than NTFS on Windows. So, for me, it is an awful file system in anything that requires performance. VMware speed is VERY MUCH about the performance of the disk. Even traditional HDDs are just bad, to say it shortly. They are much worse than their nominal speed, in comparison to BASIC SDD's would suggest. I also mentioned, already above, that new generation HDDs, like some 6 TB NAS-related drives, are much better.

I think that these are VERY valid considerations. Lots of people think that virtualization is slow, based on what they have seen somewhere. It can be, if you don't understand hardware AND it can be if you use something else than VMware (a different subject, I don't have data for that, just heard complaints). It is in the very best interest of VMware to give views how to avoid your system being slow or even unreliable with FAT32. VMware is a very fast and reliable system for workstation virtualization, if you use it right. That applies both to Windows and Linux systems. This opinion is based on hundreds of DIFFERENT VMs running VERY large and complex applications, over the years (very large and complex compared to normal office applications. Just to give an idea, I would say MS Office is 1% in both regards, but it is also within the office-integrated use of applications on VM.). So, VMware DOES work well if you use it right.

binfitbox
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you both @RaSystemlord and @wila for your replies. I appreciate it

 

Reading your replies I see maybe I still have things to learn and get experience about to run VMware Workstation across Windows and Linux.

 

About why to use a VPS, this is just because the next 2 reasons:

  • #1. To be able to access to the Windows workspace from any device via Remote Desktop, like from any PC or mac device, or also on the go from a tablet or smartphone when needed mainly for monitoring purposes.
  • #2. The software I need to run needs to be 24/7 running and online, without power cuts and with a super stable low-latency internet connection. And where I live these 2 things are not guaranteed all the time.

So in this case a VPS is required because it is to run a critical process.

 

And as for the moment I don’t need to run a VM from a USB disk, I’m not clear yet about how can affect the disk format in my specific case. Because I understand the current NTFS limitations in Ubuntu and other Linux OS you mention, but in my case I will always use a Windows VM workspace, and what only changes is the OS in the machine where the VMware Workstation be installed, and I see in a VM folder that VMware uses the .vmdk disk format, that I think is universal for the VMs either If VMware is installed in Windows or Linux. So just to clarify, I won’t use a Linux VM, and what could be in Linux OS is the VPS, but that’s something that the company configure in their side and in that case I think I don’t have anything else to do with the OS installation in the VPS more than to choose the OS I want they install on it. So, in my case I only would use that Linux OS in the VPS to run VMware and a Server Monitoring Tool, and nothing else. In addition to this the critical process I need to run will be in a Windows Virtual Machine and this is the only same and fixed part independently about the OS that VMware be installed.

 

My situation is simply the next:

  • Because the reasons explained above, I need to use a VPS like the one in the next link with a cost of $7/ month: https://contabo.com/en/vps/
  • For the VPS OS I’ve thought Linux is less resource-consuming than Windows and I also think this part could be useful/critical to run nested a virtualization as my case. Also a Linux VPS has a lower monthly price, in my case around half of the price per month that is important because I need to keep the expenses as low as possible.
  • But my workspace is in Windows 10, and in this point is where VMware would come to help.
  • And the reason to start this thread is because I was needing to confirm I would be able to backup and move my Windows workspace from a Linux VPS to a Windows local machine in simple steps (a mainly copy/paste mechanical process with minimal extra steps).

 

However, to avoid confusions I’ve attached a picture with a diagram where the scenario is more visually described.

 

Thank you very much for your help

Reply
0 Kudos
RaSystemlord
Expert
Expert

Thanks for the explanations. First: I don't know VPS. However, certain questions arise:

1. Using Windows from Linux. Not sure how VPS can help there. There are many different ways to use Windows remotely from a Unix workstation. Partly, this functionality is dependent on Windows version, servers are better. None of that is related to having VMware in play or not. But with VMware, you can create whatever networking you desire, much easier than with physical components.

2. If you require a very low latency, I'm not sure how VPS can help you. Low latency requires a small number of hops, which you just cannot achieve if physical distance is large (because there are many physical devices on the route). You CAN achieve low latency in a local network - still, a use from far-away, will NOT have a low latency no matter what you do. Having said that, by paying lots of money, you can achieve many things, but I'm now assuming that a very expensive external networking is not being planned.

If you pay for a cloud service, you can get low latency between their servers. Still, your latency, from somewhere else in the world, will not be small.

Not sure, if this is relevant at all in your case, but Ubuntu Studio has a low latency kernel by default, since it is targeted for music production (and everything else creative). I'm using that distro in writing, graphics and music, since it has everything by default.

3. For real 24/7 usability, you need something else than workstation virtualization. VMware has other products that can handle that. Workstation virtualization makes it easy to get the latest backup up and running, but that is far from getting no-interrupts in service and not losing any last actions and being able to create those backups when system is running. Perhaps this is where VPS is required.

binfitbox
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you @RaSystemlord for your reply

 

I will try to respond your questions point by point.

 

1. Using Windows from Linux. Not sure how VPS can help there. (half of the price comparing it with Windows) There are many different ways to use Windows remotely from a Unix workstation. Partly, this functionality is dependent on Windows version, servers are better. None of that is related to having VMware in play or not. But with VMware, you can create whatever networking you desire, much easier than with physical components.

            - In my case a VPS is needed, it the area the workspace is running there are power cuts and there is not a guaranteed and super stable internet connection. And these 2 points are crucial, because it is to run a software that needs to be 24/7 up (except for updates and restart during weekends). I don’t have an alternative with the same low cost. A Virtual Dedicated Server is an alternative solution but the price is high for what actually can pay.

            - The idea is the VPS be in Linux because it has around half of the price comparing it with a Windows VPS and I’m sure but I also think Linux could be lighter than Windows and it would be a nested virtualization

 

2. If you require a very low latency, I'm not sure how VPS can help you. Low latency requires a small number of hops, which you just cannot achieve if physical distance is large (because there are many physical devices on the route). You CAN achieve low latency in a local network - still, a use from far-away, will NOT have a low latency no matter what you do. Having said that, by paying lots of money, you can achieve many things, but I'm now assuming that a very expensive external networking is not being planned.

If you pay for a cloud service, you can get low latency between their servers. Still, your latency, from somewhere else in the world, will not be small.

Not sure, if this is relevant at all in your case, but Ubuntu Studio has a low latency kernel by default, since it is targeted for music production (and everything else creative). I'm using that distro in writing, graphics and music, since it has everything by default.

- Sorry, I see I didn’t explain this point in the correct way. A very low latency was not the correct way to call to what I need. What it is needed is a stable connection with normal decent latency (normal, low, but not ultra-low). However, thank you for provide these alternatives that maybe could be useful in the future.

 

3. For real 24/7 usability, you need something else than workstation virtualization. VMware has other products that can handle that. Workstation virtualization makes it easy to get the latest backup up and running, but that is far from getting no-interrupts in service and not losing any last actions and being able to create those backups when system is running. Perhaps this is where VPS is required.

- About the backups, they can be done maybe once per week, for example to take a moment on Sundays to make that “maintenance” work as shut down the system and make the backup, then restart to install Windows updates etc. May could be useful to be able to create backups while the system is running but for the moment is not 100% needed feature.

- Could you please explain a little more about when you say that Workstation “is far from getting no-interrupts in service and not losing any last actions”. As reference I don’t need a Server service with nano-second latency/stability. What I just need is a standard good performance that can provide a home PC with a stable internet connection without power cuts.

 

I really appreciate the time you take to provide your experience. Have a good rest of the day

Reply
0 Kudos
RaSystemlord
Expert
Expert

Sorry, still don't know exactly what VPS is, but since you seem to be fully aware of that, I try to answer without that knowledge.

About this:

"Could you please explain a little more about when you say that Workstation “is far from getting no-interrupts in service and not losing any last actions”. As reference I don’t need a Server service with nano-second latency/stability. What I just need is a standard good performance that can provide a home PC with a stable internet connection without power cuts."

What I meant by that is "workstation virtualization", like VMware Workstation Pro and Player.

- nothing to do with latency or internet connections

- "no-interrupts" ... if the workstation running VMware workstation virtualization goes down, nothing will work for awhile. There are other, expensive, solutions from VMware where other computers will take over instantly.

- if disk, where VMware workstation virtualization runs, breaks down instantly, as they sometimes do, you will lose everything after your last backup. Since backup has to be from the time when system was down, it is rather old. You will lose a lot of data, which is intolerable in some on-line systems. You may or may not have application specific things preventing this to happen, but when using those, considerable time is needed for recovery. You may have mirroring in your workstation in case of disk failures, but that is not within virtualization itself and the mirroring system is better to be very good to really save the situation.

- you need to shut down the system in order to do a backup. As you pointed out, regular maintenance cuts are needed.

- if you have more load that you expect, there is not much that you can do since you operate a single computer - other than change the hardware to better, which is far from instant. If you are operating several computers, you don't have any load balancing between systems, which would make the entire system much more robust, efficient and reliable. If you run several applications on one computer, a memory leak in one application may cripple the entire system and all services running there - with load balancing, you can prevent that to happen to the entire system, basically running several VMs on workstation virtualization with do it, but not dynamically and you cannot manage it on-the-fly.

My former comment was just acknowledging that you may have thought those things already and reacted to them in your overall architecture, as was needed. I understand, you don't need all of these, but it is good to understand the limitations beforehand.

binfitbox
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you @RaSystemlord

Oh, about what is a VPS, for that you just can go to the site I left before (https://contabo.com/en/vps/). A VPS is just a Virtual Private Server, a kind of cloud solution, so a virtualized portion from a Server, so as I understand it is just a Server where you install something as WMware as main OS and from that the company make "slices" of shared resources and rent those portions as VPS for a monthly payment. The benefices could be the "guaranteed" stability about running without power cuts and a stable and fast internet connection. And sometimes an important a key part is you can also choose the location if it is something you could need as user. So for persons who don't have these requirements at home or at the local office etc. A VPS could be a solution where everything runs in the VPS company side, theoretically without to worry about stability etc. And of course, when you in your side have all these requirements, then maybe you don't need a something like a VPS, but when you don't have these requirements, then something like a VPS or a Dedicated Server could be the kind of solutions you could need. And in this particular case, the VPS that fit with my budget and requirements is Contabo, with a range of cost between $7-$15 /moth.

 

And about your comments, yes, I understand VMware Workstation will be limited to the hardware specs/behavior where it be installed. That's is what expected, however thank you for these comments.

 

I'm really trying to get a solution to have my Windows workspace in a place where I have the stability and relatively normal low latency I need, being able easily backup to migrate that whole workspace from that place to local installation or vice versa, from a local installation to any other place I need and keep everything exactly in the same last status, then @RaSystemlord or any other member that could have alternatives, please leave your recommendations here.

 

Thank you

Reply
0 Kudos
RaSystemlord
Expert
Expert

@binfitbox 

OK, VPS is a Cloud Service. Basically, this is about what kind of contract you have with them. The issues are like these (probably not everything is mentioned in the below):

- they probably have one virtual computer for each customer. Otherwise, security is not on a high level, if it must be

- they probably don't even say what virtualization they use. It is THEIR business and they don't want to commit to a particular system, unless it is in your contract (which is doesn't seem to be based on your wording)

- whether nested virtualization under their system works, is a question that you need to ask them and have in the contract

- who is installing applications? If you have all the rights, who is correcting the situation if one of your applications breaks the system (in Windows, any application can break the system at any install, practically speaking)? What kind of ways you have to go back to the situation before the mishap? (You as a user-admin, do not have anything realistic in Windows - they might have, at least the VM backup from yesterday - but it needs to be in the contract).

- how can you transfer the entire system back to you, if you can at all? Needs to be in the contract. What virtualization did they use in the first place - see above?

 

As for alternatives, if the above questions cannot be answered to your satisfaction by the VPS provider:

- create a backup from your sophisticated application, when it is not in use. Use the application specific backup ... if it doesn't have one, you need to create it by yourself (depends largely on your DB system and files&stuff - it is doable, probably without too much effort, if you know your application well enough)

- have a mirror system in your home VMware player. I mean, Windows installation which is about the same as your system in VPS ... it can never be exactly the same, if you cannot copy from their system. As I stated above, they might not let you to copy the entire system, it is a huge copy anyway (based on your writings, such a copy wouldn't be realistic at your connections), relatively speaking. If you really need to copy entire system across the network, make them use Bit Torrent delivery, to ensure that it really works - have that in contract (something like FTP is a 1970's tool).

- have a folder called "delivery" (just as an example) where you store EVERYTHING that you installed on the VPS system. Thus you can easily redo ALL the installations, possibly on some other system. Please don't forget serial keys & instructions & misc stuff.

- use your sophisticated backup from your application to install the same data into your home system, perhaps in 15 minutes or something

This approach would be doable, would not require too much bandwidth and would be rather quick to do, providing that you do it once per week or something like that. Here you wouldn't be limited on what virtualization VPS has and what your contract mentions. Of course, since the replica would be in your Home VM, you could easily create copies from that and save many different states over the weeks and months - if this is required at all. In a home system, a VM copying and having enough disk space, shouldn't be an issue. (Workstation Pro has Snapshots, but that is not really necessary for this and isn't exactly the same thing).

viking1304
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I am Contabo VPS user for last couple of years, so I need to write few things here, even this is an old post.

Any Contabo VPS is already a virtual machine. Contabo use Proxmox with disabled nested virtualization, so you can't use VMware or any other virtualization software inside your Contabo VPS.

If you run this command, you will see that virtualization is not possible (actually, you will not get any match, but that's it):

 

grep -e vmx -e svm /proc/cpuinfo

 

If you need to run virtual machine on your Contabo server, you need to switch to their VDS (Virtual Dedicated Servers). One of the key VDS selling points clearly state "Can Host Virtual Machines".

There are few reasons why nested virtualization is disabled.

Each virtual machine inside other virtual machine works slower than parent virtual machine itself. Just watch Inception again and you will have very clear vision why nested virtualization is bad.

The other much bigger issue is that VPS is already a virtual machine which use shared hardware resources. I really would not like to share my resources with anyone who use virtual machine in their VPS. If Contabo ever allow nested virtualization in VPS I will cancel my service immediately.