Hi,
currently I have 7 machines with hodge podge of OS installs,
2 often used, 2 seldom used and 3 almost never.
The 3 older ones here mostly for archaic ports value, disregard...
The 4 in use:
CPUs in use from last decade, from 2011 to 2019,
at least 1 SSD, at least 12 GB RAM.
All have at least multiboot installs, those in use also several VM.
As of now only 1 with Hyper-V, all have VirtualBox VMs as well.
Probably 1 or 2 additional physical machines will be added soon.
The older ones work well enough for browsing and simple Office usage -
1 in every room so cables can stay in place and a keyboard can be used.
Current plan is to switch over for all machines to use MS Hyper-V server
and to install a couple of Windows and Linux VMs inside large physical SSD-
Multiboot outside that (partition?) only where offspring wants to game on pure HW,
(best) from a separate SSD if gaming card is in package - BigBox and new 17' laptop.
Reason for switch:
Linux under Virtualbox gets slower with later versions -
even the AntiX near bare releases I used before.
Testing other offerings becomes a PITA in Virtualbox,
while light releases like Zorin or MX look and feel good on bare metal.
Old Antix flies on that HW, similar to XP, even in Virtualbox, esp. in 32bit version,
but running Windows exe in older AntiX needs Wine/WineHQ fiddling
and has problems with with guest enhancements being unstable,
whereas on Zorin16 the few tests I did were all passing without a hitch.
Switching Hypervisor type eliminates 1 translation layer and was boosting
performance early on for disk and memory, graphic later but now probably solid.
Some files I want to keep away from telemetry and virus-spy risks.
Hypercore server seems best suited - while I have enough Pro licenses,
each install gets only 2y of updates installing Pro Hyper-V role -
seems not attractive. OTOH
There is only Hyper-V 2019, no 2021 ? Paranoid me has some worries, perhaps you have researched a bit more:
a) Updates needed for Hyper-V as well and with same need as for W10/W11 ?
b) MS harvests lots of data starting with W10:
Docs say harvesting of server data can be denied - is that totally true?
c) Any knowledge of bad things happening if W11 is installed in a
inside a .vhdx on a NTFS(/ReFS??) partition controlled by 2019 Hyper-V ?
NTFS was taught a few things that NT, W2K, XP were never told...
d) Can I access ReFS from USB-Live installs ? How can I backup there ?
What are my options if boot process gets borked and cannot be repaired?
e) What happens if I install W10 and W11 on same machine
for desktop usage - 1 license for both .vdhc installs or 2 licenses needed?
I bought 5 Pro directly and have Home licenses I can upgrade as well,
but why bind to specific HW if no pressing need...
f) I have not used ReFS before, only
started to read about it:
https://www.ubackup.com/enterprise-backup/refs-vs-ntfs.htmlhttps://www.iperiusbackup.net/de/10148/https://www.windowspro.de/marcel-kueppers/refs-ntfs-vor-nachteile-dateisysteme-server-2016Found a few worrying mentions of crashes/"raw" problems, but most more than 2y old.
Any comment on what to use as best practice on the SSD as base layer ?
<upd>
https://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/ntfs-vs-refs/paints NTFS as still relevant for my usages, as I do not spin up new VMs each day.
</upd>
g) Any hints on cluster sizes for base NTFS and partioning Linux
.VHD plus cluster sizes running on those virtualized disks ? Found
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/best-practices-for-running-linux-on-hyper-vhttps://redmondmag.com/articles/2019/06/03/linux-vm-hyper-v.aspxhttps://www.nakivo.com/blog/run-linux-hyper-v/https://www.diskinternals.com/raid-recovery/hyper-v-linux/https://www.ip-insider.de/10-stolpersteine-beim-einsatz-von-hyper-v-a-770643/Any hints or further links ?
h) Using VMs based on old version (Win XP, Antix17) with deactivated network card
in HW description, are all attack vectors from outside (erroneous surfing?) eliminated ?
That was my crutch under Virtualbox, had no problems. Fools luck or good planning ?
Communication between VMs via shared directory or mountable special .vhd works there...
tia & thx for reading all that stuff...
thomas
