MultiOS PC Build

[drobalqk]

Budget (including currency): n/a

Country: BG

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Hopefully AAA

 

Hello Everyone,

 

I am looking into configuring my laptop into working with multiple OSs semi-simultaneously. What I hope to do is to run Windows and Ubuntu on a hipervisor and be able to almost instantly switch from one to the other. My plan is to virtualize both on XEN, and run the hipervisor as the main OS, switching into the OS of need. This setup will help me a bunch in work, plus I am also curious if it/how it can be done.

 

Ideas and considerations I have so far:

 

1. Hipervisor needs to support release upgrades.

 - Ubuntu does, and CentOS doesn't. The idea behind this is that I can set up the PC once and not have to bother with it for a long time to come. Just update and reboot hipervisor every now and again. I'm not familiar with all distros and hipervisors out there, so will appreciate a good combo.

 

2. Hipervisor needs to support resource overselling.

 - OpenVZ supports it, however, it doesn't support Windows. If this is to actually be practical, being able to utilize the majority of resources of the system from both OSs is essential.

 - An idea to make the above happen a bit easier would be to put the OS you are leaving into sleep mode, so it can suspend it's status on the SSD and free almost all of the resources for the second OS

 

3. Both OSs can have their own virtual disks, but user storage is configured as a network drive towards a partition on the hipervisor OS, so either can access it

 

4. Linux doesn't necesarily need access to the nvidia gpu. As far as I know, the GPU can only be assigned to one OS on a hipervisor. This may turn out to be an issue, if I can't use my external monitors on Linux without the nvidia driver and just off internal graphics. Will need to look into this a bit further, not sure how my motherboard is wired.

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Benefits of this setup:

 

1. Hipervisor OS can be ultra secure. You can disable all external-access services like FTP,SSH, etc and just allow updates through the FW.

2. Disaster recovery would be much easier. Windows update wiped out its System32 folder? You can reinstall and be back up in minutes, and still have a working PC in the meantime.

3. System updates can be configured to run completely invisibly from the user. While in Ubuntu, Windows updates and restarts, and vice-versa. Pair that with the fact that I do tend to turn off my laptop once or twice a week, I will be always up to date and secure.

4. Since you are basically running 3 OSs with their OS encapsulated from the other, cleaning malware and viruses will be much easier. If Windows gets a virus, you can clean it with the other OS. Plus, the shared storage will be scanned by all 3 OSs, so you know that will be clean.

 

I'm sure I'm forgetting some details, and will update this thread as the project progresses. Any ideas/advise will be appreciated.

Cheers!

 

 

[HeroRareheart]

Personally I'd just use GRUB and make a dual boot system but I assume there is a reason you want to do it this way. I've heard good things about un-raid but I only have experience with ProxMox myself, so check both of those out and see if either is a good fit for your usecase.