Thread: VMWare Help

  1. #1
    Anirban Ghosh
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    VMWare Help

    Suppose I am doing Linux under Windows XP/Vista using VMware.
    So if I want to back up the programs and all so how is it possible?
    All I see is a VMDK etc. files in my drive.
    Last edited by anirban; 07-28-2009 at 08:37 AM.

  2. #2
    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
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    Could you clarify your question a bit more?
    I think I understand what you are asking, but I'm not sure.

    If you mean backing up individual programs, you use a VM the exact same way you use your computer. It's a "computer inside your computer". So any normal operation you carry out for backing up your data, you do it on the VM. With the help of VMWare Tools you can even pass those files for storage in your windows host, if you so wish.

    If you mean backing up your entire linux system, you can simply backup the Virtual Machine file that was generated when you created the Linux virtual machine. Or, as I prefer, use the Snapshot functionality in VMWare for backup purposes since it uses a lot less disk space.
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

  3. #3
    Anirban Ghosh
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    Ya i was talking about individual programs.
    So shall I be able to save the files in my Windows drive?
    In that case I have to mount XP drives under Linux. Isn't it?

  4. #4
    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
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    Yes. After you enable and install VMWare Tools, which you do only after installing linux on the VM, you can map a windows drive or even fully network the two operating systems.
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

  5. #5
    Anirban Ghosh
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    Thanks a lot

  6. #6
    Devil's Advocate SlyMaelstrom's Avatar
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    A word of advice... Virtual disks are generally pretty contained within their virtual machine and any virus acquired in the VM is generally restricted in to the VM. Once, you map a network drive from your host to save your files to, however, you're now giving anything inside of the virtual machine write access to your host. This might not be a big concern if you use Linux as your guest, but if you choose to install something like Windows 95 or 3.1 in the future and want to map your host drive to the guest, beware of this. It's always a good idea to put a free anti-virus inside of your guest.
    Sent from my iPadŽ

  7. #7
    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
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    I don't see why you don't just back up the entire directory which contains the VMWare instance. You need the VMDKs, config files, etc.

    For backing up the system state at intermediate times, just use VMWare snapshotting.
    Code:
    //try
    //{
    	if (a) do { f( b); } while(1);
    	else   do { f(!b); } while(1);
    //}

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