virtualbox.org

Hey everyone.
Wanted to start a quick thread as I am testing out Virtualbox on a Macbook pro. My first time using VB. (just grabbed a 15" macbook pro, 3.4ghz CPU, 16gb memory, 500gb SSD).

I come from using VMWare Workstation for quite a long time. VB definitely intrigues me with some of its capability and I feel like it has some extra customization that I like.

That said, my real question is about performance compared to workstation.
To give an idea, I tend to stand up a mix of Windows and Linux and Solaris for my lab environment. Performance is critical to me.

I wanted to ask a open ended question here (and just getting feedback).
Why VB over workstation? Is it purely preference (and i get VB is free, which I definitely like). I was looking for additional features that my not be documented but from others who have used the product for awhile.

So far, I like VB. The networking is a little different, but I like it.

Just wanted to get some feedback from experienced VB users.

Much appreciated.

TCG

The title of your post is "Virtualbox questions", but I don't see any clear question. You're asking for feedback. On what? Performance compared to VMWare Fusion? (Workstation does not exist for a Mac).
Performance in what terms? CPU Ops/sec? Graphics? I/O? What are you doing that is "critical"?

socratis wrote:The title of your post is "Virtualbox questions", but I don't see any clear question. You're asking for feedback. On what? Performance compared to VMWare Fusion? (Workstation does not exist for a Mac).
Performance in what terms? CPU Ops/sec? Graphics? I/O? What are you doing that is "critical"?

Ahh..that would be my bad. Lack of sleep will do that.

You are correct. I referenced Workstation when I meant fusion. For me moving forward, i am moving from a PC to a Mac (finally) and am looking at comparing Fusion and VB.

I have very little experience with VB, but a lot of experience with VMWare.

I was just looking for feedback on VB vs Fusion as far as performance is concerned. I/O is very important to my lab, GPU not so much (2-3 windows machines in my lab, rest are Linux/Solaris). Efficiency is resource usage is important. For example, I have a SQL Server in my labtop that is an absolute resource hog. Drives me crazy, but i also know that is because my Host OS is Windows. As I transition to Mac, hoping I do not have to allocate as many resources to my SQL test box. Just getting a general feel for what i can expect when using VB in my lab.

Building on the above, as i test out VB a bit more, I noticed networking is done differently (again, comparing against VMWare.) I am ok with that, but looking for more information. For example, if I want to give my guest VM's internet access as well as access fro my host system, I need to give it two NIC's correct?

Just things like that i am collecting information on.

I appreciate the help.

TCG