2008 Server with WHS VM, SageTV WHS server Plugin?

[Justintoxicated]

What I want to do is, run Windows Server 2008 as the primary Operating system, then install WHS as a VM with access to all the hard drives to create a storage pool. Within the WHS VM I want to run the SageTV server.

I would then need to be able to run the Sage TV Client on the 2008 server, or run it through another VM?

This would allow me to use one PC for both a WHS server and HTPC. My harware should be quite capable, but will the sagetv client install on windows server 2008? If not would I be able to run yet another VM (Say Windows 7) that would allow the client to run and work as an HTPC?

I don't have a ton of experience with running VM's from a local environment, and I don't want choppy playback etc, but is this possible? I just do not want to build a seperate PC or power a second PC if I can do everything through one box.

[vorpel]

Just want to chime in and say that I am currently running v6.6xx of SageTV on my Windows 2008 Server box without any issues.

I don't know about the VM and HWS, but the software does work on Windows 2008 server.

Thx.

[Oats]

The hard part about virtualizing an HTPC is access to PCI-e/PCI cards. In a basic VM you won't be able to use any PCI-e/PCI tuners, or your video card for playback. You can probably virtualize Sage server if you use USB/Network tuners pretty easily.

If you want a virtualized client, or server with PCI-e tuners then you will need IOMMU. Only the newest Intel/AMD CPUs and MBs have support for this. It allows you to pass through the devices to a VM.

[CyRex]

I recently setup a new server with a similar configuration. I am using Windows 7 x64 as my primary OS, and running WHS in a VM. However, I did not install the SageTV WHS plugin. Instead I am running SageTV server on the primary (Win7) OS. This may be an option for you as well. I should also mention that I am not recording TV to the WHS pool drives, but I do use those to store all my movies and music.

-Dan

[K O]

I have my system setup in the way you are describing and it works fine. However, as mentioned, make sure you do not need to use any PCI devices. My setup uses 3 R5000 units and an HD Homerun as tuners. My WHS is a virtual server under Server 2008 R2, and I have 4 1.5TB drives with VHD's that are docked to the WHS.

This has worked great for many months on end, although my biggest complaint is with the R5000 drivers which frequently crap out and require a restart.