Virtualization for linux and windows

[dansoh]

Hi, everyone

 

  I really enjoyed 3 OS on one PC and I want something similar of my own.

 

  I want to run Linux and Windows on one machine (I don't have anything right now, just a laptop that I am using to write this post) and I was wondering if my idea is feasible and if so what parts I should be looking for.

 

  The purpose of this system is to run Linux 24/7 and it will be running a small program of mine that will periodically check on a website and download updated contents of it (not multimedia stuff just some text data). Also I want to run windows but perhaps not 24/7 and perhaps just for gaming.

 

  Since the web scrapping stuff will not be a heavy load (there will be some string parsing but files will be within megabytes), I want to allocate as few CPU cores as possible (like just one if that is possible). However, I might need to export that data to Windows for heavy processing from time to time. The reason I am not considering the even split of the CPU is because, when I process the data I got from the Linux, it will be a medium load, if not heavy, and this will not happen frequently. NAS will be great but I am not sure if there is a way to use it efficiently in a situation where I have no control over IP addresses (I can try to get my own router and assign private address to it, but I not sure if this violates the regulation of the place I will be deploying the system. Also even it is allowed, I won't be able to access it remotely).

 

  I am pretty new to things like this, so correct me if I am misunderstanding anything and any kind of related advice will be helpful.

 

Thanks.

[Electronics Wizardy]

15 minutes ago, dansoh said:

I want to allocate as few CPU cores as possible

Thats not how cpu's work, you can have vm's share gpu's. You can set priorties to determine who gets cpu where there is some

 

 

Id suggest just installing debian, then using kvm to run the vm's

 

 

[dansoh]

1 hour ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Thats not how cpu's work, you can have vm's share gpu's.

 

Then how is Linus doing it in 

 

 

Wouldn't it be something similar to that except one window and one linux instead of two windows and one unraid?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, dansoh said:

Thats not how cpu's work, you can have vm's share gpu's.

OOPS ment cpu's. You can share cpu cores with vms. GPU sharing is limited to software solutions(bad performance) or server gpus like a tesla m60.

 

1 minute ago, dansoh said:

Wouldn't it be something similar to that except one window and one linux instead of two windows and one unraid?

Don't use unraid, just run it off debian as the host.

 

Then using kvm install a few vm.s

 

What hardware are you using?

[dansoh]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Don't use unraid, just run it off debian as the host.

So you are suggesting just using a VM in side a Linux machine that has all the resources. Wouldn't that be sharing the GPU with software solution? While the solution from video would allow the direct redirection of GPU to the VM.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, dansoh said:

So you are suggesting just using a VM in side a Linux machine that has all the resources. Wouldn't that be sharing the GPU with software solution? While the solution from video would allow the direct redirection of GPU to the VM.

What hardware are you using

 

Unraid is linux, and you can do gpu passtrhough in almost all distros, like debian or centos. You can also use virtual gpu's if you don't need much graphics horsepower.

[dansoh]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What hardware are you using

I don't have any hardware rn. I am planning ahead before the 7th Gen, so I know what to buy when it comes out.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, dansoh said:

I don't have any hardware rn. I am planning ahead before the 7th Gen, so I know what to buy when it comes out.

For what you seem to be doing, Id just use hyper-v in windows and run the vm from there. 

 

No need to do passthrough, just run a linux vm in windows, and do the scrubbing from there.

[dansoh]

If I run VM in Windows, I need to have Windows up and running all the time since I need my Linux to be running all the time (for periodical check on website).

 

I want to configure so that

 

CPU is shared.

VM-Windows get dedicated GPU. -> Runs only when playing game.

VM-Linux can run on intel graphics. -> Runs all the time.

 

If I run VM-Windows inside non VM Linux, I will be powering GPU for no reason. I don't want that.

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, dansoh said:

If I run VM in Windows, I need to have Windows up and running all the time since I need my Linux to be running all the time (for periodical check on website).

 

I want to configure so that

 

CPU is shared.

VM-Windows get dedicated GPU. -> Runs only when playing game.

VM-Linux can run on intel graphics. -> Runs all the time.

 

If I run VM-Windows inside non VM Linux, I will be powering GPU for no reason. I don't want that.

Whats worse about haveing windows running all the time compared to running linux all the time? Windows is stable and won't cause issues.

 

You won't save power(and may use more power) by turning off a windows vm with a gpu. It won't power off the gpu, and might use more power as if the system is idle it will drop the gpu's power to only a watt, where in linux with no driver loader, the gpu will normally use more power.

 

With vm's you will also won't be able to plug usb sticks in when you want, and will probably run into weird problems with passthrough