Anyone running Windows Server on a laptop?

[Ilya]

I am thinking of putting Windows Server 2008 R2 on my next notebook (Dell Latitude most likely). Has anyone tried that? Did you run into any problems? Is it a good idea?

The primary reason for me would be Hyper-V. For development and testing purposes I run various virtual machines, sometimes several of them at the same time. Although Windows 7 Virtual PC does a good job, it is no match to Hyper-V when it comes to performance and features like networking or snapshots.

The extra price is not an issue, as I am an MSDN subscriber. But since I use my laptop for both business and personal purposes, I am concerned about software compatibility and drivers. (For example, some antivirus programs won't run on Windows Server). So, if someone has any first-hand experience, I am very interested in your comments!

 

[diogen]

I did it with 2003 some 5 years ago. It worked OK. I followed some writeup similar to this.

Haven't done this with 2008.

If you have to have the Hyper-V environment, that's probably the only way to go.
But if running a few virtual machines at the same time is all that's needed, I'd look
into VMware Workstation (non-free) and VirtualBox (free) first.

A laptop is certainly not the best fit for a job like that...

RE: Antivirus. Stick to MSE v.2, it runs on all MS servers...

Diogen.

EDIT:
Keep in mind, 64bit-ness is not exactly black and white.
A couple years old Sun AMD boxes would happily host 64bit VMWare,
but not Win2008 R2 (it doesn't exist in 32-bit).

 

[LER]

There is also vmware esxi which is also free.

 

[Ilya]

I would prefer Hyper-V, since I am used to it. Are Microsoft VHDs compatible with VirtualBox?

RE: Antivirus. Stick to MSE v.2, it runs on all MS servers...

I didn't realize it works on R2. Good to know!

 

[diogen]

Are Microsoft VHDs compatible with VirtualBox?

Don't know. Never used Hyper-V...

There is also vmware esxi which is also free.

That is bare metal. Doesn't quite work with one laptop...

Diogen.

 

[LER]

They are compatible with esxi or can be converted with a free converter.

 

[LER]

Still An idea.

 

[Pepper]

I'm running Win7 x64 and 2008R2 on a Dell 1535 laptop with 4GB RAM in a dual boot configuration. Obviously the bigger processer and memory you can give it the happier it will be.

The issues I ran into with Server were:
- doesn't like bluetooth driver (who cares)
- laptop power schemes, sleep mode etc. are disabled if Hyper-V is enabled (by design, don't want a server going to sleep)
- Hyper-V doesn't like wireless networks (though it works just fine for the base OS)

Since I also have Win7 on there, I haven't spent a lot of time experimenting with non-server software on the server but from what I read it's not that difficult. There are some good articles around on using Windows Server as a Workstation.

 

[Ilya]

Thanks Pepper! That's exactly the type of feedback I was looking for.

Can you elaborate on the issues with wireless networks? You were not able to access the Internet from virtual machines when connected via Wi-Fi?

I've been thinking about dual-boot configuration too. It would eliminate most of the software compatibility concerns, but on the other hand it would make it more difficult to switch from one program to another. In any case, I think I will start with a dual-boot configuration until I am comfortable enough with Windows Server on the laptop.

 

[Ilya]

RE: Antivirus. Stick to MSE v.2, it runs on all MS servers...

Just tried Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 (unmanaged client).
The user interface is identical to MSE 2.0. Very quick install - no reboot was required on 2008 R2. Amazingly small footprint: the entire installation file (FEPInstall) is less than 19MB! No activation key required. So far I love it!

 

[Pepper]

If I remember correctly, while the wireless adapter works just fine in the host OS, it's simply not available to be added to the list of virtual networks in Hyper-V settings, thus can't be used within a virtual machine at all. I could connect a VM to the ethernet adapter, but with it not connected to anything, no network access in the VMs.

I did not experiment with more advanced configurations such as plugging a loopback adapter to the ethernet, manually configuring it, and configuring RRAS to route through the wireless adapter, something like that might actually work.

This is actually my wife's laptop, so I have to schedule my "experiments" to when she is not using it, i.e. asleep.

 

[Ilya]

Thanks! I'll do some research on that. Hope, there is a workaround, like a loopback adapter. Otherwise, the absence of Wi-Fi access from VMs will be a major problem for me.