virtualbox.org

Hello all,

So im kinda new to this so I hope I have the right terms.

What I want
I would like to have my laptop boot into a virtual Server running on my main PC
At the end of the day, my laptop wont have any storage in, so it will need to network boot a virtual pc running on my desktop pc.
I would like to Stream an operating system running in a virtual machine, over the network to my laptop
I hope I described it correctly, not sure if that is right
(I dont mean remote desktop)

Is this possible with Virtualbox???

Thanks
- Warfarsniper1

So you're not wanting to remote into a virtual machine running on your server. (quote: "(I dont mean remote desktop)" You want to boot your laptop to an OS which is stored on a hard drive in the server, right?
I think "network boot" and "PXE boot" are the things you should look for. I think you wouldn't need Virtualbox for this.
Although, you're probably going to need a pretty strong network connection. I wonder if you try it wireless (typical for a laptop), will it be fast enough?

Hi

Firstly Its wire and gigabit so it should do...

Secondly i will reexplain what I want to do, my local council run there computer system like this,
When you login at a computer in an office
It starts a VM on there server and you login to that
The Server runs the OS
and you view the desktop on the local PC
This mean the Server runs the OS and need good hardware
But the local PC hardware doesnt need to be very good.
I want to recreate this weird I know...

I hope that makes more sense

Thanks
- Warfarsniper1

OK, that's a flavor of remote desktop. If your laptop is capable of PXE booting, you'd set that up on your server, with a thin client OS (take a look at Thinstation, maybe) or a small Linux, like Darn Small Linux - except, it isn't "darn"... or Puppy Linux, which I've heard is small. If your laptop can't PXE boot, then try a CD or bootable sd card with the thin client OS on it.
Then you'd run Virtualbox on your stronger server to host the OS you'd want to remote into.

With iSCSI you can have the hard disk on the server, and the laptop does not have a hard disk at all. The laptop uses the hard disk on the server, just like a SAN.

With RDP you can boot the laptop into Windows, and from Windows you can login to the server using RDP. The server can run any OS, your laptop must run an OS on a hard disk.

You can also use SunRay Server Software. You install the Sunray client software on your pc, and can then login to the server (which must run Linux or Solaris). The laptop must run Windows or iPad.

Look into VMware solutions also.

Hi

Thanks a lot!

I will give the thin client a go

and as for VMware solutions I was thinking more free software so not so hot on that idea.

But thanks anyway
- Warfarsniper1

Hi,

Open source project plug to follow..

Infinity is a project that might be over kill for what you want, but it does support what you are looking for.
The Infinity server manages VMs and is an iSCSI SAN. VMs can boot on the server, OR an any other computer with VirtualBox and Java installed.

You simply boot the VM of your choice locally on your laptop and run it full screen.
As a side benefit you get scheduled snapshots and backups.
There is also a Beta feature to boot a computer with PXE and have it run VMs. It PXE boots an install of Arch Linux with VirtualBox and java preinstalled.

Wherever you run the VM, all the data stays on the Infinity server.
BTW if you do not want to run VMs on the server, the server can be run IN a VM itself.

There is some general info about it under third party apps in this forum, or you can go to www.techsologic.com directly.



End of plug


Mike