System setup

[Andreas_Masur]

As I have mentioned in an earlier post of mine, I am currently redirecting my attention towards Fusion since I am not that satisfied with the other options out there. Our company pretty much is all Windows- and Linux-based but I took the chance and replaced my Sony laptop with one from Apple.

Since I do not want to run just Windows on it but rather would like to stay in Mac OS and only switch to Windows/Linux if I need to, I am looking into virtualization. Replacing mail, browser, office etc. with their Mac counterparts is more or less not the problem - there exist enough equivalents. However, I need to make use of certain compilers that run only under Windows/Linux (although Linux is the smaller issue in that regard).

Having said all this, given the current beta what would be the best choice to set up the following scenario:

I would like to set up a virtual machine that runs Windows/Linux and has the required compiler(s) installed. I would like to have the source code on my Mac partition though (HFS+) since I do development for more than one operating system as well as I do not necessarily need the whole IDE for writing code - Emacs is good enough...

However, in order to compile I need the virtual machine and thus, it needs access to the source code. What would be the best way to setup this scenario? Using a regular network share that the virtual machine can access would be my first thought. Should work without any problems although the permissions need to be set accordingly so that no one outside of my PC can read the data (public hotspots, customer network etc.)

Other than that I simply can think of having a dedicated USB drive that I carry around with me and connect when needed. However, this seems to be more cumbersome thus, I would prefer having the data somehow on the laptop.

Did any of you guys came across a similar scenario so far or at least can provide his/her thoughts on that? Any input is really appreciated. Thank you very much.

[rcardona2k]

>However, in order to compile I need the virtual machine and thus, it needs access to the source code. What would be the best way to setup this scenario? Using a regular network share that the virtual machine can access would be my first thought. Should work without any problems although the permissions need to be set accordingly so that no one outside of my PC can read the data (public hotspots, customer network etc.)

Either a network share or shared folders could work. VMware Shared Folders exhibit odd behaviors where a copy from guest-to-host gets its file timestamp reset but vice-verse does not. Shared folder support has improved in this beta so that may issue may not be bad.

Network sharing has its issues too, namely for NAT where your VM's IP remains statically assigned, traffic bound for your Mac may be sent to the LAN gateway and then back to your host. Bridged-networking wouldn't have that NAT flow problem but if you move networks your Guest VM's IP changes often, which may or may not matter.

How comparable is your compiler to gcc? I could try building something like Apache or PHP from source on the host in a Linux VM and see if configure/make blow up in the process. And/or you could try it too.

[Andreas_Masur]

Either a network share or shared folders could work.

VMware Shared Folders exhibit odd behaviors where a

copy from guest-to-host gets its file timestamp

reset but vice-verse does not. Shared folder

support has improved in this beta so that may issue

may not be bad.

I have read about that issue yesterday which should not necessarily cause any major headaches since I actually will not copy any files back from the guest.

Network sharing has its issues too, namely for NAT

where your VM's IP remains statically assigned,

traffic bound for your Mac may be sent to the LAN

gateway and then back to your host.

Bridged-networking wouldn't have that NAT flow

problem but if you move networks your Guest VM's IP

changes often, which may or may not matter.

As far as I remeber, NAT pretty much isolates the whole virtual machines in their own private network that cannot be reached from outside directly. So, the virtual machines can connect to any device on the network and receive data back but not provide network services theirselves (since no connection to them can be initiated).

Opposed to that bridged networking allows the virtual machines to be a full participant of the network - in other words be seen by the network as an individual device (by its own IP address). Connections can be established in both directions. The IP address can either be retrieved from the network using DHCP or can be statically assigned.

And finally, host-only network creates a virtual network that is contained inside the host machine completely. This would allow the host exchange data with the virtual machines however, no external device could make any connections to them.

Looking at all the options, the host-only networking feature would probably the one I would like to use since I am only looking to access resources on the local host (and does not need to browse resources on the external network). However, Fusion does not support host-only networking yet. That pretty much leaves me with bridged networking instead which is fine as well I guess. The restriction settings for the shared data would need to be obeyed in either way since both with host-only or bridged networking the shared resources on the host machine would be accessible from the external network.

How comparable is your compiler to gcc? I could try

building something like Apache or PHP from source on

the host in a Linux VM and see if configure/make blow

up in the process. And/or you could try it too.

One of the compilers I need to support is the Microsoft one. I appreciate your offer and if you really want to spent some time on trying it would be of course helpful since I have not set up the virtual machine at all in order to try it.

And whether this works or not (compiling over the network) pretty much decides whether I can use the option or have to come up with another one (although the other one would pretty much mean, I need to carry around a USB drive).

Either way, thank you very much for your thoughts.

[HPReg]

"Fusion does not support host-only networking yet."

We are aware of this limitation and are working on addressing it.

[Andreas_Masur]

"Fusion does not support host-only networking yet."

We are aware of this limitation and are working on

addressing it.

Well...I assumed you do already...my comment was not meant as a complaint though...you guys did a great job already given that we are only at beta 2....

[HPReg]

"my comment was not meant as a complaint though"

Your comment was not received as a complaint. Sorry if my previous answer was a bit terse.