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Guest VM : Ubuntu 9.04
Host : Vista
Phys RAM : 4GB
Guest RAM : 1.3 GB
processor : core duo
disk for guest : 18GB

I am new to virtual machines. Although, VirtualBox has been very user friendly, I have few doubts (perhaps from concepts of virtualization)

1) I was thinking of creating the virtual hard drive (vhd) for guest (ubuntu) on my external hdd? is this alright?

2) Given the physical RAM (3GB accessible from 4GB - Vista 32bit) Can I work on both the guest and host together (interchange often as every 2-5 mins)? will that be a problem?

Thx in advance.

EDIT (updated app usage): I plan to use eclipse/netbeans with running Jetty on Ubuntu and OfficeApps-outlook,IMs,spreadsheet.. (everything else) on Vista.

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  • What is your primary concern with regard to this setup?
    – Frank V
    Jul 7, 2009 at 16:09

3 Answers 3

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You should not have any problems creating the virtual disk on the external drive.

What applications will you be using?

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  • I plan to use eclipse/netbeans with running Jetty on Ubuntu and OfficeApps-outlook,IMs,spreadsheet.. (everything else) on Vista.(also updated my question)
    – Mak
    Jul 7, 2009 at 15:19
  • You should be fine with that. I run SharpDevelop and other Windows tools on my WinXP virtual machine in VirtualBox on my Mac with less base ram then you are allocating. What kind of connection does the external drive have?
    – moshen
    Jul 7, 2009 at 15:32
  • USB2.0 connection.
    – Mak
    Jul 7, 2009 at 15:45
  • That should work fine.
    – moshen
    Jul 7, 2009 at 15:55
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I don't see why this wouldn't be alright. You might experience some latency but if you can get beyond that, everything should function fine.

As is previously mentioned, putting the image on a external hard drive should be fine if you are using USB 2.0 (or firewire).

I guess I don't understand the concern. Hard Drive thrashing from virtual memory?

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$13 for an esata card and $20 for an external esata/usb case. $33 and you'd be much happier.

Otherwise I'd try to move data off the local drive onto the USB and use local drive space instead. A full Ubuntu desktop install with development and servers is usually less than 8gb. Used shared folders on the host to consolidate if needed.

USB will work but you can tell the difference from a local disk or esata external(same as local). The best way to use USB either with external disk or flash is with a ramdisk mounted with unionfs over the USB drive. This is how many live USB builds run as default. Sync back to disk periodically or at virtual suspend/shutdown.

The desktop can be seamless Using Virtualbox. You can switch practically every other keystroke. The virtuals will run simultaneously and you can use the host browser to surf the virtual's web server with no delays, even if you reduced the virtuals memory to just above swapping.

With that much ram and dualcore you could run at least two and probably 4 virtuals simultaneously. You shouldn't need that much ram for Ubuntu. Normally the virtuals run best with less memory. That is to say the host system can usually make use of excess ram better than the virtual. A general rule for desktop virtuals is load up all apps being used. Then shrink virtual memory until swap is used. Then add 256mb memory back. Keep an eye on swap and adjust memory up if swap gets hit more than rarely. Usually 768mb is plenty for a desktop development Ubuntu virtual. Jetty and it's associated servers/apps may make good use of the extra memory you're assigning to the virtual. Other virtual setups often don't utilize the extra memory and performance wise you're often better to have the extra memory assigned to the host.

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