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Virtualization of PCs

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by crose

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I am very interested in virtualization - I work as IS admin for a cardiology group. We are working with the local hospital to have access to their systems for billing, etc. However, the hospital wants to keep their system separate and locked down from ours. In doing this they are setting up an additional PC at the user workstation where one PC for our network already exists and utilizing KVM switches, and a separate total network connection directly into their network. Can't we solve this with virtual PCs on the users already existing workstations? Can't we lock down the Virtual PC and the network connection? Please advise Thanks!!!

4 replies

by scott_heath

Assuming the hospital is OK with it. Many places use preconfigured images, not custom installs. You can go to VMWare.com and download Virtual Server here:
http://www.vmware.com/download/server/
and VMWare Converter here:
http://www.vmware.com/download/converter/

VMWare Converter lets you convert a physical system into a virtual, so you can grab everything about the physical box they gave you. You will need lots of RAM though, I recommend the host have at least 1.5GB, preferably 2GB, and split it 1GB each between the host and guest OSes. You don't want them both having to hit the HD a lot for swap file since the HD is the bottleneck in performance.

by crose

Thanks for the reply Scott appreciate the input - The hospital is already utilizing VMWare Server so that is why I was pushing for this workstation virtualization also - I know about the RAM but it is good to be reminded of this.

I have only played with the Microsoft Virtual PC (since it is free) not much with the VMWare though I know it is much more stable.

So you use the converter to convert to a workstation? You don't need to download the VMWare workstation? Also, I thought we would need two NIC cards - one for the wire to the hospital network and one for our network - just to keep them happy with the "separation of church and state" :)

Sorry to be so long but I am new to this - you may email me directly if you have any further advice.
Thanks!
Cyndi

by scott_heath

I don't like to send private emails as others may benefit from the discussion.

I beleive I included links for VMWare Server and the Converter. VMWare server is not ESX, it is not a hypervisor that runs guests. VMWare server is free and requires you to be running a full OS (Windows or Linux) and it runs on top of it. Basically it is the same as VMWare Workstation without some of the bells and whistles. I'll let you compare at VMWare.com and decide what you need.

As for the NIC, yes, if there is a totally seperate physical network you would need to have a second NIC. You might have to do a little work in the host OS to insure that no data goes to the wrong network, but a user can't really access anything inadvertantly because they aren't logged into anything on the hospital end. Then yu bridge that adapter in VMWare Server's guest OS and it get's it's own IP address on the network and so forth.

This is a complicated solution that comes with it's own headaches. I can't tell you it will make your life any easier. If you have the space for the second computer and a KVM, it might just be easier to do.

Good luck and let me know if you need anything else.

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