First, lets start off by breaking this FAQ down into 2 branches, desktop and enterprise. This is because what do you in a Virtual Machine which may run for 20 minutes a week is very different then a 24/7 system.

Software Evaluation / Desktop Virtualization:

Should you run Antivirus software?
Short answer Always. Long answer is this: evaluate the risk, the potential loss, and loss of performance to decide if it is worthwhile. If you are using a virtual machine to test software or websites where the VM is only powered on for a few minutes a day then it is probably ok to avoid the uneeded overhead. If you are running the VM as the development environment, where you are connected to the physical network and visiting websites then you may want to consider running antivirus software.

Which anti virus software should I run?
There are many out there, but any of the big three: mcafee, nortons, avast would be acceptable. For windows XP or Vista systems you can’t go wrong with grisofts free offering.

What if I’m not running Windows, ie running Linux or Solaris?
Ask yourself this, what are you really trying to protect? There are very few viruses out there for linux and solaris at this point. If you have been good about only using highly trusted repositories for your software then you should be safe. Generally it seems safe to say the biggest problem a linux system will encouter is the actual user deleting the wrong file, not a virus.

Here is a list of solaris antivirus options
Here is a list of Linux antivirus software packages
Here is a directions for installing antivirus on ubuntu
Here is an article “Note to new Linux users: No antivirus needed” from linux.com

Enterprise level virus scanning

What anti virus should I run on my corporate server?
There are a few well known quality enterprise grade antivirus options. But they are almost all for windows server in a windows environment. If you are running a linux backend, then what you really need is just enough protect to prevent the spread of viruses onto the windows portion of the network, as it is unlikely that any linux product will be as effective as a secure linux system with a properly configured firewall and security levels.

Check out this breakdown for a good starting direction Antivirus Tools Underperform When Tested in LinuxWorld ‘Fight Club’

Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition
They do support linux clients, here is the info from their website:
Linux Client

Symantec AntiVirus supports installation on the following Linux distributions:

* Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.x, 4.x, 5.x
* SUSE Linux Enterprise (server/desktop) 9.x, 10.x
* Novell Open Enterprise Server
* VMware EX 2.5.x, 3.x

Note: Symantec AntiVirus Linux clients are unmanaged clients. You cannot use the Symantec management components, such as Symantec System Center, to centrally manage Symantec AntiVirus Linux clients.

What premade Virtual Machines are available for Antivirus tasks?
Check out this page from Trend Micro USA - Virtualization. They offer a variety of solutions for the enterprise customer, ranging from spam protection to full virus scanning. Their virtual machines are available for VMware workstation 5.x, 6.x, VMware Server 1.x, VMware ESX 3.x.
Also search the VMware Appliance Marketplace for antivirus, there are a few helpful premade machines there.

A few general articles about Virtual Machine performance related to antivirus:
virtualization.info: How to improve disk I/O performances with VMware Workstation
virtualization.info: Security by virtualization
The Core Dump of Thought: Anti-virus, virtualization and security paradigm
rentzsch.com: Virtualization as an Antivirus
anti-virus rants: what virtualization can and cannot do in an anti-malware context

What are you willing to pay for an operating system, including all these great programs:

Calculator, Calendar, Cardfile, Clipboard viewer, Clock, Control Panel, Notepad, Paint, Reversi, Terminal, and Write.

Now if you guessed $99.00, and the year was 1986 you would be correct.

Just incase you where wondering: what cost $99 in 1986 would cost $188.40 in 2007 (source).

Now lets compare that to the market today.

According to NewEgg: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic is only $189.99, so in 21 years the prices of Windows has only gone up $1.59.

Keep reading to see the video of Steve Ballmer selling Windows 1.0 from youtube.
Read more »

Recently while visiting relatives for the holidays I got to play around with Windows Media Center for the first time. It really isn’t much but a clean simple interface for watching “media” on a windows XP system. I personally have always been a fan of Winamp, even though it is owned by AOL, but it is a great platform with tons of options.

So, the idea came to me, that if I virtualized Windows Media Center I could hook up a USB HDTV tuner and map it to the virtual machine. With all the specials at Best Buy this weekend it was really promising, until I actually tried it.

As you can see, from the image it doesn’t support the media center inside of the virtual machine. So I decided not to purchase the HDTV tuner, so there may be ways to get it to work, but it really seems unlikely.

Vista Ultimate Media Center in Virtual PC Form - Not Great
Virtual PC Guy’s WebLog : Windows Media Center 2005 under Virtual PC
Microsoft Announces New Media Center Extenders
Microsoft’s Virtual PC 2004 is now FREE - Does it work from MCE 2002? | Ask MetaFilter

Sources:
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005: Frequently asked questions

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/onthego/default.mspx
http://www.mce-components.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP_Media_Center_Edition
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1741030,00.asp

Buy a copy of Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 OEM

Once you have worked on any system with multiple monitors going back to a single monitor is difficult. I myself have done web development on a triple monitor setup, 3 19″ LCD panels and now anything less is hard. Now moving into the virtualization space, you may think that the multiple monitor setup is dead, but truly there are actually more possibilities then ever before. With vmware tools installed, and 2 monitors you can drag files back and forth between not only monitors but completely different operating systems.

Here are the most common setups which are possible in a virtual world, in regards to multiple screens:
1) Multiple Monitors = Multiple Virtual Machines
1.a) User a single computer with multiple monitors to display multiple virtual machines, either in VMware workstation or VMware Server.
1.b) Use multiple physical computers to remotely connect to many virtual machines on a virtual server.

2) Spanning all the monitors on one pc with a single virtual machine
2.a) Using VMware Workstation 6 or greater to span the physical monitors on a single system.
2.b) Using Microsoft remote desktop to connect to a remote virtual machine, and using the remote desktop spanning capabilities to cover all monitors

3) Connect to virtual monitors on a virtual machine from a physical machine
3.a) Using a tool like VNC, connect to a machine, and display one of its virtual monitors remotely, useful when you have multiple computers, each with a single monitor, as the mouse can seamlessly move between any monitor.

2 Programs Which Every Multi Monitor Setup Should Have:

Ultramon
Realtime Soft UltraMon
UltraMon is a utility for multi-monitor systems, designed to increase productivity and unlock the full potential of multiple monitors.
* efficiently move windows and maximize windows across the desktop
* manage more applications with the Smart Taskbar
* control application positioning with UltraMon Shortcuts
* multi-monitor support for desktop wallpapers and screen savers
* mirror your main monitor to secondary monitors for a presentation

UPDATE: You only need a single license for the base workstation, not each Virtual Machine
I have confirmed with Christian Studer of Realtime Software, that “you would only need a single license, the virtual machines don’t require a separate license.” So if you have a license for your main system you are all set for licensing.

Splitview
SplitView - Split screen monitor
Split your monitor! SplitView increases productivity by making it easy to work with two or more applications side by side. It helps make full use of your high resolution monitor and gives the benefit of dual-monitors without their associated cost. SplitView is perfect for deploying Citrix and Remote Desktop with dual-monitors, and ideal for using dual-monitors in ’span’ mode.

Sources:
VMware Communities: Rotated Monitor in XP Pro
Breaking News–Workstation 6 Previews VMware’s Future Server Virtualization

Ultramon forum
Realtime Soft Forum
Realtime Soft Forum

VMware Workstation 6.0 Users Manual [PDF format]
http://www.vmware.com/pdf/ws6_manual.pdf

Virtual PC Related:
Using Virtual PC with Multiple Monitors, Sort Of

Terminal Server Client
Terminal Services Team Blog : Multi Monitor support in the Vista TS Client

Here are 5 virtual machines some are even prebuilt, for uses that you wouldn’t normally expect to see a virtual machine made for. x86 has chosen virtual machines for all aspects of life, beyond the normal workstation and server virtualization needs. The collection includes gaming, entertainment, science, voip and a few more unique ideas.

1. Mythtv: Linux based home entertainment console, inside a virtual machine

NOTE: Virtualization doesn’t allow direct access to PCI cards, so there is no way to access ANY pci turner cards. But usb devices can be passed through to the linux host with virtualization software such as VMware Workstation 6.0.

Sources:
http://www.mythtv.org/index.php
http://www.techwandering.com/…/how-to-run-mythtv-on-windows/
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/…/180429
http://www.opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?messageID=130910
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/991

2. Asterisks: Voip phone server, to handle your voice mail and conference calls all preconfigured.
Asterisk-Skypho 0.9.1

This VM is a ready-to-go appliance with Asterisk 1.2.4 pre-configured to access italian VoIP operator Skypho (www.skypho.net). Once installed you will be guided in a simple installation process.
An integrated readme will help users configure asterisk files with their own phone numbers, username and password.
The VM has been tested with VMWare Server 1.2.
Note: for now the readme files and other documentation is only in Italian language.

sources:
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/800

3. Folding at home

Folding@home is a distributed computing project — people from throughout the world download and run software to band together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Every computer takes the project closer to our goals. Folding@home uses novel computational methods coupled to distributed computing, to simulate problems millions of times more challenging than previously achieved. Help fight the war on cancer with this simple to run virtual machine.

sources:
http://www.planetamd64.com/index.php?showtopic=29163
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/963

4. Zoneminder

ZoneMinder is intended for use in single or multi-camera video security applications, including commercial or home CCTV, theft prevention and child or family member or home monitoring and other care scenarios. It supports capture, analysis, recording, and monitoring of video data coming from one or more video or network cameras attached to a Linux system. ZoneMinder also support web and semi-automatic control of Pan/Tilt/Zoom cameras using a variety of protocols. It is suitable for use as a home video security system and for commercial or professional video security and surveillance. It can also be integrated into a home automation system via X.10 or other protocols. If you’re looking for a low cost CCTV system or a more flexible alternative to cheap DVR systems then why not give ZoneMinder a try?

http://www.zoneminder.com/…a50c78df4edda9819
X10 + Linux + $50 = Automated lights | Hack Your World.com

5. Backtrack 2

BackTrack is the result of merging the two innovative penetration testing live linux distributions Auditor and Whax. Backtrack provides a thorough pentesting environment which is bootable via CD, USB or the network (PXE). The tools are arranged in an intuitive manner, and cover most of the attack vectors. Complex environments are simplified, such as automatic Kismet configuration, one click Snort setup, precompiled Metasploit lorcon modules, etc. BackTrack has been dubbed the #1 Security Live CD by Insecure.org, and #32 overall.

The Only Official Version of BackTrack2 as Virtual Appliance with Metasploit 3

The Ethical Hacker Network proudly releases this Official Version of BackTrack 2, so DL and start (ethical) hacking!

http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/1048

Runners Up:

RoboDeb A complete robotics simulation environment for teaching concurrency and parallelism.

MediaCenter: podcast-video-music

DNALinux VDE: Virtual Desktop Edition: Suite of Bioinformatics software
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/963

Nostalgia: Old DOS games from the early 90’s
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/126

Scientific Linux 5.0 Virtual Machine

Scientific Linux is a recompiled Red Hat Enterprise Linux put together by various labs and universities around the world.
Connie Sieh has announced the release of Scientific Linux 5.0, a distribution rebuilt from source packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and enhanced with a variety of additional applications: “Scientific Linux 5.0 i386 is now available.” Some of the extra applications include: “CFITSIO - a library of C and FORTRAN subroutines for reading and writing data files in FITS; FUSE - an implementation of a fully functional file system in a userspace program; Graphviz - graph visualization tools; IceWM - a lightweight window manager; Intel wireless firmware, MadWiFi and NdisWrapper; Java; MP3 support; OpenAFS; R - a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics.

sources:
http://www.mininova.org/tor/791643

OLPC: One Laptop Per Child

XO is built from free and open-source software. Our commitment to software freedom gives children the opportunity to use their laptops on their own terms. While we do not expect every child to become a programmer, we do not want any ceiling imposed on those children who choose to modify their machines. We are using open-document formats for much the same reason: transparency is empowering. The children—and their teachers—will have the freedom to reshape, reinvent, and reapply their software, hardware, and content.

Sources:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OS_images_for_emulation

Bit Torrent Client:
http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu_lamp_torrentflux_vmware

New and Improved Virtualization Videos Section Powered by Youtube.com

Now with better organization, more videos and details descriptions of each video.

After having the video section in disarray since the beginning it was time to look into the page and clean it up and add more content. The previous page had fewer then 10 videos on it, now with well organized categories we are able to display dozens of videos without confusion.

Check out the videos in the following categories, more to be added soon:

• Linux Virtualization Videos
• Microsoft Virtualization Videos
• Parallels Virtualization Videos
• Sun Microsystems Virtualization Videos
• VMware Virtualization Videos

If there is a missing video or any additional categories you would like added, just drop a comment on this post.

Thanks,
x86Virtualization.com

Good News!!

x86Virtualization is updating our download pages and software pages during the next few weeks. We are looking for suggestions for more packages to add to these pages. If you have come across a product your use on a regular basis, a product your love and can’t live without or even a product your company produces feel free to plug your product in a comment on this post or either of the pages and we will do a full in depth writeup and post about it, to the best of our abilities and hardware limitations.

Information we need is:

Company Name
Company URL
Company Logo URL (with permission to modify to match our listing style)
Product Name
Download URL
Product Description
Pricing (any bonus codes for x86Virtualization Readers would be awesome)

To View the Current Download Pages Click Here
To View the Current Software Pages Click Here

Next Month: We will be reviewing hardware, so if anyone has equipment they would like reviewed please post a comment with a way that someone can get in touch with you regarding the arrangement for shipping the hardware. The comments are private, so nothing will be released to the public for privacy reasons.

Thanks,
x86 Virtualization.com

Microsoft has announced the official name,for the software formerly know as Microsoft Virtualization Server. The new name is… drum roll please:

Hyper-V. This is the official name of the server virtualization technology within Windows Server 2008 that was previously code-named “Viridian.” Microsoft also announced Hyper-V Server, a standalone hypervisor-based server virtualization product that complements the Hyper-V technology in Windows Server 2008 and allows customers to virtualize workloads onto a single physical server.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server

“Microsoft Hyper-V Server, a hypervisor-based server virtualization product, complements the Hyper-V technology within Windows Server 2008, allowing customers to consolidate workloads onto a single physical server. In addition, Microsoft Hyper-V Server will increase original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners’ ability to offer customers simplified, reliable and cost-effective virtualization solutions that can easily plug in to their existing infrastructure. Partners including Dell Inc., Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Fujitsu Ltd., Hitachi Ltd., HP, IBM Corp., Lenovo, NEC Corp. and Unisys are already committed to working with Microsoft to offer solutions based on Microsoft Hyper-V Server once it is available. The estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) for Microsoft Hyper-V Server is $28 (U.S.).”

x86Virtualization.com Thoughts: Why $28? just make it FREE Microsoft. Haven’t you noticed the trend in Virtualization, Free and Open Source is taking the lead over pricey closed products. Also what is with the name? Really had to work hard for that one? One of the top result on google for “hyper-v” is a pair of shoes in Japan. These shoes, which retail for $29.50USD are just slightly more expensive then Hyper-V from Microsoft. the original name was pretty long, but why not WVS? Anyway, thanks for finally finalizing the product line up for Windows 2008 Server.

News Source:
Microsoft Outlines Pricing, Packaging and Licensing for Windows Server 2008, Including the New Microsoft Hyper-V Server Product: Microsoft Hyper-V Server gives customers a new server virtualization option that can provide simplified, reliable and cost-effective virtualization solutions which can be easily plugged into existing infrastructure.

Other Sources:
US ISV Developer Evangelism Team : WSV renamed Microsoft Hyper-V Server
Microsoft Details Windows Server 2008

Finally, there is a common machine format. Only took a few years.

OVF supports a number of features that will enhance customers’ experience with virtualization, including portability, platform independence, verification, signing, versioning, and licensing terms. OVF enables:

* A simple, robust, and user-friendly experience
* Increased customer flexibility through virtualization platform independence
* Simple creation of complex pre-configured multi-tiered services
* Portability of virtual machines and efficient delivery of enterprise software
* Platform specific enhancements and adoption of advances in virtualization through extensibility

Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft, VMware, and XenSource have submitted the Open Virtual Machine Format Specification (OVF) to the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) for further development into an industry standard. The OVF specification describes an open, secure, portable, efficient and extensible format for the packaging and distribution of (collections of) virtual machines. Its goal is to facilitate the automated, secure management not only of virtual machines, but the appliance as a functional unit.

The proposed OVF uses existing packaging tools to combine one or more virtual machines together with a standards-based XML wrapper, giving the virtualization platform a portable package containing all required installation and configuration parameters for the virtual machines. This allows any virtualization platform that implements the standard to correctly install and run the virtual machines.

This is a great step in the right direction. I really like the idea of someday being able to download 1 compressed file, containing a collection of virtual machines, already configured to deploy a complete server platform. Just imagine, having the database, e-mail, web, file, and firewall server each packaged individually, and then grouped together. 1 complete open-source virtualization server room, in a single file.

VMware has gone a step further, and opened up their disk format to open source as well. “VMware is offering our virtual machine disk format openly and freely to the virtualization industry,” said Brian Byun, vice president of products and alliances at VMware. “We are doing so because we believe open and freely- useable specifications should increase the availability of complementary products, provide customers unfettered choice and increased interoperability in their virtualized IT environments and further expand the virtualization market which is good for VMware.”

VirtualIron said “We’ve always supported open standards, whether it’s the current Microsoft VHD or the future OVF.”

“The format is based on a TAR file, includes disk images (eg VMware VMDK or Microsoft VHD), but also includes a description of the rest of the virtualized hardware. Moreover, unlike prior formats (as far as I know), OVF can describe collections of VMs, so as to describe multi-tier services.”

Sources:
Virtual PC Guy’s WebLog : DMTF accepts new open virtual machine format
Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF) -Virtual Machines - Virtualization - VMware
VMware Introduces Open Virtual Machine Disk Format Specification
Open Virtual Machine Format Specification (OVF) Submitted to DMTF.
DMTF Accepts New Format for Portable Virtual Machines from Virtualization Leaders
VMware Intros Open Virtual Machine Disk Format Specification
Open Virtual Machine Format (Virtualization Blog)
Dugie’s Pensieve » Blog Archive » VMware, Microsoft and XEN agree

After reviewing a variety of different virtualization products there is only 1 constant. They all happily boot from an ISO cdrom image. Each vendor has their own format for the hard drive, and there are a variety of floppy disk image formats also.

This is a draft, which as time allows I will expand

What I have done is gather the list to make a simple table outlining the floppy image formats, and the descriptions of them:

.dsk

There are a number of programs that produce images of disks. These images typically start with hex EB and, as an image, most any program that can produce/read a disk image can read the image produced by a different program. Various programs use this extension; too many to list individually. Take clues from the location of the file as a possible pointer to exactly which program is producing the file. The file’s date and time can also help if you know which programs you were running when the file was written. (source)

.img

All image creates image files of any disk (USB Flash Drives, Floppy Drives, Hard Drives, etc). Saves the image file compressed, uncompressed or as a highly customizable self-extracting EXE using a wizard-like interface.

Note: QEMU is a generic and open source processor emulator which achieves emulation speed by using dynamic translation. Qcow is a QEMU specific image format, with support for compression and optional AES encryption. (source)

.ffd

.vfd

.dmg

On the Macintosh, these files are treated like a real disk. They can be created with Disk Copy, burnt to CD or mounted as a normal volume. If you have a .DMG file on a Windows PC it’s likely you have a Macintosh file and you won’t be able to use what is in it. Some sites distribute for the PC in an .EXE file and for the Mac in a .DMG file; make certain you have the version designed for your system. On a Windows PC the dmg2iso program will convert a .DMG file to an .ISO file which can then be burned to a CD or read using an .ISO file reader. Note: You have to run the dmg2iso program at a command prompt using the same command as listed on the site for the Perl version, substituting .EXE for .PL in the command. DMGs can be password-protected and, if so, may not be mountable by some software. The DMG file also comes in different formats: HFS, HFS+, UFS, ProDOS, Linux, and Fat32 and so may also require special mounting software to account for the format. IsoBuster can interpret these files directly as can other programs such as UltraISO. (source)

.emt

.iso and .flp
the .flp file is identical to the .iso file (source)

sources:
http://filext.com/file-extension/FLP
http://www.magiciso.com/

Generally notes:

RawWrite is now avail for Windows.
RawWrite (or rawrite) is an essential tool for creating boot disks and other floppy disk images. Traditional rawwrite programs do no run under modern versions of windows so here is the Win32 version which does. (source)

General Sources:
Virtual PC Guy’s WebLog : Floppy disk image formats supported by Virtual PC and Virtual Server
Virtual PC Guy’s WebLog : Using 5.25” floppy disks with Virtual PC
Virtual PC [Archive] - The macosxhints Forums
Rawrite and related programs
emtcopy: Disk Tools
emBoot - Network Boot for Virtual Machines (VM)
VM Back
Virtual PC and Floppy Images : Paco Hope
Gilles Vollant software: winimage
bootdisk.com

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