14 replies to this topic

[Drexlock]

I've read a lot of posts about installing Virtualbox on top of WHS2011 but has anyone come across an addon that integrates Virtualbox into WHS like how Hyper-V is into Server2008 R2?

I'm running Server2008 R2 at home at the moment and was thinking of moving over to WHS2011 for the DLNA and Backup features. My only big hitch is I have a few VM's running in Hyper-V (Minecraft server, OpenVPN, Torrent server, Sparkleshare) and really cant go back to living without them. The best feature IMHO of Hyper-V is the intergration of VM launch and shutdown with the Host system which is sadly lacking in my knowledge of Virtualbox. I was thinking with the wide variety of Addons for WHS v1 and 2011 someone must have though of a Virtualbox Addon that brought some of that functionality to Virtualbox and WHS but I have yet to find one that does.

[ikon]

Not that I've heard of. I can think of several ways of getting it to happen. For example, a batch command automation tool like WinBatch could be run at startup by a scheduled task, and it could start up VB (and feed keystrokes to it if needed).

[Drexlock]

Not that I've heard of. I can think of several ways of getting it to happen. For example, a batch command automation tool like WinBatch could be run at startup by a scheduled task, and it could start up VB (and feed keystrokes to it if needed).

Thanks ikon, I think my big worry is with shutdown. I know you can automate a VM to launch at boot but what about when the host shuts down? In Hyper-V you can set a VM to Save state or shutdown when the host machine shuts down but can you do the same with VirtualBox? Since it technically is a desktop virtualization tool I'd imagine it wouldn't have this type of fine grain control (at least not form what I've found so far).

[ikon]

Thanks ikon, I think my big worry is with shutdown. I know you can automate a VM to launch at boot but what about when the host shuts down? In Hyper-V you can set a VM to Save state or shutdown when the host machine shuts down but can you do the same with VirtualBox? Since it technically is a desktop virtualization tool I'd imagine it wouldn't have this type of fine grain control (at least not form what I've found so far).

Ah, that's a very different story, and a very good question. Thinking about it, I would think the VB programmers could have written it so it will save state and shut down the VM when it receives notification from Windows that it needs to stop. Have no idea if they did or not.

[Drexlock]

Ah, that's a very different story, and a very good question. Thinking about it, I would think the VB programmers could have written it so it will save state and shut down the VM when it receives notification from Windows that it needs to stop. Have no idea if they did or not.

I tend to think that VB is coded to do just that as from what I've seen no one looks at shutdown, usually only at start at boot. But I wanted to make sure before I put on a few VMs and found out that they got corrupted because of not shutting down properly or affected my servers shutdown in the event of a power outage.

[jcollison]

This is a great idea for an Add-in that would run VirtualBox thru the Dashboard. Hmmm

[Joe_Miner]

Yeh, I think shut-down of the host impact is a dirty little secrete of VB. A add-in that would enable graceful shut-down in Win7 and/or WHS2011 would be very useful and save a lot of #($)@&!.

[ikon]

Yeh, I think shut-down of the host impact is a dirty little secrete of VB. A add-in that would enable graceful shut-down in Win7 and/or WHS2011 would be very useful and save a lot of #($)@&!.

Are you saying that VB doesn't gracefully shut down when Windows is shut down? That would be unfortunate indeed.

[JerryW]

Interesting. Maybe an add-in is what we need here. I will have to look at this.

[Joe_Miner]

Now that would be cool!

[no-control]

Shouldn't this be in the addins section?



Just sayin'

[Drexlock]

I did find a solution that in a way address start and shutdown of VMs with VirtualBox under WHS2011. It's a project called VBoxVmService at Sourceforge http://sourceforge.n.../vboxvmservice/ The only thing that I don't care for with this tool is that you cannot modify VMs that are running as there is no Window to access VMs when they are launched with this tool. It does its job but it definitely feels more like a Hack together fix then a polished app. Also when using this fix there is no way to access or admin VMs over the Dashboard. A Big downside in my opinion but it is a quick and dirty fix till a real robust Addin comes about.

Yeh, I think shut-down of the host impact is a dirty little secrete of VB. A add-in that would enable graceful shut-down in Win7 and/or WHS2011 would be very useful and save a lot of #($)@&!.

From my testing a running VM in VBox will not shutdown properly with the host and when launching ti after a reboot shows up tagged as "Aborted" which as you could imagine caused me a fair bit of concern.

The VBoxVmServcie is a good temporary solution but personally I dont trust it 100% and I have had hit or miss success with launching multiple VMs. For now I'm running a second Shuttle PC running Hyper-V until I can find a good Addin for VBox on WHS2011

Edited by Drexlock, 06 November 2011 - 01:05 PM.

[Drexlock]

I have a slgiht update for anyone whose interested. I've been playing with http://code.google.c.../phpvirtualbox/ and http://vboxvmservice.sourceforge.net/ to get a solution similar to what you can get with Hyper-V or ESXI. Its a little bit of a hack but im playing with letting VBoxVMService start and stop my VMs with the host OS and managing the VMs remotely over a web console with PHPVirtualbox. Its a little bit of a cluge to run both of these togehter but seems to have some promise. I'm also playing with running a second NIC dedicated to my VirtualBox instances, trying to prevent VM usage from affecting streaming and file transfer as much as possible.

[Drexlock]

One more update for this old thread O mine

I recently stumbled across this step by step guide on running VirtualBox under WHS2011 that to be honest knocks the pants off of Hyper-V.

http://www.hodgkins....hs-2011-part-1/

The author not only covers automatic start and shutdown of VMs but also goes into settping up web management with ISS and RDP direct into guest VMs. Though that you guys would find it useful, I know it put me squarely back in the WHS2011 Camp

Edited by Drexlock, 25 April 2012 - 01:38 PM.

[ikon]

Thanks for the update.