Hi all,

bit of an odd one this.

I'm looking at getting one of the cheap HP N36L powered servers, to use at home for media/storage to replace my 6y/o Dell laptop. It'll be running Server 2008 R2 (as I get it free from uni, and it's a good chance to fiddle above & beyond the lab sessions), and it's more powerful than WHS.

Anyway, I'd be using it to act as a PRV via a PCi TV card, and would most likely run a visualised copy of Windows of some sort (most likely XP as it's less intensive). Anyway, after reading around it seems TV card drivers aren't easily supported by Server editions of Windows, hence the use of a VM to drive the TV card. Would the VM be able to make use of the device even if the host system didn't have relevant drivers?

I've encountered guests not having drivers before, but never the other way around and wondered if anyone else had?

So in short, can a guest OS utilise a device even if the host can't/lacks drivers?

Thanks,

Joe

*Edit* while I've got your attention, anyone know if you can install Microsoft Server over WDS? As I have this running for 7 already, and it would be easier than buying/borrowing a DVD drive.

Edited 17 August, 201114 yr by TriggerFish

Short answer - no

Pretty much what I was fearing/expecting sadly.

Might have to try vSphere or whatever it's called. . . should keep me busy for a bit!

Thanks

WHS2011 is Windows Server 2008 underneath.

So I would say WHS is more powerful and usable especially for media then simple Server 2008

I was looking into messing around with WSUS, roaming profiles/AD etc too. Pretty pointless for 1 user with only 2 machines I know, but meh, should prove useful in the real world (unless WHS can do this?).

Plus, I don't have a WHS license!

Not useless at all, I installed VMWare Server on mine with an instance of W7 Pro, then wondered exactly what I was going to use that machine for!

As I said it's Server 2008 underneath but officially it's WHS 2011 so for instance you can download WSUS but whether it will run is a different matter.

WHS is only £37 ATM but I suppose it's still £37 more than your server 2008 license

Heh, sounds familiar! Burning/downloading Linux distro's never to use them!

Fair enough, but for now I'll just stick with 2008 - less pain getting things going.

As you said, £37 saved, which I can spend on petrol (~150 miles! )

I downloaded and installed WSUS at home, and then canned it (had it running in a w2k8 server install). I wanted to use it for when I rebuild other ppls computers, but then I found wsus offline, and that works much better for me

Im running WHS as the main OS and currently w2k8 r2 + others using vmware server.

And ive just figured out how to configure my router to *ahem* block the w2k8 from communicating with the outside world

Can't you just install the 7 drivers for the tv card and see if it works?

I am sure we have a TV card in one of our servers at work as it is a teacher tv capture resource (the name escapes me at the moment!). Then you can just load a VM in Hyper V.

Im running WHS as the main OS and currently w2k8 r2 + others using vmware server.

And ive just figured out how to configure my router to *ahem* block the w2k8 from communicating with the outside world

How well does it cope with those loads if you don't mind me asking?

And why on earth would you won't to block a copy of Windows from the internet? :S

Can't you just install the 7 drivers for the tv card and see if it works?

I am sure we have a TV card in one of our servers at work as it is a teacher tv capture resource (the name escapes me at the moment!). Then you can just load a VM in Hyper V.

I never thought of just trying it first - the simple ideas always pass me by! Do you know the model of TV card off hand?

Im running WHS as the main OS and currently w2k8 r2 + others using vmware server.

And ive just figured out how to configure my router to *ahem* block the w2k8 from communicating with the outside world

Are you running esxi col?

Thinking of getting one of these HP boxes to replace the old p4 machine i have running 2k3.

Are you running esxi col?

Thinking of getting one of these HP boxes to replace the old p4 machine i have running 2k3.

No, i know they do run ESXi well (bar the raid isnt supported)

I went for WHS as the main OS because its primary function is a fileshare/downloadbox - so thats where it needs its performance.. and it does it very well

If your going to get one, you better order it soon as the cashback "allegedly" runs out at the end of this month... although its been extended every month since may lol

Apparently the modern CPU has about the same power as a 3.0gig pentium D

How well does it cope with those loads if you don't mind me asking?

And why on earth would you won't to block a copy of Windows from the internet? :S

I never thought of just trying it first - the simple ideas always pass me by! Do you know the model of TV card off hand?

Its coping very well!... obviously being the 2k8 code and having 8gig of ram definitely helps, but even in the windows VM.. full screen its just like running the OS local.. very snappy.

My Netapp VMs give it a bit of a hard time occasionally, but thats the nature of them

I downloaded and installed WSUS at home, and then canned it (had it running in a w2k8 server install). I wanted to use it for when I rebuild other ppls computers, but then I found wsus offline, and that works much better for me

How well does WSUS offline in terms of the client configuration, is it easy to switch the PC back to using standard Windows updates? I've looked into WSUS on WHS but it seemed clumsy in that you had to point the machine to the local server then switch it back to normal for the client to work once it had been returned to the user. I don't understand why MS don't provide rollup packs or similar as it's a pain for me having to download all the patches every time and I can't see how that's good for Microsoft as it wastes their bandwidth as well as mine.

John

How well does WSUS offline in terms of the client configuration, is it easy to switch the PC back to using standard Windows updates? I've looked into WSUS on WHS but it seemed clumsy in that you had to point the machine to the local server then switch it back to normal for the client to work once it had been returned to the user. I don't understand why MS don't provide rollup packs or similar as it's a pain for me having to download all the patches every time and I can't see how that's good for Microsoft as it wastes their bandwidth as well as mine.

It is a PITA, so I switched to using WSUS Offline instead.

Building machine, run the WSUS Offline client from a fileshare on my NAS, it grabs the updates and installs them, reboot and repeat a few times and it is job done. I just have to run the WSUS offline main updater now and then to ensure I have the latest files.

Try this: http://download.wsusoffline.net/

Out of interest does anyone who is running ESX(i) with server2008 on top, a win7 client and gbit networking fancy doing me a favour?

Im just after net throughput stats using ESX... simple file copy will do.

As it stands i can get 120mb/s using WHS2011 and Win7. (they both suppost SMB2.1) just wondering how much of a hit to expect if i switched to ESXI and ran whs on top.

cheers

Might vary from experience,

We have two 2k3 virtual servers running on the same virtual host at work. Both created from the same file and both have a dedicated gigabit ethernet connection. You can swap physical connections between VM's and one will consistently get 95+Mbps the other will get 9Mbps.. no idea why :/