[TriLUG] VMware question

[Jon Carnes]

Just to add another data point.  VMware works fine at isolating the
virtual machine.  All the communications between apps running on the
Virtual OS and your Linux OS take place over a network connection.

For a virus to spread from the Win2k VM to your Linux OS it would have
to cross over the internet connection and then be able to run on Linux. 
That's a rare beast, and as far as I know none exist yet (thought there
are a few virusii that can cross-over and run in both environments,
their only vector for infection is on the Windows side).

You can install VMware and run Win2K without fear. If you are still
worried, then simply install a Virus Protection program on the Win2k
install.

On Thu, 2003-01-23 at 13:37, Tanner Lovelace wrote:
> On Thu, 2003-01-23 at 13:25, Greg Brown wrote:
> > Hey all.  My question is does anyone use VMware to create a vitual Win2k
> > machine running under Linux (in my case RH 8.0)?  I know this is what the
> > software is supposed to do, but does anyone actually use it?
> > 
> > That question aside, my other related question is what happens when/if Win2k
> > gets hit by some kind of bomb while running under Linux via VMware?
> > Hopefully just the directory where Win2k is located gets trashed, right?  I
> > imagine this to be the case and I hope that when running under VMware the
> > "virtual" Win2k thinks that the it's disk is just what is contained in the
> > Linux directory where it is installed.
> 
> Hi Greg,
> 
> Generally, when installing Win-whatever on VMWare, what you do is
> setup a virtual disk that is contained within 1 linux file.  That's
> right, the entire windows filesystem is just one file that gets
> mounted by vmware (similar to how linux can do a loopback mount).
> Even better, if you select it correctly, VMWare will allow you
> to create a type of disk that when you exit the virtual machine,
> you can choose whether to "commit" the changes you made during
> that session to be permanent.  That way, if a virus attacks
> and trashes your disk, you can just discard the changes.  If not,
> say for instance you installed something new, you can commit the
> changes and they'll be there the next time you run the virtual
> machine.
> 
> At no time does anything happen to the underlying linux filesystem.
> (Well, you can mount it using samba, and then bad things can happen,
> but it's harder.)
> 
> Cheers,
> Tanner
> -- 
> Tanner Lovelace | lovelace(at)wayfarer.org | http://wtl.wayfarer.org/
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