cmurray.org

I recently installed on my LAMP machine at home (the very machine that hosts this blog) VMWare and VNC. VMWare, remarkably to me, allows me to create a virtual Linux server (or several other OSs) inside of the main Linux machine. This virtual host is a stand-alone device complete with its own IP address. Once I have built this machine to my liking, I can clone it to make a second, identical virtual host. The two hosts communicate within their own private network but also are not only aware of the outside network to the internet but can be connected to from outside as well.

While the LAMP box itself runs RedHat Linux, I chose to use Ubuntu for the virtual servers. Ubuntu is a very slick package and simple to install. I especially like the apt-get features for installing new applications and servers. This is a command-line interface that reaches out to repositories on the internet to find, retrieve, and install packages. Quite simply, I could type on the command-line $apt-get install apache2, and the service will get it and install it for me.

Because I do not have a monitor attached to my LAMP server, I needed a way to display back the machine so that I could use the VMWare workstation tools. I installed the VNC server on the LAMP box and the VNC client on my laptop PC. When I connect to the LAMP server, I get a window displaying its desktop as if I were really on that machine. This is an ideal solution for inside my home network but because of the amount of data being streamed to constantly update the display it may not be a great idea from anywhere more remote. Then again, I really only need to be “on” the machine when building and cloning virtual machines, which after the first instance will be fairly infrequently.

This week I bought a 250GB hard drive (TigerDirect, $79 after $50 rebate), and intend to rebuild the LAMP server (perhaps with Ubuntu as the core) and then buy a licensed copy of VMWare Workstation ($180; I have been using the 30-day trial), leaving me with a virtual server farm that acts as both development and production environments. In fact, next time I write a blog entry, if all goes well, it will appear from that virtual space.

Remarkable stuff.