VirtualBox to host Win 7?

[NickC_UK]

Having reached the point where I am about to give-up with both Linux/KVM and Hyper-V as hosts for Win 7 VMs I am now looking at VirtualBox instead, some would say I should have tried that first .

Question is how well does workstation virtualization of Win 7 VMs work in VirtualBox. More specifically does audio playback _and_ recording actually work properly? I have found that neither KVM nor Hyper-V can do sound very well.

This primary purpose of this machine is to host Win 7 and Win Server 2008 R2 VMs but will also be used as a testbed for various Linux distros. First decision is whicjh partition type to store the VMs on ext4 or NTFS, I guess as Linux can access NTFS but Windows cannot access ext4 partitions it would be sensible to put the VMs on an NTFS partition. The next conundrum is what OS to use as the Host, this is where I could do with some advice; Win Server 2008 R2, CentOS, Debian, FreeBSD. Is there any difference between them, any facilities which work better in one that the others? In my speed tests of KVM I have found Debian and CentOS to be by far the fastest I had tested (did not test FreeBSD as I have never installed that).

I assume that I have to remove the Hyper-V role from 2008 server before installing VirtualBox do I?

[mpack]

There can be no promises. Audio output works well for most, a few have problems (the latter tend to be the only guys you hear from of course). I would not trust any VM today to handle audio input. Too much latency.

Yes, nested virtualization is not supported, so Hyper-v would have to go - along with all other vestiges of guest tools from other platforms. Failure to pay attention to this will result in a crashing / hanging VM.