Determining feasibility of configuration

[Andyon]

I've got a setup using Microsoft's Virtual PC 2007 that I would like to duplicate, but my experience with VirtualBox and then reading the subsequent documentation for VMWare makes me wonder if I'll be able to pull it off.

I've got two VMs I want to create on my laptop. My laptop is set up to connect to two different networks simultaneously. My Ethernet card is on a secured network, my wireless connects to an unsecured network.

The first VM will primarily connect to the cable, so I know I can use NAT routing. I'll also want this machine to be able to connect to the imaging server and start a new image without having to configure a PXE. I've been able to pull connecting to the imaging server off with Virtual PC 2007: The VM gets its address assigned via DHCP and I'm guessing the PXE gets pushed over to me, though I'm not sure how, because I'll get a SuSE OS pushed over to me from which I can control the ghosting/imaging process.

The second VM will connect only through the wireless card (not to the wireless, as I know VMs don't see the wireless card.) This is the part that has caused me the most grief to this point, as bridging my wireless and a VM-installed network connection hasn't been fruitful. This VM works as a test environment for most programs so I can make sure they play nice before really installing them.

The beauty of Virtual PC 2007 is that in the network settings I can pick the network adapter I want. However, performance is starting to be an issue, along with not being able to easily install a Linux distro, so I'm starting to consider VMware.

Will I be wasting my time trying to lock the second VM (the test one) into communicating only through the wireless card? The actual devices are a Broadcomm Gigabit card and a Dell Wireless 1390 mini-card, running in a Windows XP host.

[samstern]

Hi,

I've made something like this work -- but not using a pci card. Rather, I used a usb wireless adapter. PErhaps that will work around your issue? Note that the usb wireless needs not to be recognized by the host os at all (don't install any drivers on it). Make it exclusive to the VM and it should work. I forget teh model I used bu tit was a linksys b/g one in Vmware 6.0.1

HTH

Sam S.

[Andyon]

Helpful, but I'm hoping to avoid purchasing a lot. I know, what's $40 when I might pay $200 for VMWare Workstation, but I also don't want the extra stuff hanging off my laptop

[Andyon]

Okay, I got VMWare Workstation installed and activated for trial, and I found out that bridged networking is what I want.

When I went into Virtual Network Settings > Host Virtual Network Mapping, I could select the adapter I want. That way I can force a VM to choose an adapter.

Now I need to go into work to find out about the image server.

Thanks for the help!

[samstern]

for the image server there are two good options:

1) Partimage

2) Clonezilla

I like Clonezilla as it seems easier (to me) to use and it's good not just for linux formats but is quite quick with ntfs cloning as well. You could hook either up as an iso image in vmware and thus get a boot option and go grab the isntall media via multicast (with clonezilla). that said, pxe with autoyast is more seamless than using an imaging server.

For non imaging options, look to nlite (for 2k, xp, 2k3 server) or Vlite (for vista) to make a bootable slip stream cd.

HTH

Sam S.