Chapter 4
Running Servers in Virtual Machines
In This Chapter
- Discovering what you can do with virtual machines
- Choosing virtualization software
- Considering hardware requirements
- Installing a guest OS in a virtual machine
Running Lion Server on a Mac is a powerful addition to a network. Running two Lion Servers can be even more powerful. Common sense tells you that you need two Macs for that — but common sense might not know about virtualization.
Maybe you wish you could run a Windows or Linux server on a Mac. While you're wishing, how about running Windows, Linux, and Lion Server all at the same time, all on the same Mac? You can with virtualization, which enables you to run multiple operating systems on one computer. Each operating system is completely separate from the others, running in its own virtual machine.
Virtualization has great benefits, including easy and flexible testing of server setups before rolling them out for your users. For production servers, virtualization can save you money in hardware, add flexibility, and make for quicker disaster recovery. Virtualization has limitations as well, and for production servers, you'll want the higher-end Macs — a Mac Pro or an old Xserve — with lots of RAM.
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