Re: Virtual Machines: Newbie / novice questions
On Thursday, May 18, 2017 09:35:48 AM Mark Fletcher wrote:
> This is the most unbelievable overkill. Windows VMs work just fine in
> VirtualBox. When it comes to backup, I have my backup scripts check the
> machines are down and if they are, include the virtual disks in the main
> system backup, and if not, skip them for that night. There is no
> Windows-level backup, it's all done at the host level.
>
> For this to work it has to be OK to down the Windows machines in order
> to back them up,otherwise you risk Windows deciding to do a pointless
> disk write in the middle of your backup and invalidate it. That isn't a
> problem for me; if it were, I would either schedule a maintenance window
> and back them up then, or look into Windows-level backup solutions
> (which _still_ have no need for the nuclear-warhead-to-slice-a-banana
> approach described above).
>
> Restore is smooth, and no license issues -- the Windows machine never
> knows anything happened.
I'd like to understand your answer a little better, in particular, why you
have no issues with Windows licensing.
As background, I remember when (although I'm pretty sure I had already
switched to LInux), Microsoft started the policy of making it difficult to
upgrade a system without possibly buying a new Windows license. I never did
it (under that policy), but iir/uc, if you did certain upgrades to a system,
your Windows would stop working, and you'd have to call them to get some kind
of code or whatever, or, they might tell you that they consider that so much
of an upgrade that they'd insist you buy a new copy of Windows.
As to those certain things, I don't recall that either, but could include
things like disk, video card, processor and / or mother board upgrades.
So that is what I'm concerned about.
Maybe I should ask, how did you get Windows on the system you are discussing--
I mean, did you buy the machine with Windows on it, and then add Debian to it,
setting it up so that Debian is the host system for the VM system, and somehow
converted Windows to work in a VM?
Or maybe you obtained a system without Windows, then bought a license and
installed Windows in a VM? (I'm not sure there is any difference between this
scenario and the previous one as far as Windows is concerned.)
I guess in either case, have you made hardware upgrades that, perhaps in other
circumstances, might have "triggered" the need for upgrade permission (or a
new license) from Microsoft?
If so, did having Windows in a VM avoid that problem?
Oh, (on more careful reading) you're talking about a restore rather than a
hardware upgrade--hmm, I don't remember (maybe I never knew) whether a similar
Microsoft policy had to do with restores?
Or, am I totally confused??? (Well, I probably am, if not about this, lots of
other things ;-)
regards,
Randy Kramer
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