SPCR

Virtualization was not in my field of vision until a few weeks ago, but it makes so much sense these days I wonder why it's not getting more attention. Turning a single PC into 10 is an incredible savings in $$, electricity, the ecological cost of making 9 PCs, heat, air conditioning requirements, and finally, NOISE. Imagine how much quieter an open plan office could be if you reduced the number of computers by a factor of 10. The uber-geeks here have a responsibility to try out this software... and use it & recommend it rather than buy and use any more hardware.... assuming it works well enough!

I've (literally) cut my SOHO computer power consumption by 40% and saved quite a bit of room, too. It's really a godsend if you're forced to use multiple Operating Systems- performance on consumer grade systems isn't half bad, it's easier to set up and use than you might think, and its a great way to create a sandbox to learn new computer skills without breaking anything you care about.

Here are some other sources of free virtualization software that I've used and liked, in alphabetical order:
Virtual PC 2007
VMWare server
Xen

I use and like VMWare Fusion and ESX Server for work, but neither of those are free.


I think this is a fairly decent comparison of a comparison of virtual machines.

fri2219 wrote:I think this is a fairly decent comparison of a comparison of virtual machines.

I had no idea the field was that extensively developed!

I know that a few of the site regulars that fold for the SPCR team are using VMware, as you can get more folding points running the 64-bit SMP Linux client on a virtual machine on windows than running the windows client. (There is no 64-bit Windows client available.)

VanWaGuy wrote:I know that a few of the site regulars that fold for the SPCR team are using VMware, as you can get more folding points running the 64-bit SMP Linux client on a virtual machine on windows than running the windows client. (There is no 64-bit Windows client available.)

Which virtualization software supports a 64bit guest OS plus multi-core support within the guest OS?

EDIT: nvm I just read the comparison chart.

MikeC wrote:The uber-geeks here have a responsibility to try out this software...

We already did

These days, the term 'virtualization' refers to emulating a computer in software. This allows you to run multiple operating systems concurrently on the same hardware.

It does not appear that Userful is doing this. It's a Linux distribution with a neat hack that allows multiple keyboards and mice. Linux doesn't need virtualization to provide multiple graphical interface sessions - it's always been a multi-user OS.

yeah, what wrong said is right . . . this is better than virtualisation in that a simul multi user in the one OS on the one PC is even more efficient than a virtual PC running on the same PC and having one user in each.

OMG. That is freaking cool. amazing. I love VMware folks. OMG. OMG.

I've ALWAYS wanted this.

edit... aw crap, linux only?

VMWare saved my butt a few times when I had to do some random C++ dev. Installing Ubuntu on VMWare and getting all the required libs isnt very fun. Once you have a VMWare instance done you can just bring that file to any computer and run the VMWare player which is very handy. Easier than hacking the eclipse C++ plugin every time.

linux :/ no good, need something which can do it for XP:)

Apprentice_GM wrote:this is better than virtualisation in that a simul multi user in the one OS on the one PC is even more efficient than a virtual PC running on the same PC and having one user in each.

I've heard VMware people quote figures of performance loss in single-digit percent, so I doubt this is a serious issue. A true VM allows you to run different operating systems rather than just different sessions, but I haven't heard of a VM product that can use two keyboard/mice this effectively. These are two different areas that achieve a seemingly similar effect, but really they're doing an entirely different thing. (Of course, they can probably be combined by running a VM application full-screened in one of the Userfy sessions.)

What's really amazing is VMware Fusion on Mac OS X. You can take Windows applications "out" of the Windows VM desktop and they act like any other OS X application window. This achieves a Wine-like effect of native application interaction without compatibility problems Wine inevitably faces. Seriously impressive stuff.

On the use of linux: Microsoft would never let someone use their OS to run multiple users on one system unless it's Windows Server terminal services so they can charge per connection.

1 license per 1 machine per 1 user = more $$$$ for M$

Also consider M$ Office if you could run many users off the same copy on the machine, M$ would loose a ton of $$$

linux :/ no good, need something which can do it for XP:)

On your Windows PC, you load the VMWare player. This allows you to run VMWare appliances. Now you download one of the linux appliances from the VMWare website, and you "play" the appliance with the VMWare player. Thanks to the clever engineering of the vmware player, you get a network connection from the linux guest to the stanford web site. And Bob's your uncle. You can download the linux SMP client and run it. As long as you leave the player playing, the folding continues. You minimise the "guest" desktop, and you won't know it's happening.

All the major software vendors use these VM appliances to run their technical courses. As jamesavery22 says, it is a much much cleaner way to transport a working environment from one PC to another.

O yes, and both the player and appliances are free.

HTH

Mike

Just a quick addition to what Dutchman says above, there is also a free version of server that allows you to configure a virtual machine, load your OS of choice, and save the virtual machine, just in case you dont find exactly the appliance you need. (Might be more secure to build your own so that you know for sure what is in it, beside the obvious can't find one with the functionality you need case.)

On my Windows box, I am folding in a VM as Dutchman mentions above. On my machine, Windows use is a little slow unless I set the priority down in the task manager. If I do that, it folds 24/7 and is still very responsive when I am there stealing cycles from folding.

Just to restate differently what "wrong" among others has said: it seems that this product really has little to do with virtualization and definately nothing to do with the company VMware.

It is quite likely that it is simply a specific configuration of multiple X windows with separate ServerLayouts, or so my more knowledgeable friend says

What kind of hardware would you need to run for instance five Ubuntu-stations on one pc? What configuration for 10 stations?

Hi Palindroman,

The biggest limiting factor, and probably first question that I can think of that would need to be answered is how much memory do you plan to dedicate to each of the VMs?

I tend to run them one at a time, but have a few around for different purposes. I have friends who have set up VMs with console only installs, and they have allocated them small memory sizes and they have run a few at a time.

VanWaGuy wrote:Hi Palindroman,

The biggest limiting factor, and probably first question that I can think of that would need to be answered is how much memory do you plan to dedicate to each of the VMs?

I tend to run them one at a time, but have a few around for different purposes. I have friends who have set up VMs with console only installs, and they have allocated them small memory sizes and they have run a few at a time.

I'm thinking of a situation where the Userful software is used. For instance an internet cafe or school where 5-10 monitors+keyboards+mice are plugged into one PC. RAM is obviously important but with 4 GB you get quite far I think. You need video cards and USB expansion cards or hubs. What kind of CPU would you need though?

as mentioned repeatedly already, userful is not virtualization. and unless i'm mistaken, RAM is dynamically allocated. i would say go with a quad-core processor if you're going to have 10 people on the same PC.

Hardware:

Processor:

* Minimum: Pentium III-class (450MHz)
* Recommended: Pentium 4 1.7 GHz or better

Memory:

* Minimum: 192 MB (plus 64MB for each additional station)
* Recommended: 256 MB (plus 128MB for each additional station)

Note: Faster systems will result in better performance for all users. A high-performance hard disk with a large cache (e.g., 8MB to 16MB cache) is recommended.

Free Hard Disk Space: 15 MB

http://userful.com/download/install?p=dm

Yahoolian wrote:as mentioned repeatedly already, userful is not virtualization. and unless i'm mistaken, RAM is dynamically allocated. i would say go with a quad-core processor if you're going to have 10 people on the same PC.

Hardware:

Processor:

* Minimum: Pentium III-class (450MHz)
* Recommended: Pentium 4 1.7 GHz or better

Memory:

* Minimum: 192 MB (plus 64MB for each additional station)
* Recommended: 256 MB (plus 128MB for each additional station)

Note: Faster systems will result in better performance for all users. A high-performance hard disk with a large cache (e.g., 8MB to 16MB cache) is recommended.

Free Hard Disk Space: 15 MB

http://userful.com/download/install?p=dm

Thanks, Yahoolian. Somehow I couldn't find this info.

Jetway has mobos that do this with Windows XP. I just ordered 2 cuz i have old P4 systems that new mobos and found them dirt cheap. I guess it didn't catch on.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/19/jetway/

Palindroman wrote:
I'm thinking of a situation where the Userful software is used. For instance an internet cafe or school where 5-10 monitors+keyboards+mice are plugged into one PC. RAM is obviously important but with 4 GB you get quite far I think. You need video cards and USB expansion cards or hubs. What kind of CPU would you need though?

Seems like one of the critical resources might be PCI slots, or possibly bandwidth on the USB busses. Space and cable management would of course also take careful planning.
It depends a lot on your applications. If you can get by without sound, then you could get by with 4 dual-head PCI graphics cards (assuming a dual head primary card). But if you need sound (e.g. so users could view videos, etc.) then you need a bunch more sound cards (assuming it will support them), or bunch more USB bandwidth for USB sound cards.
Either way - getting 10 users connected to one machine means some careful thought about room arrangement and cabling.

I would wonder if the decrease in flexibility, security and making large numbers of stations dependent on one machine are worth the potential savings in power and maintenance.
* If multiple stations share a USB bus - how do you prevent users from spying on other's keystrokes.
* If one shared server machine goes down, you lose 5-10 user stations.
This may not be a big deal if you have several clusters, but if that is the whole system then everyone is stuck. Swapping in a spare is going to mean messing with a whole mass of cables.

I read some more on the Userful website. Not only do they supply the software, but the PC as well:

'Package: The 10-to-1 Userful Appliance includes the central computer box, peripherals and software. The central computer box is a 3 GHz CPU with 2 GB of DDR RAM configured with 12 USB ports and 10 video heads. Included peripherals consist of 10 USB keyboards, 10 USB mice and appropriate cabling.'

So the video heads is taken care of (is there such a thing as quadruple-head PCI cards?) and in that Youtube-flick I saw the keyboards had audio jacks. However, I agree with this:

* If multiple stations share a USB bus - how do you prevent users from spying on other's keystrokes.
* If one shared server machine goes down, you lose 5-10 user stations.
This may not be a big deal if you have several clusters, but if that is the whole system then everyone is stuck. Swapping in a spare is going to mean messing with a whole mass of cables.

Especially that last thing is something I'm wondering about.

cloneman wrote:aw crap, linux only?

jmke wrote:linux :/ no good, need something which can do it for XP:)

I've just found a solution, but I don't know anything about it.
I hope someone would like to try it!
Only free 15-day trial though.