Running APP in VM

GZ

GZ

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Upon completion of my PC's backup and fresh installation (Windows 8 Professional) I am going to be setting up a few VM's for testing purposes. On in particular that I am interested in is running the BSOD app and related software in a Windows 7 VM. I plan on using the, included, Hyper-V virtualization software with W8Pro.

My question is the feasability of this setup. My reasoning is that I would like to further separate certain functions from my base installation for many reasons. My PC is used for quite a few different things, including Multi-Media server (music stream to other devices in my home), backup of client data and data recovery, program testing, gaming, internet surfing, etc. So I decided to reorganize my PC to use Virtual Machines for many of those purposes... Mostly software testing across multiple platforms.

The reason for this thread is to find out if a Virtual machine will work for running the BSOD application and it's dependant programming.

The reasons I have are...

I can create a VM with the program installed, then create a backup in case the VM gets borked.
I can separate user files from personal files.
I can run in a "clean" environment that is unaffected by tertiary programs that may be installed.
I want experience with VMachines... :grin:

If anyone has experience with Hyper-V I would like some input on how to go about setting up the VM, what I should look for and any potential problems I may run into. If, of course, that is possible.

This change is not coming for a little while yet, I still have much to do on my PC, as well as take care of in my life, before I can begin... But I am hoping this discussion will yeild some insight into what I am about to get into.

Thanks in advance.
 
No problems running the apps in VMs. I have them running in an XP VM and a Windows 7 VM at the moment to test them in different environments before release.
 
One of the big reasons I am posting this query is because I have little applicable experience with VMs. I messed around with them twice... (DOS Box and XP Mode) But only for short periods of time.

My system has 6 physical cores and 16GB of RAM, and I have a full 1TB drive free for Virtual Drives.

Even though the query in the title is about running the APP and Debugger in VM, any information is quite appreciated.

A few questions I have regarding running the app in VM.

Can I store the Symbol Cache on a local drive, rather than virtual drive and use a virtual connection to access it?
Does this have the potential to create a major performance hit?
If I do decide to keep the symbol cache on the Virtual HDD, is there a quick and easy way to poplulate my Symbol Cache? (poor internet connection makes downloading symbols a PITA)
In Hyper-V, or any other VM client, is there a way to dedicate cores to the VM to increase performance?

Questions not related directly to debugging...

In Hyper-V (or any other VM client) is there the ability to make an archive-installation for quick and easy restoration should a VM fail or become corrupted?
Would it be feasable to use a VM for data-recovery and backup purposes?
- A little information about the last question... I only have one machine and it functions as everything for me... I have had to reinstall Windows a few times due to infected files on HDD that I am recovering or backing up... Would a VM be a sufficient barrier to prevent this from happening?
Can a VM have access to data on my Physical drive if necessary?

Thanks again.

Tekno Venus said:
Hey GZ,

You may want to read my thread here if you haven't already about VM's. Not sure how useful it will be to you, but it's worth a read: https://www.sysnative.com/forums/general-windows-help-support/4318-virtual-machines.html

Stephen
Click to expand...

Thank you... That did help a lot!
 
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GZ said:
A few questions I have regarding running the app in VM.

Can I store the Symbol Cache on a local drive, rather than virtual drive and use a virtual connection to access it?
Does this have the potential to create a major performance hit?
If I do decide to keep the symbol cache on the Virtual HDD, is there a quick and easy way to poplulate my Symbol Cache? (poor internet connection makes downloading symbols a PITA)
In Hyper-V, or any other VM client, is there a way to dedicate cores to the VM to increase performance?
Click to expand...

I stay away from connecting to my machine through my VMs to prevent infection from having a path onto my actual system. I take it one step further and run the VMs in Linux where there is no registry for malicious items to attach to. Even running a virtual environment can allow infections to reach the registry of the host system if there is a registry to reach. I believe this also answers some of your other questions. You could place your symbols on a flash drive and connect that to your virtual system through the virtual USB devices. That is how I handle moving from my host system to the virtual machines. Just make sure to scan the USB from time to time for suspicious items. I use my virtual machines to scan the USB before using it on the host machine again.
 
Thanks. I would, most likely, run a lightweight linux distro (probably GParted) in VM for data recovery purposes...

The Debugger VM would not be running any programs except the BSOD app and it's required components... It could have access to my local machine with no issues of cross contamination so far as I can tell...
 
Well... I am not quite to the point where I can reinstall Windows yet, but I did set up my very first VM (Hyper-V)! I installed Fedora 18 on a virtual machine... But I am having one minor issue... I can't seem to get the networking to work...
 
GZ said:
Well... I am not quite to the point where I can reinstall Windows yet, but I did set up my very first VM (Hyper-V)! I installed Fedora 18 on a virtual machine... But I am having one minor issue... I can't seem to get the networking to work...
Click to expand...

You need to add a virtual switch in order to bridge a network controller over to the VM. I started using Hyper-V, and so far I've got Windows 8 Pro x64, and Windows 7 Ultimate x64 set up...

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I'm thinking on skipping Vista, and installing an XP environment along with some Linux distributions... Arch, Mint...

Linux Mint 14 is out (Nadia), and i've still got 8, 10, and 11. 8 was better than 9...
 
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Looks like I will have to reinstall and try again!

Do I have to do that with the Windows installations too?
 
GZ said:
Looks like I will have to reinstall and try again!

Do I have to do that with the Windows installations too?
Click to expand...

Reinstall? no... And you have to do it to provide a network connection for any VM, not just Windows.

It's in the "Virtual Switch Manager" option in the top right pane.
 
GZ said:
AceInfinity said:
GZ said:
Looks like I will have to reinstall and try again!

Do I have to do that with the Windows installations too?
Click to expand...

Reinstall? no... And you have to do it to provide a network connection for any VM, not just Windows.

It's in the "Virtual Switch Manager" option in the top right pane.
Click to expand...

I did that and the network failed to connect... :banghead:
Click to expand...

What process did you go through? What did you do exactly? How long did you wait? It takes about 3-5 minutes before your desktop environment gains it's connection to the network back, and vice versa as far as I can remember. Did you choose the "External" option? And were you trying to bridge WiFi or your Ethernet?
 
AceInfinity said:
Read More:

What process did you go through? What did you do exactly? How long did you wait? It takes about 3-5 minutes before your desktop environment gains it's connection to the network back, and vice versa as far as I can remember. Did you choose the "External" option? And were you trying to bridge WiFi or your Ethernet?
Click to expand...

Erm... I pushed buttons... (sorry, I couldn't resist :grin:)

I shut down the VM, created the virtual switch and legacy adapter in the Hyper-V management console, (forget exactly what I did, had to go to work) Opened the VM, opened the network properties, made sure the virtual switch was selected, started the VM...

I am on WiFi, so the connection is bridged to that.

I am going to look into it again later this weekend... Right now, I am spending time with my Son...

Okay... Real quick...

I created the virtual switch in Hyper-V Management
I opened the VM (didn't start it) and added the "Legacy Network Adapter"
Set it to use the Virtual Switch I created earlier.

This worked for Windows XP (Just finished showing my son the VM) but did not work for Fedora...
 
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You have to add the virtual switch, go into your VM settings, and choose the network controller that you created from the new virtual switch. Then when you power up your machine, you should have that adapter available to use. I don't know why it wouldn't be working on Fedora, perhaps that one is an internal issue, not dealing with your Hyper-V configuration?
 
You shouldn't have had to choose to add a new Legacy Adapter though as it already should give you a few Network adapters by default... Just look farther down on the left under the "Hardware" expandable category.

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All you need to change is the virtual switch that is allocated for that adapter from {None}, to the one you newly created.
 
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I did that first... Then I enabled the legacy adapter... I had to do it for XP... Without using Legacy, XP didn't see the network adapter.
 
GZ said:
I did that first... Then I enabled the legacy adapter... I had to do it for XP... Without using Legacy, XP didn't see the network adapter.
Click to expand...

You should be able to configure a regular network adapter then for Fedora.
 

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