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We are looking at upgrading our current server system in my school. Right now we have Zentyal 3.* running on a standard desktop PC. We never upgraded since we didn't want to break anything on the server.

We are now looking at this idea: Use a Mac Mini host with Virtualbox running. Install Zentyal 4.1 on it so we can backup / snapshot / etc.

Is there a better solution than this? This seems like a pretty good solution but I'd like to see if others are doing this or if there is a better way.

Regards,
Matt.

mkrell
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  • Why use a Mac Mini and Virtualbox?. What is the advantage over running Zentyal OS in bare metal?. – Javier Rivera Apr 16 '15 at 07:23
  • @JavierRivera Simplicity. We'd like to keep the technical knowledge needed to maintain the system to a minimum. If this is possible with something like KVM then it does make more sense to use a PC with KVM on it. – mkrell Apr 19 '15 at 18:15
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    If you want to keep technical knowledge to a minimum then the only thing that make sense to me is to install Linux into bare metal. You will need to manage a Linux computer in every case (virtual or real), but you add the problems, maintenance, updates, etc... of both the host OS and the VM if you use something like virtualbox or kvm. – Javier Rivera Apr 19 '15 at 19:36
  • Ok. The reason behind doing virtualization is so we can snapshot / clone and be able update without trouble. We're using the community version of zentyal so the updates aren't as trustworthy as the paid version ;) would you recommend, say, mirroring to another physical computer instead? – mkrell Apr 21 '15 at 11:35
  • I see. If performance is important, kvm (virtualizaing linux on linux with it is incredible fast) or containers (https://linuxcontainers.org/) are better options. Otherwise going with the better known solution to you (OS/X+Virtualbox or whatever) makes a lot of sense. – Javier Rivera Apr 22 '15 at 06:27
  • alright. thx a lot. – mkrell Apr 22 '15 at 12:49

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