Using VirtualBox as Long-term Server

[reroute1991]

Hi everyone,

I have been reading through the forums and such and I know that many people use VirtualBox for testing server configurations and doing some quick work/development. For example, a LAMP server.

I was wondering if there would be disadvantages to using virtual box as a long term server?
I am currently working on a website that uses alot of MySQL and I would like to host my own web server (for the experience).
So I was thinking. Since my main desktop is pretty much always on for other purposes, could i just set up a LAMP virtualbox instead of investing in a new computer?
My desktop is quite powerful and I dont think I would get enough traffic that the hardware itself would be a bottleneck.
Are there any glaring disadvantages of using a virtual box as a long term webserver?
The site isnt mission critical or anything. But stability is definately desired.

Thanks!

[Rootman]

There is no disadvantage per se as Virtualbox is a complete VM enviornment. Being the the HOST system in your case is not a dedicated VM the only caveats I would see is the need to reboot the host from time to time for frequent updates. Virtualbox is not a dedicated hypervisor like VMWare ESXi which doesn't have a "real" workable OS as a host, only a limited text mode host and their VMs configured and controlled remotely through a networked interface. Being that Virtualbox is free and you already have it installed and using I'd say it If it works for you then go for it.

[noteirak]

I am personally using Virtualbox to host my infrastructure (17 VMs) on a dedicated server for years now, and it just works.
So I can tell you from personal experience that virtualbox as long-term server is just awesome

[reroute1991]

holy moly!
May I ask what kind of hardware using?
And what applications you use them for? (just big vague buzz words are all im looking for haha)
I am just very interested lately about everything:P

[Perryg]

Not to mention that this forum is running on a VBox virtual machine, 24/7/365.

[Rootman]

Not to mention that this forum is running on a VBox virtual machine, 24/7/365.

^^^^^^ This answers your question right here!

[reroute1991]

haha ya! thats awesome. i didnt know that.

[noteirak]

May I ask what kind of hardware using?

Intel i5 quad core @ 2700 MHz
2x1TB HDD
16 GB RAM

And what applications you use them for? (just big vague buzz words are all im looking for haha)

• 2 AD VMs
• Web server VM (Apache+PHP+MySQL)
• 4 "Desktop" VMs
• OpenLDAP + Root CA
• VoIP Server/Gateway (FreePBX with Asterisk)
• Mail server
• and other random stuff