Using Proxmox with KVM for a Workstation: How to view guest vm's on the screen?

[luke]

Hi, I'm new here so I ought to introduce myself. My name is Luke, I'm 23, I live in the UK, and I am a Web Developer. I originally stumbled across Proxmox so that I could use it on my server, but I see it may also have potential to be used on my workstation too.

For the question I am about to ask I have searched google, read all of the pages on the Proxmox VE Wiki, watched all of the video tutorials, and browsed through the first 20 pages of this forum for an answer - but i couldn't find a solution, so please bear with me if this has been covered before.

Some web developers use virtual machines for testing their websites on different browsers on operating systems, or they may need to use applications that only work on Windows, Linux or Mac OSX. But they only have one computer, so they setup a Hypervisor and install Guests on it to be used directly. This allows them to switch between operating systems, and run different applications on different operating systems at the same time.

Ideally I would like to be able to install Proxmox on my workstation, install guests onto it, then be able to view the Guest's screen from the workstation's monitor. I know proxmox is a web based front end intended to be used from another computer with a web browser, and you can view the Guest's screen using a web browser from another computer, but I want to be able to do it all with the one computer.

I don't mind having to use two computers to setup the guests to begin with, but is it possible to view the Guest's screen directly on the Hypervisor and switch between the guests? From what I have read, it seems that all you see on the Hypervisor's screen is the terminal, and you need to use another computer to view the Guest's screen?

Is what I want to do possible? Can anyone point me in the right direction for setting this up?

Ideally I would like to setup my workstation like this:

Proxmox (Host/Hypervisor)
- Windows XP Professional x64 (Guest Workstation, need to see the screen)
- Fedora 10 (Guest Workstation, need to see the screen)
- CentOS 5.3 (Guest Web Server, SSH access will be adequate)

Then have all 3 Guests running at once, and be able to switch between them directly using the Hypervisor.

 

[chronos]

Proxmox is primary aimed for server virtualization. It has important features like online/offline migration between servers in cluster and VM backuping.

If you need this on workstation than you dont really need this dedicated solution. You can install common virtualisation software like VMware workstation/server/player, MS Virtual PC, Sun VirtualBox and also Xen or newer KVM or even OpenVZ used in Proxmox. There is virt-manager package in Fedora repository which is GUI application sufficient for manage KVM full virtualization.

So with "workstation oriented" virtualization applications you can run multiple virtual machines and have a opened many graphical consoles without using web browser.

If you need test web browsers rendering compatibility you can use some free testing services like http://browsershots.org/

 

[tom]

Hi, I'm new here so I ought to introduce myself. My name is Luke, I'm 23, I live in the UK, and I am a Web Developer. I originally stumbled across Proxmox so that I could use it on my server, but I see it may also have potential to be used on my workstation too.

For the question I am about to ask I have searched google, read all of the pages on the Proxmox VE Wiki, watched all of the video tutorials, and browsed through the first 20 pages of this forum for an answer - but i couldn't find a solution, so please bear with me if this has been covered before.

Some web developers use virtual machines for testing their websites on different browsers on operating systems, or they may need to use applications that only work on Windows, Linux or Mac OSX. But they only have one computer, so they setup a Hypervisor and install Guests on it to be used directly. This allows them to switch between operating systems, and run different applications on different operating systems at the same time.

Ideally I would like to be able to install Proxmox on my workstation, install guests onto it, then be able to view the Guest's screen from the workstation's monitor. I know proxmox is a web based front end intended to be used from another computer with a web browser, and you can view the Guest's screen using a web browser from another computer, but I want to be able to do it all with the one computer.

I don't mind having to use two computers to setup the guests to begin with, but is it possible to view the Guest's screen directly on the Hypervisor and switch between the guests? From what I have read, it seems that all you see on the Hypervisor's screen is the terminal, and you need to use another computer to view the Guest's screen?

Is what I want to do possible? Can anyone point me in the right direction for setting this up?

Ideally I would like to setup my workstation like this:

Proxmox (Host/Hypervisor)
- Windows XP Professional x64 (Guest Workstation, need to see the screen)
- Fedora 10 (Guest Workstation, need to see the screen)
- CentOS 5.3 (Guest Web Server, SSH access will be adequate)

Then have all 3 Guests running at once, and be able to switch between them directly using the Hypervisor.

some people here at Proxmox works exactly like this. install Proxmox VE from ISO on their workstation and install gnome desktop via apt-get.

for our developers this is the best solution. as soon as we finalized the move to Lenny we will create a wiki page describing this in detail.

 

[apple guy]

please help me install kde or gnome

install gnome desktop via apt-get.

i have been pulling my hair out all day trying to get kde or gnome installed on my proxmox box. i am hoping to get a windows xp virtual machine, as you mentioned, plus servers running on my computer.

UPDATE several hours later....

i am super impressed with proxmox ve. i am still not able to install kde or gnome, but i have nuked and repaved my new hp - compaq dc7900 several times in the last 48 hours, trying to get any linux distro to run, and proxmox ve is the only one that just worked out of the box. i don't understand this at all, since the other ones i have tried are ubuntu 8.10 amd64 and debian 5.01 amd64. each one hangs when trying to detect hardware, and now i believe it is the built in network card that is killing the other installers, since i can't get networking to work on either installer. but as i said, everything works perfectly with proxmox ve. my integrated network card is Intel® 82567LM Gigabit Ethernet. after googling that for linux drivers, there doesn't seem to be any. i guess i didn't realize how bleeding edge my hardware was. how can proxmox ve be working?

also, when installing a windows xp kvm with an iso image, it installs in a few minutes, and reboots in a few seconds. freakin' amazing. fastest xp i've ever seen, by leaps and bounds. i swear, the xp boot screen tracer thingy goes by once, and your looking at the desktop.

at this point, i probably won't sleep again until i can get xp running as a workstation on this.

btw, the specs on my dc7900 are intel core2 vpro with 2 gigs of ram. am getting ready to dump 8 gb in here if i can get this all working. also worth noting, the windows vista business that shipped with this computer ran very slow.... not very impressed with the computer until i got proxmox ve running on it.

 

[apple guy]

next update....

ok, i have finally found a tutorial that i could follow that let me get kde or any other desktop installed on proxmox. next is to figure out how to access my windows xp from kde. since i'm needing to access special hardware from xp - a tv tuner card for starters, i'm trying to get virtual box setup to run the xp desktop. i am hoping someone chimes in here eventually.

thanks for any help.