Recommendations for running FreeBSD as a guest OS

[Tim Judd]

On Sun, 2009-02-15 at 10:23 -0800, Charles Oppermann wrote:
> > I have a small network at work that, unfortunately, uses Windows 2003.
> 
> Nothing unfortunate about using Windows 2003.  It's well supported and well
> known.  That's not a knock against any other OS, but if there are other
> reasons to use an OS other than FreeBSD, people shouldn't feel a need to
> denigrate or apologize for it (not saying that you are doing that
> specifically, but many people do).
> 
> > I need a good mail server, but I do not have a budget for purchasing
> > additional software.
> 
> That's what I love about FreeBSD :-)
> 
> > Exchange requires too many hacks to configure a
> > catchall email account, and Exchange and I do not get along very well.
> 
> I used to run a small Exchange 2000 (later Exchange 2003) system and it had
> a method by which all mail that didn't match an existing mailbox account
> could be routed to either a specific account or to a mailbox that could be
> accessed by other accounts.  I don't recall the details, and I think someone
> else pointed you in the right direction already, but if you still have
> difficulty, let me know and I'll try to find out the exact steps.  What
> version of Exchange would you run?
> 
> Microsoft's Small Business Server product might be better suited, but that
> too might be too expensive.
> 
> > So, today while brainstorming, I thought why not run FreeBSD as a guest
> > OS on the box.  Any suggestions for the best way of doing this?
> 
> I think that's a great idea.
> 
> I've ran FreeBSD 7.0 as a guest on Windows XP, Vista and FBSD7.1 under the
> Windows 7 beta with good success.  The host was running Microsoft Virtual PC
> 2007 with the latest service pack.  There were some networking things I had
> to figure out, but I was impressed with the performance.
> 
> I just checked and Windows Server 2003 is one of the supported operating
> systems.  Note that VPC is a free product that is downloadable from
> Microsoft.
> 
> Windows Server 200_8_ includes HyperV virtualization that differs
> significantly from the technology in the VPC product, which focuses on
> desktop scenarios (although Windows Server 200_3_ is supported). I have not
> tried for myself, but I understand there are some challenges getting FreeBSD
> running correctly under HyperV. I mention this because you might assume that
> whatever works under Windows 2003+VPC will work under Windows 2008 w/HyperV
> and that may not be the case.


We're running WS2008 with a WS2003 HyperV'd server.  Performance (disk,
network) sucks really badly and we are going to be pulling that VM off
of HyperV.

FreeBSD can't load the BTX with HyperV.  It's as if it's unsupported (go
figure!).

I've ran VirtualPC as test boxes plenty of times -- works for the most
part, but VMWare server/player might be a better product overall.  I've
played with VirtualBox too -- but it seemed bloated beyond reason.

I think a purchased copy of VMWare quite honestly, is the best option
out there to have UNIVERSAL, global access.  And yes, I'm going to find
that link I mentioned earlier and post it tomorrow.

--Tim

> 
> > Thanks in advance,
> 
> Good luck!  Let us know how it works out.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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