Loopy virtualization question | Tech Off

Massif
aim stupidly high, expect to fail often.

So, I want to be able to work anywhere, anytime on my pet projects. To that end I thought of using Virtual PC to have a "virtual development machine" set up, and sticking said "machine" on a USB hard disk.

Now comes the tricky part.

Obviously my personal machines can have virtual PC installed so using those machines is no problem, but is there a way of running up a virtual machine without having to install client software on the machine I'm plugged into? (For example, making the USB drive bootable, and somehow booting into a virtualisation environment which will then boot the VM.) Is there anything around that does this? (HyperV for example, as obviously VPC doesn't.)

Thanks.

evildictaitor
How could you use the adjective "indescribable" truthfully?

Virtualization is a hard one because most of the speedup comes from taking the instructions in the VM's memory and executing them directly on the main processor, and only virtualizing instructions when nessisary (such as interrupts).

Consequently Virtualization nearly always installs a user/kernel mode driver. Full software virtualization will slow the whole machine down something cronic (Bochs for example does this).

I don't know of any Virtualization product that runs without installing anything, but you should have a look at VirtualBox and VMware just to see. In any event you can install VirtualBox and VPC from the command line, so just juryrig the USB stick to detect whether the VM-program is there - if it isn't, ask whether or not to install it, if it is then install and launch the virtual machine.

PerfectPhase
"This is not war, this is pest control!" - Dalek to Cyberman

Massif wrote:

So, I want to be able to work anywhere, anytime on my pet projects. To that end I thought of using Virtual PC to have a "virtual development machine" set up, and sticking said "machine" on a USB hard disk.

What are the constraints on anywhere, anytime? Would you have network access?

My favorite option is a virtual machine on my network that has all the tools installed on it, TFS and my laptop. If I have the laptop I work via that, if not and I'm at a machine with VS installed I can grab a copy via TFS, failing that I RDP into the one on my network.

Your best option for the VM route would probably be vmware's vmPlayer software, it's free and a lite-ish install.

Massif
aim stupidly high, expect to fail often.

I don't really need network access. Although I suppose it'd make it easier to keep everything updated if I could have network access occasionally. Hmm...

I think I would need a local webserver for doing ASP.NET work. Although if there's a way of making VS2008, and any other developer tools working in a no-install mode that'd probably do most of the job.

There are really only a few machines I'm likely to need to plug this in and get working, my work machine perhaps, my parent's machine, both my machines. But I think I got carried away with the whole "how neat would it be to just plug in a USB drive and be able to boot my development tools".

Although I'm sure other people could find uses for a similar setup. (All your dev tools on one USB stick, and no need to install? That'd be cool.)

figuerres
???

Massif wrote:

So, I want to be able to work anywhere, anytime on my pet projects. To that end I thought of using Virtual PC to have a "virtual development machine" set up, and sticking said "machine" on a USB hard disk.

Now comes the tricky part.

Obviously my personal machines can have virtual PC installed so using those machines is no problem, but is there a way of running up a virtual machine without having to install client software on the machine I'm plugged into? (For example, making the USB drive bootable, and somehow booting into a virtualisation environment which will then boot the VM.) Is there anything around that does this? (HyperV for example, as obviously VPC doesn't.)

Thanks.

why not a laptop ??

it should be as fast or faster than a VM and they do travel easy.

evildictaitor
How could you use the adjective "indescribable" truthfully?

This might sound silly, but you could also just install the OS directly to the stick (granted not Vista or XP) and then boot from it.

PerfectPhase
"This is not war, this is pest control!" - Dalek to Cyberman

evildictaitor wrote:

This might sound silly, but you could also just install the OS directly to the stick (granted not Vista or XP) and then boot from it.

Or boot from a Live Linux DVD with vmWare pre-installed, or even have a go at a winPE or BART boot disk?

jeredish

Why so much grief about this. This is simple make a permalink to your development box or a box that is always on using something like dyndns and its little client. Then you RDP from any computer you want and work on your projects that way.

This is much simpler than lugging anything around with you. The development stuff could still be VM on the host you are RDPing into allowing you to turn it on and off when needed. The other nice thing about doing it this way is that you are not at risk of losing anything.

Personally I would not use the bootable disk just to much hassel in killing the current OS and booting up, depending on hardware of the random computer you are on access to the outside world might be hit or miss.