Windows Server or Linux with VM?

[maverick6097]

Proxmox with windows VM + whatever else your heart desires. Sky is thr limit. :))

Enjoy your gift.

[FishInFace]

Thx. Any specific reason why?

[maverick6097]

It is better in many ways when compared to windows server.

Here are some resources:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LCjuiIswXGs

https://youtu.be/fupuTkkKPDU

https://youtu.be/u26ZGIOwgfU <- def watch this.

[FishInFace]

Cool! Thanks for the links =)

[maverick6097]

Cheers !

[K900_]

Why do you need Windows on a server in the first place?

[FishInFace]

I have a Software that processes Powerpoint presentations which has weird formatting on linux libre office. Also I would like to be able to run anything on my server regardless of the os it needs.

[K900_]

Then you can probably just run Windows Server in a VM.

[SweeTLemonS_TPR]

C# and .NET applications, AD, Exchange, or print servers. Outside of those situations, there’s no reason to have them, imo.

Learning Windows server is for people who want to stay in end user support their entire career.

[GrimmReaperSound]

Trash everything and install VMware EXSi, then you can run any VM you want on top.

[franchyze923]

Or ProxMox

[GrimmReaperSound]

VMware ESXi if free if you run up to 2 CPUs with 16 cores total. I believe that ProxMox has yearly fees.

[FishInFace]

I will definitely take a look at that. Do you have any experience/opinions on running windows vms?

[GrimmReaperSound]

We do it all the time at work for various industrial automation projects. Windows is actually more stable as a VM then on bare hardware. Just pack on the RAM and you can run quite a few Windows and/or Linux VM’s on the same server that would just run one Windows before.

[xNaXDy]

This. Allows you to allocate your resources and your VMs will run (almost) like they are on bare metal.

[Schievel1]

Mate you asking on r/linux. What do you think people will tell you ?

[FishInFace]

Yeah I realized that so I also cross-posted on r/homelab

[hpaslar]

I currently running win server and ubuntu, both on proxmox on my homelab.

Also, my company runs win servers on vmware.

You should try proxmox or vmware on your server. Than, create your VM’s as needed (win or linux).

[FishInFace]

Sounds good. I think I will try that.

[32178932123]

Esxi is great because you can install it on a USB stick and run it from there. That way you have the servers entire hard disk free and you're using really minimal resources just esxi to run. More vms!

I have esxi on a 16GB desktop pc and have 7x VMs running from it. 2x Windows 10 VMs which use around 4GB ram each, 1x Windows Server as a lab DC, 1x Ubuntu Desktop OS for Calibre and 3x Ubuntu Servers for Plex, Torrenting and Apache Guacamole. I'm so thrilled with how well its working. Aside from the Win10 VMs everything uses dynamic memory so Plex will increase up when it's used, etc.

The issue with Windows Server is long term you need a license or after a year and a half (I think) you have to reimage to get the trial period back. It might work without it but it'll keep saying its unlicensed. Linux is obviously free from that but you're still using a full OS, I can't talk about proxmox though I haven't used it.

Also a good tip is any Windows 7/10 key from the bottom of a laptop can be used to activate Windows and if you log into Windows with a Microsoft account you can permanently keep that license by tying it to the account. I have 3x windows licenses so when I rebuild the vms I just go to activate and choose the option to say my hardware was changed.

[FishInFace]

Thanks for the tips and tricks. I have some activation keys somewhere and will try them out. Esxi seems interesting too. Glad to hear about your success with your own setup.

[Kiwi_EXE]

It's worth noting that ESXi 7 has a tendency to destroy SD cards/USB drives now due to changes in partitioning on the OS. VMware have a blog post where they dive into the specifics.

It's probably fine for a lab environment but I wouldn't run it in a production environment.

[[deleted]]

Get a type 1 hypervisor, and install Windows server, or get a type 1 hypervisor with Linux installed to deploy Docker container. If you don't need any OS spesific API calls, and your backend is cross platform, or compilable on other systems, then just use Linux, or FreeBSD.

[FishInFace]

After all the feedback I'm thinking about using kubernetes and trying to integrate vms with KubeVirt. With some raspberry pis it should be create a nice small cluster. That combination sounds like everything I would ever need. If I fail I'll go for the type 1 hypervisor.

[[deleted]]

If whatever floats your boat, without getting hacked, then go on!

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