VMware Server for use as a network encoder

[harrijay]

I currently have a linux license for sage and it has been working great for quite a while now, however I already pre-ordered 2 HD-PVR boxes and want to use these to capture more HD goodness. I know there has been no talk of linux drivers so I am assuming it wil be a while before drivers are released so as a stop gap I have VMware server 2.0 beta install on my linux machine to run sage on Windows so I can use theses new devices without having another computer in my storage room. My linux server is beefy enough I think to be able to handle this without an issue, and vmware server supports usb 2.0. Does anyone have any experience with running sage on windows inside of vmware?

[trini0]

You'll probably be one of the first people doing so.
Its what I plan to try when I got my HD-PVR (haven't ordered one as yet).
But technically it should work...

[poluxproject]

Unfortunatelly it will not work for your setup IMHO.
WMware creates generic virtual machine on which you will have the oportunity to define Processor, memory, video memory, hd space, speed, and network configuration, OS. Nothing else (how would you install the drivers on the guest OS? even if you force the drivers, they will not find the target device since that device will belong to the Host OS).
A better way of doing it, will be:
Physical Host OS Windows 2003 or WinXP (Run your encoders here)
Install VMWARE Workstation
Virtual machine1 (run Sage here and reference your network encoder)
Virtual Machine2 (Whatever else you want to run...)
Best regards
Polux

[valnar]

Not if you want to use your PVR500 & PVR150 MCE, or any other future PCI(e) tuners.

Robert

[perfessor101]

When you plug a USB 2.0 device into a computer running VMWare while a VMWare Guest OS is "active" (In Focus) it will attach the USB device to the Guest VM (or you can attach the USB devices through the toolbar).
I'm just not sure if it will remain reliably attached when the Guest VM or entire system is rebooted.
I've run a few USB devices attached to a guest VM and it always seemed to pick them up reboot after reboot.

Xen may be another option ... it allows PCI passthrough to the guest VM on newer AMD and Intel processors.

Xen will also allow passing of an onboard USB hub to a Guest VM, which may be more reliable as it is specified in the "bootloader".

Don't know linux too well ... just trying to figure out how much a mess I'd make attempting something similar with PVR-500 MCE's running in a Windows XP VM running under the Xen Hypervisor.

I have a system ready to be cleared (Phenom 9500 with an AMD 770 / SB600 chipset) and will be making it my SageTV Server ... I'm just not sure how many test installs I want screw up before getting the system up and running for good.


Bobby

ps --- if this was more confusing than helpful ... I apologize for the lack of sleep

What I would eventually like to do :
Gentoo Hypervisor
with SageTV Linux running under Gentoo
and see what the possibilities are

[harrijay]

All of my PCI tuners will be used by the linux license of sage. I know I can pass through USB ports and Serial ports through vmware to whatever host OS I have installed. So when I hook my HDPVR's up to the usb ports and my patterson Tech adapters to serial, then tell vmware to use the connection to them I should be able to install them and use them as if they are natively installed. I use vmware at work to install hardware for testing, but have not used this on host OS of linux. I am just planning on having the Windows XP inside of vmware run as a network encoder so I can capture HD as if Windows XP was a seperate machine entirely. All of the main sage work is still going to be done on the linux side.

[morikaweb]

I use Virtual Box with USB devices all the time. I simply choose the USB device I wish to pass through to the guest OS and it works just like it would in a normal Windows install. The real Problem you will have with most VM sulotions is lack of 3D support.

[Kirby]

I ran a Windows XP Virtual machine on my Hackintosh (Intel Core2Quad Q6600, 4gb ram) and it was able to deal with my HD Homerun recordings just fine, but overall it was a bit slugish. I dont know if this was a result of running Sage inside a Virtual machine or not, but I eventually just put a true XP server back in place. It could have also been an issue with VMWare Fusion and OSX.

[valnar]

For something as touchy as recording video in real-time, I think this is one area where VMWare is not appropriate.

I have VMWare Server running my my Sage Server (host OS Win2003 Svr), but the VM's are Linux and other things totally unrelated. Sage runs natively on the host Windows 2003 side.

Robert

[Kirby]

Originally Posted by valnar

For something as touchy as recording video in real-time, I think this is one area where VMWare is not appropriate.

I have VMWare Server running my my Sage Server (host OS Win2003 Svr), but the VM's are Linux and other things totally unrelated. Sage runs natively on the host Windows 2003 side.

Robert

Your comment made me remember one issue I did have, and that was trying to watch a time-delayed recording in progress. If I let the recording finish, I could play it back OK, but if it was still recording (or probably recording another show too) playback was terrible.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Kirby

I ran a Windows XP Virtual machine on my Hackintosh (Intel Core2Quad Q6600, 4gb ram) and it was able to deal with my HD Homerun recordings just fine, but overall it was a bit slugish. I dont know if this was a result of running Sage inside a Virtual machine or not, but I eventually just put a true XP server back in place. It could have also been an issue with VMWare Fusion and OSX.

Also keep in mind the original poster is asking about VMware and using the HD-PVR. In most instances, unless the device is a generic type (keyboard, mouse, etc.)VMware will not be able to present the device properly to any of the OS's you may have running on the box. Since HDHR is a network device loading those drives on a virtual Windows server shouldn't be an issue.

Gerry

[mikejaner]

I can connect USB Printers and other devices to my VM's with VMware Workstation 6.5, which is in Beta right now. I don't remember if it was as easy with 6.0. You might want to try Workstation.

[Kirby]

Yeah I know in the latest version of VMware Fusion I can force just about any USB device I have into the virtual machine, and have had no issues doing so. Granted I havent tried a USB TV tuner, but printers, webcam, memory sticks, scanner all worked just fine. It didnt used to be like that though. If I had to guess, I would say a USB tuner would work, in fact I could probably try it with a VBox USB tuner I have laying around and see what happens.

[zoop]

it's funny, i am in the exact same situation... and i certainly intend to try the vmware server route running sage as a network encoder as i have no desire to run windows as my "sage server."

since the hd pvr is USB, there should be no issues with "drivers" on the guest OS, as that is all passthrough... it will show up to the guest like any other usb device attached to that hub. the real questions are:

1) are the USB bridge drivers used by vmware server solid enough to handle constant streams from the hd pvr
2) will vmware server handle the real-time disk/network writing required by an application such as sage
3) will sagetv work properly as a network encoder using the hd-pvr and linux as the "server"

going to be fun trying (whenever hauppauge actually ships...)

/jer