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Same here.
Spoiler5760x1080.*
*Whenever possible.
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@TopHatProductions115 On another note, virtualization; if you were say, paying a very small VPS startup to host a VPC for you, would you prefer that it be hosted on VMware Workstation, or rather MS Hyper-V? (MS-HV feature on a server, not a dedicated virtual host)
These would be the host options as the startup might have very limited resources and already have their servers tasked for other operations...
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That's what I thought-- but my point is, while it runs as VMware, it CAN'T be ESXi-- only VMware workstation edition. So, what I meant is, would you be comfortable with someone hosting your VPC image on a workstation version rather than ESXI, despite the minor differences and great similarities?
I just wonder because there seems to be some stigma among the community regarding security, privacy, and operational (in)convenience of Workstation feature-level software vs. bare metal hypervisor...
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@Phas3L0ck Now that you mention it, I'd be hesitant to use either. MS Hyper-V is lacking important features that I'm used to having even on Type-2 Hypervisors, and VMware Workstaion Pro, while having those features, is limited by the host it runs on.
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I think we can all agree that any form of Hyper-V is a lost cause.
However, I say, VMware Workstation is plenty as potent with features and scalable as ESXi. The only real limitation is the lack of low-level vGPU support, which isn't typically used anyway except inside of custom appliance deployments.
So if I wanted to start a VPC hosting service on the side using an existing system, what am I supposed to do? Would anyone even want it? Or am I better off just hosting a cluster of miniature bare-metal terminals that can be used remotely?
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Oh god no, that would be WAYYYYY too expensive! Do you even realize how much infrastructure that would take? That totally defeats the purpose of hosing VPC's on an existing server in the first place!
BTW, an HPC cluster running ESXi is a complete fallacy; HPC is for scaling the load of dedicated applications (that don't really exist anymore) across multiple systems, while ESXi is more bare-metal and requires serious back-end machines to handle such a sideload as moving live virtual disks between servers through the use of vMotion, not to mention the complexity of the necessary network backbone to handle such an obscure workload, which wouldn't even happen very often, and is typically difficult to facilitate unless you have years of experience administering a fully virtualized datacenter!
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@Phas3L0ck Apologies for mixing up vMotion with HPC. But you get the point, from what I can tell. I already have ESXi licenses, and am planning on moving toward fully-virtualised setup by 2021. The choice is yours in the end...
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Hmmm... So you have the rights of use for the software... Do you also have the know-how to make full use of it?
I ask because I now have an active problem that needs to be solved; giving client users remote access to enough of the VMware Workstation code on my server to boot, reboot, and interact with the boot screen of their VM, and theirs alone.
See my postings here for details:
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@Phas3L0ck What hardware and software are you planning to use in the guests (VMs)? If you're using nVIDIA GPUs, you could install Moonlight on them and the Shutdown and Sleep options so that user(s) can only Restart instead. Hibernation is disabled by default in Windows 10, so that should be a non-issue. If you're using an AMD card, I suggest looking into possibly setting up either Rainway or Parsec. All three of these options should be capable of showing and allowing interaction with the desktop environment. Here's a link on a review of these software options:
For users that aren't looking for low-latency, high-performance remote access, there is Chrome Remote Desktop and the likes. But I suggest against it, since it looks horrid half the time. Leave that for if you need to troubleshoot IMO.
Other alternatives:
I know that these options are strictly tied to the guest VMs, but that can be secured via setting permissions in the guest VMs (so that the streaming software can't be uninstalled or reconfigured by anyone but you). If the clients don't need access to BIOS/EFI, this should work just fine.
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Once again you have this all completely backwards!
I don't care about power OFF, and GPU integration doesn't exist in VMware Workstation edition!
I need a way to power ON remotely! Theoretically I could to Wake-On-LAN somehow, but haven't figured that out yet with virtual network options.
And then, if someone decides to encrypt their system, they need access to the boot screen before the OS is loaded, which means partial access to my physical instance of VMware Workstation!
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@Phas3L0ck Do you mean something similar to this?
Just making sure that I understand you this time. As I've said before, I'm not an expert in this. But I do have some rudimentary experience. I guess I could try walking through a hypothetical solution
What if you have VMware Workstation Pro installed on Windows (Enterprise LTSB or Server - for stability reasons), such that all users can use the application. From there, create a new local account for each user that needs access to a VM, and have their VM stored in their profile folder (so that only they have access to their own VMs). The Windows host (with VMware Workstation) would stay online and idle. When a user needs to remote access the VM, they simply RDP into Windows with their account credentials and start up their own VM (which will be the only one available to them). Probably not the best solution, but it's as far as I've gotten with this thus far. Should allow for full control of the VM, with no issues. There's also this if you're interested - probably better than what I just created... -
It's sad to see so many common problems like this posted years ago that still haven't been solved...
"have their VM stored in their profile folder" Uh, no... for about a million technical and security reasons, no. Don't forget, the load of a single fully assembled VM would saturate even the fastest SSD in seconds, so all VM images will have to run from a dedicated NVMe. Also, I can't even beign to tell you how badly flawed the user file access system is in Windows...
"they simply RDP into Windows with their account credentials and start up their own VM" That's exactly what I'm trying to prevent; Windows is structurally flawed in that it was never designed to physically handle multiple users, much less with the administrative access needed to add and remove programs-- which affects every single user on the system! That's partly WHY we have VMware in the first place.
Now that last article you linked to-- that's what I'm trying to learn about right now. Technologically it could work, although there is the very minor problem of creating user accounts for individual remote access... but the biggest problem is not only user/VM access authorization, but limiting visibility of VM images to specific users so that people can't see or touch each other's virtual machine.
With my lack of resources and my server being incomplete, there's only so much I can do to grasp the concept of a little known feature tucked away on the side as a button that links to a piece of code we call an "option."
I wouldn't have a problem with bare metal RDP (which was my initial idea) if it weren't for the systematic flaw of application installation affecting all users and the difficulty of setting access privileges to open or restrict programs and resources... if all that wasn't an issue, I'd have almost no reason to use virtual machines, and I'd save a ton of resources, time, effort, and money even... Then again, there's always the problem of multiple users causing in increased load on the C:\ drive, and when you're running something like Server 2K8R2 (because Win 8 & 10 SUCK!) there's no easy way to operate on an NVMe, which I heard would require a clean install at the very least, so in any case, it's just not worth it.
I occasionally revisit my active experiment on the practicality of bare-metal RDP access for development purposes, but until I have a concrete solution for comprehensive user access control, it's staying internal and mainly used for backend maintenance and testing.
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@Phas3L0ck If you're averse to Windows, what's to stop you from using Linux with KVM instead? Just wondering, since the security and permissions should be better there.
Onto paragraph 3 - it would have been nice to know that before now, since this info isn't new to you. Which means that I haven't really gotten you any further. Bringing that up earlier in the discussion would have also given me a better idea of what you were going for. The fact that you called it "bare-metal RDP" also would have helped, since I would have skipped over solutions like Moonlight
About the rest - really wishing I could provide you a better answer. I know you probably can't use this, but is it similar to this:
- https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.security.doc%2FGUID-670B9B8C-3810-4790-AC83-57142A9FE16F.html
- https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.security.doc%2FGUID-23A42C8E-1D4D-4AF6-8E0A-60C56557AD82.html
- https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/com.vmware.vsphere.html.hostclient.doc/GUID-ECBC6397-3BBE-4F9A-A70E-E80E65EB37DB.html
Emphasis on the last link. Just making sure that I didn't mistake your intent this time, seeing that I wasn't sure for most of this.
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"what's to stop you from using Linux with KVM instead?"
2 things; while Linux has better technology for infrastructure and administration, it's too complex, and doesn't run a single program that would be needed, and everything is only available on Windows; KVM? Uh, NO! I am NOT switching every single VM I've designed for the commonly used VMware to use a foreign program that doesn't even have the same integration-- and don't forget that practically no one uses KVM for their images!
Reference to paragraph 3:
Actually, it is still new to me, and I only just found the articles a couple days ago, and am still combing through the details. I've known about the "VM sharing" feature for years, but never had a use for it, much less the mechanical parts to effectively run it...
There used to be solutions for RDP, but most offered ZERO GPU acceleration and/or required close proximity for physical "remote" access.
There are at least 2 things I still don't understand; Shouldn't there be a way to softmod VM networking to allow Wake-On-LAN to the virtual adapters? And to what extent does the integrated VNC connection part of VM system options connect users to the image? My users need the ability to power ON and hard reset at their discretion, so that's the big problem right now. The possibility of access to the boot screen would be a nice bonus in some cases.
Can't I just add on a software cPanel of some sort that would integrate seamlessly with VMware Workstation to solve this? I've heard about cPanel solutions for years, but most are nearly imposible to access and/or don't do all of what they advertise, while some simply don't work at all unless you have a serious Active Directory system (which BTW is completely obsolete) and SQL for logging!
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I've been thinking of that forever, but have absolutely no programming experience, no time to learn, and no source code to start with even then. I'd have to completely restructure VMware Workstation by hand from the ground up, and spend Billions of dollars trying to get a license for top-secret IP owned by greedy, useless corporations managed by lousy suburban bumpkins, city hicks, and telephone halls in India! All of that so I can make a special variant of some program...
It's bad enough I had to wait FIVE YEARS for the hardware I need to be developed and manufactured, and several more years for it to be affordable! And worse, there have only every been 4 or 5 boards that even remotely match the specs I'm looking for, and they're still not right! It's these little features here and there that really P1$$ me off-- things like one feature missing or different, or an extra thing that got reshaped from the original idea which would have been better!
Did you know that motherboard designs are essentially more secure, and more heavily guarded than the entire world's cash supply AND Nuclear B0MB stockpiles!?!
Software is easy enough to steal and modify... But to FIX the schematic and underlying design of a MOTHERBOARD?!? That would take the threat of Stalin AND Hitler RISING FROM THE DEAD, to get ANYONE to cooperate, and millions of dollars PER BOARD to produce the modified product!
Don't even get me started on the devastating, mind-boggling flaws of EVERY SINGLE CHASSIS EVER MADE; it's pathetic! People SUCK at chassis design-- even the big companies that waayyy overcharge for any amount of modification or custom design have ZERO imagination!
"sounds like you need a custom solution"
I always have, and always will.
"Might have to program that yourself"
I would, but I can't.
Thanks for trying anyway.
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