[mythtv-users] Mythbackend on VMware Server with DVB-tuners

[david robinson]

Thought it useful to share my experience also with a virtual mythtv. I have
running the free version of VMware ESXi with two Hauppauge Nova T-500 cards
passed through to the guest operating system. The guest is running Opensuse
11.4 with the latest packaged release of mythtv installed.

It took a while to match all the hardware but it was worth it in the end. I
now have a super system which runs solidly. I have attached to my network a
QNap 509 network storage device and have an iSCSI node attached to my vmware
esxi server. This allows me to write all tv recordings across my network and
essentially make the server a diskless system.

The benefits to this allow me to upgrade mythtv onto a new os or new version
without affecting my working installation. I build the new one in the
background and then switch over when ready. It also allows me to run lots of
other virtual servers in my network. The only thing I would say about
virtualisation, products such as VMware Server run ontop of windows so come
with additional over head, as would virtual box. ESXi and Xen are very good
low level operating systems without the overhead and sit much closer to the
hardware.

regards,

On 30 April 2011 17:20, Tyler T <tylernt at gmail.com> wrote:

> > > Some say that its overkill to run virtualization at home
> > > I have to disagree
> >
> > No, it's simply overkill.
> > Anything in the userland can be completely isolated from the rest of the
>
> Sure it can, but it's a lot easier to use a VM. For example, how many
> users know how to run two parallel installations of Myth on one host
> without them stepping on the other? On the other hand, anybody can use
> a VM and It Just Works (tm) without a large investment in time and
> labor and technical knowledge. Plus, a VM is easier to back up and
> restore separately from the rest of your system, can be moved to a
> different host easily, and you never have to worry about an upgrade in
> the VM breaking something on your host OS or in another VM. At work
> we've saved literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in hardware and
> just as much in labor by switching to VMs for 95% of what we do -- VMs
> are here to stay, no doubt about it.
>
> I have to say, I think it's kind of funny that those of us running
> low-power ARM devices as Myth MBEs are shunned for using "not real"
> hardware and those of us using Atom / VDPAU for FEs are continually
> warned of their "limitations" and are told to buy expensive
> fire-breathing systems instead. If using a VM is "overkill", then it
> seems like using big, hot, power hungry systems for Myth would also be
> overkill, no?
>
> I'd say anyone running the recommended multi-core, multi-gig,
> multi-spindle Myth system already has so much hardware overkill that
> the tiny overhead of running a VM is a drop in the bucket.
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