Hello,

Following this thread on super user, I now want to start installing all my vm on the hardware.

As a remainder, i have a (powerful enough) server on which i want to install 3 OS: there is a debian (general dev testbed purposes), an ipcop (network control/firewall) and a freenas (local network file sharing).

I'm wondering which scenario would be the best for me and if I will be able to share the hardware to do what i want; either

a - install an hypervisor like the free vmware esx and all three vms in it, or

b - install debian, and the other two running inside it with virtual box

My need being that:

• the ipcop should handle all network traffic to the internet, meaning all traffic from my main computer but also all traffic from the other two vm

• the freenas shares should be accessible from the other two vm and my main computer too

• i don't really care about the debian access, i only need to access it from my main computer, not the other vms

Will I need to install additionnal network cards for each vm or can they all share the same one happily ? (right now I have two, one linking the server to my router [which only ipcop is gonna use] and one linking it to my switch [which i would like all three to use])

As for harddrives, I was going to use 1 harddrive cut in 3 partitions to install all three OSes, then add to that the freenas drives, will it be correct ?

Thanks a lot for anyone who can help me, this is kind of a vast area and I'm not sure which way to go at all