Would it be a smart idea to install a Virtual Machine on a Samba drive?

Dec 3rd, 2015 8:08 pm

#1

Dinujan [OP]: Deal Fanatic; Sep 21, 2012; 5065 posts; 586 upvotes; Mississauga

Dec 3rd, 2015 8:08 pm

Would it be a smart idea to install a Virtual Machine on a Samba drive?

On my laptop I'm running Ubuntu off a 24GB SSD, and Windows off a 240GB SSD.
My desktop has a 240GB SSD.

I work on both of them (inside Virtual Machines), and generally use my Samba drive as a synchronization point for the two.

Question: Would it be feasible to move my 100GB Virtual Machine to my samba drive? so both machines can access the same VM? (I get to save 200GB of SSD space as well)

Currently, (using my Router's NAS) :
My Desktop gets 60 MB/s Read and 40 MB/s
My Laptop (wireless) gets 15MB/s Read and 13MB/s Write

The slow read/write speeds on my laptop might cause me some grief with Xilinx, but I was wondering if I could get away with programs like Matlab, µVision from Keil, and Visual Studios

The virtual machine is Windows 7 32bit with 4GB of RAM.

Favourite Games: NieR (PS3), Catherine (PS3), Persona 3 FES/Portable (PS2/PSP), Final Fantasy IX (PSX), Persona 4 Golden (PSV), Witcher 1,2,3 (PC), Skyward Sword (Wii), Pokemon Colosseum (GC), Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS), Shin Megami Tensei IV (3DS), Majora's Mask (3DS), Bravely Default (3DS)

Dec 3rd, 2015 8:29 pm

#2

death_hawk: Deal Expert; Aug 22, 2006; 31103 posts; 16944 upvotes

Dec 3rd, 2015 8:29 pm

There's nothing physically stopping you from doing it but the 60MB/s reads is enough for me to say no.
I couldn't imagine 15MB/s reads....

+1

Dec 3rd, 2015 8:43 pm

#3

xalex0: Deal Fanatic; Dec 24, 2007; 7084 posts; 691 upvotes; Toronto

Dec 3rd, 2015 8:43 pm

Why not just run remote desktop? The point of virtual machines is that you can run several of them on the same (powerful) hardware. But if you want to access them remotely it's best to use the tools provided within the OS itself. This way you will avoid the latency (and other hardware) issues and the need to restart the instance.

[ HEATWARE ]

+1

Dec 3rd, 2015 10:10 pm

#4

Dinujan [OP]: Deal Fanatic; Sep 21, 2012; 5065 posts; 586 upvotes; Mississauga

Dec 3rd, 2015 10:10 pm

xalex0 wrote: ↑Why not just run remote desktop? The point of virtual machines is that you can run several of them on the same (powerful) hardware. But if you want to access them remotely it's best to use the tools provided within the OS itself. This way you will avoid the latency (and other hardware) issues and the need to restart the instance.

I supposed in that case, I could just:
use WOL to wake the desktop whenever I needed to use its VM
or
setup a 3rd machine (I've got a spare celeron and i3 build doing nothing)

What software would I use if I wanted to access from both Windows and Linux machines?

I'm not sure if Windows Remote Desktop or Teamviewer are up to the task. Would VNC be the way to go?

(I've got a triple monitor setup on the desktop, so I'd need a program that can adapt that resolution to 1366x768)
TeamViewer is a definite no, since I can never get it to work the way I want it to.

Favourite Games: NieR (PS3), Catherine (PS3), Persona 3 FES/Portable (PS2/PSP), Final Fantasy IX (PSX), Persona 4 Golden (PSV), Witcher 1,2,3 (PC), Skyward Sword (Wii), Pokemon Colosseum (GC), Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS), Shin Megami Tensei IV (3DS), Majora's Mask (3DS), Bravely Default (3DS)

Dec 4th, 2015 10:19 am

#5

trane0: Deal Addict; Jun 8, 2005; 3157 posts; 634 upvotes; Toronto

Dec 4th, 2015 10:19 am

I would not run it off a samba drive, only because CIFS is super slow. If you're going to run it on one hypervisor, but hosted on another host's storage, use NFS or iSCSI to present the virtual disk.

Regarding RDP/VNC, if the VM's are Windows and your host OS is linux, there are RDP clients for linux. Also, RDP supports spanning multiple monitors.

Otherwise you can use VNC, as it works on every platform (as server, client, etc). Not sure about multiple monitor support.

Dec 4th, 2015 3:02 pm

#6

Dinujan [OP]: Deal Fanatic; Sep 21, 2012; 5065 posts; 586 upvotes; Mississauga

Dec 4th, 2015 3:02 pm

�� wrote: ↑I would not run it off a samba drive, only because CIFS is super slow. If you're going to run it on one hypervisor, but hosted on another host's storage, use NFS or iSCSI to present the virtual disk.

Regarding RDP/VNC, if the VM's are Windows and your host OS is linux, there are RDP clients for linux. Also, RDP supports spanning multiple monitors.

Otherwise you can use VNC, as it works on every platform (as server, client, etc). Not sure about multiple monitor support.

Sadly, no luck with Remote Desktop

For testing, I'm testing with two Windows PCs (Remote PC: Windows 8.1, 2nd PC: Windows 8)

I always get the same can't connect error.

1) remote access to the server is not enabled
2) The Remote computer is turned off
3) The remote computer is not available on the network

The Remote PC is 192.168.1.2, I've also tried its network name.

I'm able to ping the PC with either the IP or the name.

This is why I hate Windows Remote Desktop. The only time I ever got it to work, I was using a Linux PC as the server

Favourite Games: NieR (PS3), Catherine (PS3), Persona 3 FES/Portable (PS2/PSP), Final Fantasy IX (PSX), Persona 4 Golden (PSV), Witcher 1,2,3 (PC), Skyward Sword (Wii), Pokemon Colosseum (GC), Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS), Shin Megami Tensei IV (3DS), Majora's Mask (3DS), Bravely Default (3DS)

Dec 4th, 2015 3:55 pm

#7

xalex0: Deal Fanatic; Dec 24, 2007; 7084 posts; 691 upvotes; Toronto

Dec 4th, 2015 3:55 pm

Make sure the service is running and firewall is not blocking any ports.

[ HEATWARE ]

+1

Dec 4th, 2015 4:23 pm

#8

Dinujan [OP]: Deal Fanatic; Sep 21, 2012; 5065 posts; 586 upvotes; Mississauga

Dec 4th, 2015 4:23 pm

xalex0 wrote: ↑Make sure the service is running and firewall is not blocking any ports.

Well I'm using the free version of Avast which doesn't come with a firewall, and remote desktop was already allowed under the Windows Firewall. However 'Routing and Remote Access' is disabled, maybe I should enable it?

As for services:

EDIT: I see the problem, my Ethernet connection is listed as 'Public'

If I ever to create another account, would the admin user be able to stay logged in while the I use remote desktop to log into the other account? (Currently the desktop account gets logged out)

Favourite Games: NieR (PS3), Catherine (PS3), Persona 3 FES/Portable (PS2/PSP), Final Fantasy IX (PSX), Persona 4 Golden (PSV), Witcher 1,2,3 (PC), Skyward Sword (Wii), Pokemon Colosseum (GC), Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS), Shin Megami Tensei IV (3DS), Majora's Mask (3DS), Bravely Default (3DS)

Dec 4th, 2015 5:25 pm

#9

xalex0: Deal Fanatic; Dec 24, 2007; 7084 posts; 691 upvotes; Toronto

Dec 4th, 2015 5:25 pm

Dinujan wrote: ↑ If I ever to create another account, would the admin user be able to stay logged in while the I use remote desktop to log into the other account? (Currently the desktop account gets logged out)

Win7 is not a server OS, so it only supports one user session (officially). You could use remote assistance utility if you want to keep the session running.

[ HEATWARE ]

+1

Would it be a smart idea to install a Virtual Machine on a Samba drive?

Would it be a smart idea to install a Virtual Machine on a Samba drive?

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