Travel Technology - Help me understand a little more about virtualisation

So, I have another business trip coming up and I'm not looking forward to going a whole month without my MacBook. Nor do I wish to carry two laptops in my and luggage on top of the photographic equipment I carry with me. So, I have a sneaky thought (sneaky because corporate IT may not like it) and perhaps a cunning plan.......

Perhaps I could take my Dell D620, turn it into a virtual machine and run it on my MacBook, thereby giving me access to the "prescribed software". I can see some potential problems here so I'm hoping someone among our assembled experts might be able to answer a couple of questions:

1. If my MacBook is connected to the internet, can my Dell Virtual Machine share that network connection?
2. What if the connection is established via a Huawei USB mobile broadband modem?
3. What about VPN? Would I use the VPN software on my MacBook or the VPN software on the Dell Virtual Machine running on my MacBook.
4. Will Windows complain it's on different hardware and try and get me to re-activate?

The biggest potential issue you will face is #4. Windows will likely choke when you virtualize it, but it also depends what means you take to do so. Some are less intrusive/more seamless than others.

As for 1 & 2, no problems at all; it simply shares the connection.

For 3 you VPN from the VM, not the Host (Mac) session.

The biggest potential issue you will face is #4. Windows will likely choke when you virtualize it, but it also depends what means you take to do so. Some are less intrusive/more seamless than others.

As for 1 & 2, no problems at all; it simply shares the connection.

For 3 you VPN from the VM, not the Host (Mac) session.

I agree, however, I actually use the VPN on my MacBook and the XP virtual machine can be set to also use that connection. You can also just have a regular connection on the Mac and VPN only from the virtual machine as suggested.

I'm not expert on this stuff, so I have a question. Virtualization in this case means running Windows within the MacOS, right? Wouldn't it just be easier (or better) to use Boot Camp, build a separate partition on the HD, and run Windows directly? I run Windows occasionally on my Mac and everything runs flawlessly. When a friend was using Parallels, it seemed like he always had crazy problems.

I'm not expert on this stuff, so I have a question. Virtualization in this case means running Windows within the MacOS, right? Wouldn't it just be easier (or better) to use Boot Camp, build a separate partition on the HD, and run Windows directly? I run Windows occasionally on my Mac and everything runs flawlessly. When a friend was using Parallels, it seemed like he always had crazy problems.

If you just want to run a Windows session on the Mac hardware then that would work. If you want to have both running at the same time then you need to do it inside a virtual session. And for the OP who wants to use the image of their office laptop the virtual session is definitely the better way to go.

I'm not expert on this stuff, so I have a question. Virtualization in this case means running Windows within the MacOS, right? Wouldn't it just be easier (or better) to use Boot Camp, build a separate partition on the HD, and run Windows directly? I run Windows occasionally on my Mac and everything runs flawlessly. When a friend was using Parallels, it seemed like he always had crazy problems.

Yes, but it means you have to reboot to go back and forth. I have VMFusion on all of my Macs and it runs Windows XP great. No real problems. I even have it on a MacPro that has 16 gb of RAM and run a very demanding application in 64 bit WinXP with 8 gb of RAM assigned to the virtual machine. I just had some RAM chips arrive today to take a MacBook Pro up to 8 gb and try a similar thing on that.

I use Parallels and XP on a 2MB MacBook Pro to run a few Windows apps that have no Mac equivalents, mostly Access. In Coherence mode, it's totally seamless - almost as if the Windows app is running in the Mac OS. I can download an Access database through Mac FireFox, double-click it like any Mac app, and it opens in its own window on the Mac desktop. Or, I can use full-screen mode and it's like running XP on a Dell: no sign of Mac OS anywhere. To me, if you're a happy Mac user with an occasional Windows requirement, virtualization is a good choice. (As noted, I use Parallels, but that's just because it's what my university had a license for. From what I've read, it and Fusion are pretty much at the same level.)

Boot Camp wouldn't work for me. I seldom need a total Windows environment. Usually, it's Access plus Mac stuff. Having to reboot to go from one to the other isn't a viable option for my situation, though BC could be just the ticket for other folks.

The biggest potential issue you will face is #4. Windows will likely choke when you virtualize it, but it also depends what means you take to do so. Some are less intrusive/more seamless than others.

As for 1 & 2, no problems at all; it simply shares the connection.

For 3 you VPN from the VM, not the Host (Mac) session.

Depending on the type of license they are using that may not be the case. Im pretty sure if they use a Volume license they dont have to activate. I did made a VM out of my corp PC and it worked just fine. I would say give it a shot!

I would be concerned about #4, and also the fact that the "virtual hardware" will likely not use the same drivers as the actual hardware on your XP laptop. It isn't always easy to take an XP hard drive and stick it on a motherboard that uses a different chipset, and you're virtually doing the same thing. If you actually installed a clean install of windows on your VM, I see no problems. I use VM's on my laptop frequently.

I would be concerned about #4, and also the fact that the "virtual hardware" will likely not use the same drivers as the actual hardware on your XP laptop. It isn't always easy to take an XP hard drive and stick it on a motherboard that uses a different chipset, and you're virtually doing the same thing. If you actually installed a clean install of windows on your VM, I see no problems. I use VM's on my laptop frequently.
VMWare Converter makes this process very easy. Give it a try!

VMWare Converter makes this process very easy. Give it a try!

Correct, just use a good P2V tool (Physical to Virtual)
VMware has one and there are others out there.

Another great way to get a VM from an existing computer is to use one of the popular imaging programs (Acronis, Norton Ghost) and make an image of your existing computer. Then restore this image to a new Virtual machine within VmWare.

I have had success with this method when the P2V tools failed (which they sometimes will) The other benefit is that you have a good full backup of your existing computer...which could come in handy sometime!

Good Luck!

Just keep in mind that if you are not reporting this to your IT department, and they are not procuring/allocating an additional Windows client license for the VM that you'll be running on the Mac, than you will be causing your organization to be non-compliant from an OS licensing perspective. That's not something to take lightly, there are very severe financial penalties for this. You can't just duplicate an operating system and run it on other systems without understanding what the license legally allows you to do.

As always, thanks for the thoughtful advice and debate that followed. My reasoning was simple enough: I have a business trip to Fiji coming up and will likely be taking lots of photos at the weekend. I didn't think I could live without Aperture.

However, I think I have a work around which is to use Picassa while I'm on the move (at least for business) to get the odd photo onto Flickr and Smugmug, saving the heavy duty workflow/setting up galleries until I get home.

I will still explore turning my work laptop into a virtual machine though, if for no other reason than I can avoid having to cart the company laptop between home and the office on the odd occasion where I need to work from home (even when I do, I suspect I would rarely need it as Mac + Open office is compatible with much of what we do).

Correct, just use a good P2V tool (Physical to Virtual)
VMware has one and there are others out there.

Another great way to get a VM from an existing computer is to use one of the popular imaging programs (Acronis, Norton Ghost) and make an image of your existing computer. Then restore this image to a new Virtual machine within VmWare.

I have had success with this method when the P2V tools failed (which they sometimes will) The other benefit is that you have a good full backup of your existing computer...which could come in handy sometime!

Good Luck!

Thanks. We might try this. Our IT department was trying to make a virtual machine out of an old PC I have so that I could dump it and just put the image on a Mac server or something but the VMWare tool was failing. I have a couple apps on there that I would prefer not to reinstall.

...I have a business trip to Fiji coming up...
OK, how do I get in on this deal?? :p

Please!