I have been looking around at virtualization, something I haven’t done. I saw this post, though it is a little old. Has anyone tried this?
http://greenash.net.au/thoughts/2016/02/running-a-real-windows-install-in-virtualbox-on-linux/
We do this a lot actually.
Install windows on an SSD, boot into linux, configure libvirt to use the physical SSD as a boot device and start the vm.
If it’s NVMe, you can use VFIO to pass it through like you would a GPU.
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Well that is really cool I got my win drive on a m.2. I have win files… games etc on a different drive. I might have to climb out of my shell and give this a go.
I have the opposite working, so I assume what you are asking for is going to work. What I did was install windows through the virtual machine on an actual ssd (no virtual disk file), and I can boot into it bare metal if I want 100% of the performance when I restart the pc. Fedora 27 if that matters.
I must admit I am a little nervous about doing this, just a little concerned with new hardware. I do have another ssd, plugged , not even formatted, i may try that on as well.
Also would I be better off installing linux on the m.2 and putting windows on the ssd for this virtualisation? Will it even make much of a difference? I do know the m.2 is way faster, or so it seems.
I don’t think it would do much of a difference, but I’d go with linux on the m.2.
Do you have linux running on the computer?
two days ago I installed slackware 14.2 on a samsung evo 860 /250 g. I got a few things to tweek yet, printer and wireless mostly and id like to get lm sensors working on my x370 tai chi. Other then that it runs pretty smooth. I might be able to log into windows … use samsung migration tool to migrate my slackware hdd to the m.2, and reinstall windows on the ssd. I am not sure since I havent attempted this. but the software is there.
I Do the Same Thing using VMWare under a Windows System. I often have clients system that have issues that need fixing, and instead of making the changes on their drives directly, I make an Image of the Drive, then Virtualize it With Acronis, and Boot inside VMWare, then I can poke around and go crazy without having to worry about breaking anything, and if I do break something, I just go back to the original Snapshot. Once I have a fix, I either repeat the fix on their actual system, or Simply make an image of the VM and Deploy it their drive, depending on how complicated the fix was.
So Even though I don’t use Linux as My Host, I do use this concept almost daily, and love it, it is a life saver.
On linux, use virt-manager.
I have pointed to 2 disk drives that my virtual machine uses, one is the ssd with windows on it, and second is the hdd. virt-manager makes it really easy to do with that interface. Notice the source path is not a .raw or .whatever file. It is the actual disk.
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