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[PAH]

In VMWare, when you attach a copied VM Machine it asks you if yuo've copied or just moved it
Select moved

Hopefully there's a similar feature (if needed) in VirtualBox.

[doodab]

In VMWare, when you attach a copied VM Machine it asks you if yuo've copied or just moved it
Select moved

I've done it both ways and had no problems. The main thing move .vs. copy does is update the internal GUIDs and generated mac addresses.

I was wondering how the Windows activation worked if you created a VM and activated it. Does it stay activated if cloning (copying the VM file to several instances) and moving the VMs onto different hosts, or restoring a VM snapshot?

Yes, it has for me. The only two scenarios where it has asked me to reactivate are changing the amount of memory allocated by a large amount (some versions of windows had thresholds for triggering activation) and upgrading the VM version to enable new features.

I thought VMs were a way of isolating hardware changes, so a VM should run on any hardware that the hosting software (VirtualBox in my case) runs on, without noticing the change?

Maybe I should test the scenario before I'm forced too in the 'real world'.

Probably. I've found switching between different intel CPUs doesn't trigger activation although I sometimes get a message (from VMWare, not windows) when resuming a VM that this CPU supports different features than the one the machine was started on. That doesn't happen if I shut windows down before I move it, only if I pause a running VM.

[Freamon]

I thought VMs were a way of isolating hardware changes, so a VM should run on any hardware that the hosting software (VirtualBox in my case) runs on, without noticing the change?

One of the reasons I've moved most of my tasks into VMs is so I can be up and running in next to no time if my main PC died as I have a spare, so would just copy the VM backup from my NAS to the other PC or laptop. As some of my VMs use OEM licences the re-activation may fail.

Maybe I should test the scenario before I'm forced too in the 'real world'.

Sadly this isn't quite true. VM software such as VirtualBox and VMWare don't actually provide full isolation from the host's hardware. What they do is to pipeline the CPU instructions generated by the software running in the VM onto the host's CPU, so the code actually runs on the physical CPU. This is far faster than trying to provide full CPU emulation, which is the approach taken by Bochs. Bochs and other emulators are completely isolated from the host hardware and therefore completely portable, whereas with the VMWare approach you can't move a VM from an Intel machine to a SPARC machine, for example.

[Vanilla]

Sadly this isn't quite true. VM software such as VirtualBox and VMWare don't actually provide full isolation from the host's hardware. What they do is to pipeline the CPU instructions generated by the software running in the VM onto the host's CPU, so the code actually runs on the physical CPU. This is far faster than trying to provide full CPU emulation, which is the approach taken by Bochs. Bochs and other emulators are completely isolated from the host hardware and therefore completely portable, whereas with the VMWare approach you can't move a VM from an Intel machine to a SPARC machine, for example.

Correct about the full isolation issue however Vmware fully supports a VM move from an INTEL to an AMD platform without "live" migration however I've never tested Intel to SPARC, nor seen a migration of this type in the real world (yet). Time to turn the lab on

[PAH]

Interesting info, though fortunately I only have mainstream Intel or AMD based kit at home so should be minimal issues.

Just got to download all the Technet stuff now, without tripping over any download limits seeing as I'm only on a bog standard broadband connection.

I'd have gladly paid another £30-50 for them to send it all on media to save the hassle, but that option's only available for the much costlier Professional subscription.

[Sysman]

Interesting info, though fortunately I only have mainstream Intel or AMD based kit at home so should be minimal issues.

Until recently I was dual booting between Win7 and WHS2011, and could use the same VBox images in both systems (with those images on a separate disk from the user account folders). The trick is to go into Settings for each VM before starting it - you see a progress bar while VBox works out what it needs to. I did the same when migrating VBox images from one AMD box to another with different CPU/NIC/video and it worked fine.

The latest version of VBox has a Clone function which also gives you the option of generating new MAC addresses at the same time. Someone in the VBox team has a sense of humour, for the icon displayed during a clone operation is a sheep. I assume she's called Dolly

[PAH]

Nice one. I could add to that mentioning Wales, but this isn't General.

[eek]

What does Technet offer me that Microsoft BizSpark does not give me for free.

[Joeman]

What does Technet offer me that Microsoft BizSpark does not give me for free.

just tried to sign up so lets see!! free MSDN would be useful... lots of DEV tools

[TheFaQQer]

What does Technet offer me that Microsoft BizSpark does not give me for free.

BizSpark is only available if you have been in business for under three years, so that's not an option for many companies.