Is VirtualBox capable of control & data acquisition?

[RVan]

I have two motivations for considering virtualization of host computers. These are:

1 - Accessing the Intranet & Internet safely

2 - Circumventing control/data acq software upgrades associated w/upgrade to Win10

I am in the common yet unfortunate position of needing to upgrade several laboratory host computers that operate instrumentation presently using Win7 Pro. Virtualization has received the credit of making gains in this are since 2000 but I cannot make this an experiment. I need to substantiate this can work before making the trip an adventure. I am certainly concerned regarding latencies that might be involved but this is really one of many significant issues that must be addressed before proceeding.

I will lose access to the Internet when Win7 support vanished in mid-January 2020. My history has been to have vendors/suppliers observe system issues and questions remotely and I am searching for a legitimate means to retain this aspect of my computing environment. This has involved applications such as GoToMyPC and TeamViewer. Both hardware and software have been evaluated and software has been installed in this manner. This defines my need to access the Internet on these host computers.

Access to the Intranet is a different story. My needs are for straightforward data transfer and backup.

To address these issues I thought migrating to a dual-boot OS with Linux and the added capability of virtualization might be the only hope of accomplishing this. RAID is involved in at least three of these host computers so this may complicate the situation. Linux offers me access to the Intranet and virtualization may permit me to remain fully functional with Win7. Despite the summary of my two motivations we have reasons to retain Win7 in some form. Several of the software applications we use for data analysis are Win7 and older versions of windows. Some of these are even young in their own revision level history so expecting updates to these applications can easily be regarded as a leap of faith.

Thanks for your help.

[scottgus1]

Good ponderances.

computers that operate instrumentation presently using Win7 Pro

Ability to interface with hardware is as good in virtual machines as in physical PCs, or isn't, depending on what interfacing is needed. Virtualbox can pass devices to the guest OS via network, serial ports, and USB. However, if synchronous activity is required, such as moving a physical robot or CNC device, then stay physical on the computers.

I will lose access to the Internet when Win7 support vanished in mid-January 2020. My history has been to have vendors/suppliers observe system issues and questions remotely

At my old workplace we had a CNC machine running XP. It could not be upgraded, and was no longer internet-accessible. I had UltraVNC on it, though, for LAN remote access. I then had internet-connected support get on my Windows 10 workstation and access the XP controller through the LAN-based UltraVNC client. It worked fine. So you may not have to upgrade these machines to keep internet access, if you're willing to go a two-stage remote system.

No matter what direction you choose, set up a test lab first. Don't risk your job by going production with experimental setups, or you'll get this from the boss:

FWIW if you decide to try UltraVNC on the W7 PCs, in the UltraVNC Properties page, check Poll Full Screen, Poll Foreground Window, and Poll Window under Cursor. I get the smoothest usage that way)

[RVan]

scottgus1 - Thanks for this. It is a lot of information to digest.

scottgus1 wrote:
Ability to interface with hardware is as good in virtual machines as in physical PCs, or isn't, depending on what interfacing is needed. Virtualbox can pass devices to the guest OS via network, serial ports, and USB. However, if synchronous activity is required, such as moving a physical robot or CNC device, then stay physical on the computers.

Some physical actuators are involved so it appears this rules out VM as an option to meet my needs. These are associated with motion or state change (i.e., on-off transitions, etc.).

scottgus1 wrote:
At my old workplace we had a CNC machine running XP. It could not be upgraded, and was no longer internet-accessible. I had UltraVNC on it, though, for LAN remote access. I then had internet-connected support get on my Windows 10 workstation and access the XP controller through the LAN-based UltraVNC client. It worked fine. So you may not have to upgrade these machines to keep internet access, if you're willing to go a two-stage remote system.

It appears this option would allow me to use my fully supported Win10 laptop to communicate with these Win7 Host PCs to accomplish the same. Correct? UltraVNC looks useful. I will have a look. The only "test lab" I might be able to utilize is installing this on the Win10 laptop (laptops have full administrative rights at my employer) or possibly my personal laptop.

Would you consider a dual boot configuration w/Win10 or a suitable Linux distribution to be useful in this type of application? The only need I see this strategy meeting is Internet access but, it becomes less meaningful because, of its limited functionality

[scottgus1]

Would you consider a dual boot configuration

If you're referring to the laptop, such was never necessary in my setup.

use my fully supported Win10 laptop to communicate with these Win7 Host PCs to accomplish the same. Correct?

Yes. There's file transfer too, and you can use typical shared folders to move files from the Windows 7 devices too.

Using UltraVNC shouldn't require much of a test lab, just try it on one of the Windows 7 machines (take a disk image backup just in case?)

[RVan]

Unfortunately, no response to my post regarding this subject matter on the uVNC forum despite 230+ views. Do you know if uVNC permits external control of the secondary computer? By this I mean my Win10 laptop will be primary and permit secondary Win7 host pc's to be examined and controlled by it. What I need to know is, "Can uVNC permit an outside organization to access my Win10 laptop to remotely control one of the Win7 boxes?"

[scottgus1]

UltraVNC installed on the Windows 7 PCs will permit your laptop to control the Windows 7 PCs using the viewer on your laptop. Use another internet-ready remote-in software (Teamviewer, Logmein, the outsider's remote software, etc.) to let outsiders access your laptop, then you (or they) start the UltraVNC viewer to the Windows 7 PCs.