Home VM Server?

[y3llowduk]

Hi All, I run a small business from home with the help of a few family members. I want to create a VM server with a "pool" of identical Windows 10 VM's. Whereby it logs you in to whichever one is free. I'd also like some kind of centralised credential system for locking down file access to certain people and to login to said VM's. I played around with FreeNAS which sort of had this functionality... but i've heard its a bit crap for VM's? At the moment I've got some simple fileshares on my own Windows 10 desktop which users can access. Users all have local accounts on my Windows 10 desktop, which is how I control access to different areas of the file share. Not ideal.

 

Am I basically gunna need to set up a domain with a Windows Server 2019 system? Thing is, I'd rather avoid spending on a windows server licence if that's even needed? I remember years ago you could just use windows server forever. It's just too much for a small business like mine to start buying licences for it. Bear in mind hardware isn't an issue - I've got loads of stuff lying around and could easily put together a decent server. I've played around with windows server a few years ago just for fun so I am somewhat used to it. I'm not interested in cloud services - I want to host myself, even if it is less practical, a lot of this is just for fun!

 

Tia.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Do you have a budget in mind?

 

Id probably go cloud based here, get a office 365 license for the users, then let them share files with sharepoints as needed, and give them laptops to use for work. This would be much easier to setup, much more reliable, and about the same cost.

 

For the setup you listed here, your gonna need active directory to manage the users(so server 2019 license + user/device cals). 

 

THen for remote access like that you need rds licensing + cals for each users(not cheap). 

 

What hardware do you have laying around, you probably want to buy something nice here, so its less likely to fail.

 

 But also if your ona. singel desktop, you can already lock down access with file permissions.

[TargetDron3]

What is the goal of having them log in to VMs?  Why not just get them a workstation with the software they need?  Remember, the more complicated you make this, the more you have to spend on maintaining it.

 

For a home business with just a few people, you need some laptops/desktops, a NAS and a cloud backup service for the NAS.

 Hell, really you don't even need the NAS if you get everyone o365 licenses with OneDrive. All data is synced and backed up. 

KISS - Keep it Simple, Stupid 

[DogKnight]

On 11/20/2020 at 9:14 AM, TargetDron3 said:

What is the goal of having them log in to VMs?  Why not just get them a workstation with the software they need?  Remember, the more complicated you make this, the more you have to spend on maintaining it.

 

For a home business with just a few people, you need some laptops/desktops, a NAS and a cloud backup service for the NAS.

 Hell, really you don't even need the NAS if you get everyone o365 licenses with OneDrive. All data is synced and backed up. 

KISS - Keep it Simple, Stupid 

Target sums it up well. Wouldn't look to make this any more complicated than you have to.

 

Also, if you look at something like a Synology NAS for shared resources, there is a large number of apps that can be installed on the unit including tools for directory services, calendar servers, cloud sync/backup, and other collaboration tools. 

If you get a decent spec'd NAS, it can perform a lot of the 'light' server tasks you may want and obviously provide a central point for collaboration. Then all you really need is some basic laptops for the staff. Combine this with Office 365 or Google Cloud services and you should have a pretty solid arrangement. 

[steelo]

I know I'm late to this thread, but I've experimented with a $35 raspberry pi 3 running remote desktop from a VM (using vmware) on my main PC. My rpi 3 is running a 'free' program called WTWare - I believe it is free indefinitely, so long as you can tolerate the 'Evaluation Copy' message on the right side of the screen. I'm just running Win 10 student edition, so I can only have 1 user/desktop (I guess I could always create more vm's or use the Win 2019 server though)

 

I have allocated 2 cpu cores and 4 gb of RAM for my VM and it feels pretty snappy. In fact, I'm typing this on my virtual machine streamed through my rpi. I cannot play games because of the generic vm display drivers, but I can see it working completely fine for general office tasks and emails. Youtube works fairly well, minus a few drops here and there. You can also virtualize peripherals connected to the main server, like printers, scanners, etc but it's kind of a pain in the butt. I'm able to get away using wifi because my router is within 10 feet of my rpi, but I'd highly recommend using ethernet, if at all possible. Keep in mind though, if your server goes down -  so do all of the terminals. One more thing to note, I'd also invest in some type of cooler for your rpi because it does get hot, especially streaming youtube and videos.