I have been running VirtualBox for virtual guests going on 2 years or so. I mostly use them for trying out new software or for any other time that I want to create a distinct barrier from my physical PC and any potentially nefarious actions I might execute that could do harm.

I decided to kick my VirtualBox guests over to the NAS server and run VBox as a headless virtual option.

The easy part was the installation of VBox – a quick apt-get command had that squared away quickly enough. I then went down the path of moving my virtual disks, configuring new machines, and then registering all the bits together so that MACHINE X can access DISK Y, and so on.

I went the headless route as to allow RDP sessions directly to the NAS. I don’t run any desktop management on the server, so using the VBox (or any virt GUI) doesn’t do me any good. Eventually, moving to the VBox web controls will take place, but that tool isn’t as mature as just executing my own VBoxManage commands. Eventually, I will move to the web console as well.

Thus far, the performance is about as good as you would expect from a small-ish NAS server running a guest OS.

Soon, I’ll post my build and run scripts. Sometime….