[lug] Windows Media Player and Virtualization

[dio2002 at indra.com]

>> >> I was planning on making Ubuntu64 10.10 my virtualization host and
>> >> windows
>> >> 7 a guest. If I do that, can take multiple snap shots of my guests
>> and
>>
>> what's the benefit of making multiple snapshots of your guests? i
>> figured
>> you just installed OSs to the guests, start and stop them as needed
>> and
>> that was it.  when you want to back up the guest data, one would just
>> back
>> it up as you normally would to a usb disk or separate partition.  is
>> there
>> something specific about the benefits of the snapshots for vm guests
>> i'm
>> missing?
>
> Let's say that you do the same things in a machine, in the same config
> most of the time, but now and then, you need to be in a different config.
>
> For example, I build a WinXP box and apply the latest service pack. I
> should snapshot that.
> Then I join the local domain and snap it again.
> Then I apply all the updates. Snap.
> MS Office. Snap.
> Now, I want to try an operation in OpenOffice, but I don't want OOo and
> MSO on at the same time. I revert to the snapshot right after all the
> updates and install OOo. Snap. Now, my box has two different "futures"
> from the "all up-to-date" snapshot.
> Now, I need to troubleshoot a problem on a customer domain. I revert to
> the "Service Pack'd" snapshot, add the machine to their domain, and start
> testing. Sure am glad I had that snapshot. I think I'll take a snapshot of
> my machine as a member of their domain, just in case.
> Now, I revert to the snapshot after installing MSO, and do my "normal" job
> for a while. I take a "just in case" snapshot every week, and delete the
> "just in case" snapshot from two weeks before. One day, I get a virus that
> my A/V can't clean. Oh, snap. Backup my data. Revert the box a week, and
> I'm OK again. In two weeks or so, I'll revert to the infected snapshot,
> and give my A/V another shot at it.

nice example[s]

to clarify further:

1) the snapshots are deltas right?  which means that they are based on and
require a parent that is more "full" in some way to complete a revert
operation to the original working data set?

2) it sounds like the snapshot is really more of a guest configuration
snap.  so do you have to a) revert to a given snap *first* to get some
underlying filesystem to look / be the way you want and *then* start/boot
a single guest that somehow [re]uses the reverting underlying filesystem..
or b) does each snap represent a separate guest configuration that you
boot independently of the others?

hope those question makes sense