Virtualization Station Novice questions

[Drongo]

Hi, I am looking to upgrade my TS-109 to a TS-251 or TS-253. I notice these are capable of running Virtualization sessions but I am confused. If I were to set up a VM session using the Virtualization Station can I do this for windows 7 without having to buy a licence. Also does the VM session include all the windows operating system software?

Sorry if these are stupid questions.

Regards
Drongo

[Briain]

Hi

As per the above, you do need to pay MS some of that money stuff.

Out of interest, to test it (this afternoon) I tried importing a version of Win 7 that I had created using Virtualbox on my laptop and it worked, just fine (other than the moan about me needing to buy a licence). The laptop has Win 7 Pro installed (and Linux) and when I created the Win 7 VM (using the same key), it did not flag up any activation problems (which rather surprised me). I then exported it as an ova file, rebooted the laptop into Linux Mint, started Virtualbox and then imported the same Windows 7 ova file; again, no complaints about it being a dodgy version (that also rather surprised me).

To test VS on my new Q, I imported the same Windows 7 .ova file into the TS-453 and it worked a treat, but I did get the message that I was being nefarious and that MS wanted some more of my money. The link to the MS web page showed I could buy an activation for £109 (for Win 7 Pro), so I will instead see if I can procure a cheap Windows 7 disc from somewhere else (I'll check out eBay, or the likes).

I am aware that there's a way to fiddle this issue, so out of interest, I will ask one of my friends, this evening. Of course, I wouldn't do anything quite that mischievous; I will ask only out of academic curiosity.

Bri

NB Just downloading the Win 10 preview ISO to see if that installs. It will be interesting to see if it does work on the Q as when I'd previously tried it in Virtualbox, it failed. I'm told it works with VMware, so it'll be interesting to see if it works with the Qnap VS (I will report back in a wee while).

[Drongo]

Thanks for the replies.

Just so I've got this straight, when I create a virtual windows 7 environment using the QNAP Virtual station and then load it, will I see a blank windows 7 desktop with a full working version of windows, albeit with a nagging message to pay for a licence?

Does this mean that QNAP provide the various operating systems already packaged up into default VM's?

I assume that if I create a Linux VM or Android VM then I will get a fully functioning operating system [without the need for a licence]. Is that correct?

Regards
Drongo

[Briain]

Hi

Yes, but I'd have to spend more time investigating what it can or can't do before letting you know how useful it will be.

I've just installed the developer preview of Windows 10 (as you don't have to pay for it); see attached screen shot. You could try this (due to the freeness factor) to get a feel for the VS capabilities (that is what I am doing). When you install it, I believe you can plug a screen/keyboard/mouse into your Qnap and drive it locally (though I have not tried that; my Qnap lives in my comms room). The screen shot shows it running in a web browser (on my laptop) with VS set to use HTML5 (it asks you whether you wish to use HTML5 or Java when you click on the consul button to access the machine) and I'm about to try it on an iPad (just for some fun).

Q_Win10.jpg

I set it to have 25 GB disk space, use one core and have access to 4 GB of RAM. As you can see from the screen shot, Windows has gobbled up almost 12 GB of that space.

As you can also see, it found the network shares on my TS-453 via \\hostname (in my case \\Gigia).

Bri

NB Don't panic when it first starts and the start button (and all other taskbar items) seem to be unresponsive, as it looks like it takes a while to initially build up the start menu items.

[parkerc]

Hi, Does anyone know where can you get an Android VM to use with the Virtualisation Station?

Will these work?

https://code.google.com/p/android-x86/downloads/list

Just an FYI -I found this of interest/use -> http://download.qnap.com/station/virtua ... nal_v5.pdf

[kbk00]

yes, you use the ISO:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/android ... o/download


you can just build your own VM. You'll need to follow the prompts but you should be able to get through it. Make a new thread if you have issues.

[Briain]

Hi

Thank you very much for posting the link to the ISO. Just for a bit of fun, I've just installed it and I can confirm that the installation is very simple to perform (from the Android installation screen, I chose to format the 'disk' as ext3, elected to make it bootable - I can't remember if that was the default as I might have selected that bootable option more than once, before noting that up a bit, it tells you whether it's been selected, or not - and the rest was just a case of 'following your nose' and rebooting it at the end).

Just for anyone else reading this, the only thing I have yet to work out is how to politely close the running Android machine down. The way I did it was to open its Terminal Emulator applet and perform the below steps:

su
poweroff

Which works very well, but I'm sure there'll also be an Android GUI way to correctly power it down.

Bri

[parkerc]

Hi

Thanks so much for the Android one.

Has anyone got any other other good .iso download links they could share ?

[Briain]

...Has anyone got any other other good .iso download links they could share ?

Hi

What exactly are you looking for? Below are what I'm aware of, but I can't think of anything else that's missing.

All Linux distributions are available as free ISO downloads (I've got various Linux Mint versions as available VM's; I originally built them - from the ISO files - in Virtualbox on my laptop, and recently exported them as .ova files, then successfully imported them into the Qnap, but you could easily build them on the Qnap). For example, I recently built a 64 bit Debian VM - from the ISO - in Virtualization Station; it works, a treat.

I tried building a Mac VM from the 'dodgy' downloadable installation file, but it didn't work (tried it in both Virtualization Station on the Qnap and Virtualbox on the laptop, but it crashed at post installation reboot). I just wanted to test it before shelling out real money for an OS X installation disk, but as that failed, I'll wait to see if anyone can tell me whether it would work (and if so, I'll fork out the funds).

There's a downloadable virtual machine of Linux Kali available for direct importing into VMWare (and thus it is importable into KVM on the Qnap; I tried it and it works).

You can install the (free) Windows 10 developer preview; I did that directly into Virtualization Station.

There are official ISO files for all builds of Windows 7 available. I downloaded and installed Windows 7 Pro (64 bit) and then bought a W7 Pro activation Key on eBay (£25). I installed it - without any problems - using steps as shown in the Qnap VirtIO tutorial (but instead using the 64 bit version of the VirtIO drivers) and once it had installed all the updates, I was given a prompt to call the MS registration number and followed the automated instructions to activate it; no problems.

I can't think of any other ISO files that you would find; you have Android, all Linux ones are free, there's a Win 10 preview available and all Win 7's are on line (from the officially approved MS site; I'll post it if you can't find it) but these need an activation key (as per any Windows installation).

Bri

Oh yes, one more; I've an enterprise XP disk, so I've installed that and totally locked it down (and fiddled it to get the embedded XP updates; that still works) as it enables me to run ancient (DOS based) software (like radio path profiling stuff) that just runs on XP (and wouldn't stand a chance on Win 7), so that's two more XP 'machines' (one on my Linux laptop and one on the Qnap) that have just appeared in the world!

[parkerc]

Hi @kbbk0 and @Brian

2 things

1) I have downloaded and set up the Android 4.4 VM, but whenever I try to access it, it says "Server Disconnected ( code: 1006)" - any idea what I might be doing wrong?
2) Bri, you mentioned a location to download Windows ISOs and the you bought a key off ebay, could you share a link to that ISO resource!

Many thanks

[Briain]

Hi

Digital River for the ISO files and sorry, I had no problems with the Android installation so am unsure what could have gone wrong (it didn't break, so I didn't gain any 'faulting' experience, trying to get it working). To be honest, I don't see much use for the Android build, unless you require it to run a specific Android applet (which I don't) or maybe if you are a developer and find it useful for testing an Android applet (or something specialist, like that). If anyone can think of a cool (or fun) use for the Android build, please do let us know and I'll give it a try.

Bri