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I've wanted to know about this for a while, but I haven't had a computer that I would risk trying it out on. What might happen if I were to install virtualization 'assist' software, meant to be run on an OS inside a virtual machine, on a real, non-virtualized computer?

I figure that the software must involve some real big changes to the core parts of the system, especially for things like VMWare's Unity mode or VirtualBox's Seamless mode.

This is all a big "What if", and maybe some people dabbling with virtualization might wonder it as well. Windows or Linux, I'm not picky, I use both.

voretaq7
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Austin Burk
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    Why not just try it? It's not going to harm the hardware, and at the very worst, you'll just need to re-install the OS. Not a big deal - you have backups and a quick way to re-image your systems, right? – EEAA Jan 08 '14 at 18:10
  • If I had the means to try it without wasting a lot of time, sure, but I _don't_ have the means to reimage my system. If I did, I'd do one of those 'answer your own question' articles. :) We don't all have three computers. – Austin Burk Jan 08 '14 at 18:14
  • I've been interested about how Guest Additions and VMWare tools work and how they integrate into the system, so I thought this might be a good way to break the ice on this particular SE site. I'm going to forego the Peer Pressure badge on this because the question might be interesting to people like me, looking to find out about it. – Austin Burk Jan 08 '14 at 18:37
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    @AustinBurk Hardware is so cheap right now I don't know why any IT professional or sysadmin wouldn't have a lab PC. You can buy used servers for <$100, or build a barebones system for similar $. – jlehtinen Jan 08 '14 at 18:41
  • Look at my profile. I'm not quite to that point in my career yet :) – Austin Burk Jan 08 '14 at 18:44
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    @AustinBurk Keep an eye out for when your school, or local businesses, do upgrades on their systems. It is common to recycle (i.e. give away) all the old PCs, and many places would be more than happy to part with 1-2. They won't be fast but would make decent lab machines. You could also cut out the middleman and find a local e-cycling company, ask nicely, and I bet they would let you pick out something from their stock for $20. (I just recycled about 2 pallets worth of old servers and desktops...) – jlehtinen Jan 08 '14 at 20:38

1 Answers1

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What might happen if I were to install virtualization 'assist' software, meant to be run on an OS inside a virtual machine, on a real, non-virtualized computer?

A whole lot of nothing. I have some V2P machines with the integration software still installed.

I figure that the software must involve some real big changes to the core parts of the system

Nope. Just drivers, it's really not as extensive or impressive as you'd think.

Chris S
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  • I wonder how that kind of software works, anyways? I'd love to look at an article or two about it, but most search results are about troubleshooting or how-to's. – Austin Burk Jan 08 '14 at 18:57
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    @AustinBurk The short answer is "It works like any other driver - it talks to some special (virtual, hypervisor-specific) "hardware" to help better integrate the VM and the hypervisor. There aren't any really good articles about what the tools *do* (certainly not at the "bare-metal" level anyway) - about the best documentation is the list of benefits you get by installing them :) – voretaq7 Jan 10 '14 at 17:27
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    The Xen drivers are almost what one might call "documented", and are certainly some of the most transparent (open source drivers and hypervisor really help that). Otherwise I've not seen any good documentation oh how things work. I'm most familiar with Hyper-V, and it's naming conventions are just plain weird, completely misleading (so studying them is an effort in futility). – Chris S Jan 10 '14 at 18:08