How to switch between Windows, Linux, MacOS on the fly?

Question

linux

If I build a PC closer to the top, roll ESXi onto it, will I be able to deploy all three OSes on it, run them at the same time and switch between them on the fly?
Will I be able to forward a hardware video card to all three?
What are the options to implement this?

Answer 1

If I build a PC closer to the top, roll ESXi onto it, will I be able to deploy all three OSes on it, run them at the same time and switch between them on the fly?
1. If you install ESXi on a PC, you will not have access to guest axes on that PC itself. ESXi != vmWare Workstation\Player, this is a headless system.
2. On the fly - yes, but from another PC :)
3. "PC closer to the top" will not run ESXi on every hardware, you have to look at HCL, and/or forums, and/or cross your fingers.
4. If it is forwarded by a running VM, other VMs cannot use it. Is it possible to forward a card to several VMs, provided that only one of them is running at the same time, and the rest are turned off or in suspension - I don’t know.
5. An alternative is a top PC running vmWare Workstation or analogues on it, but there is no possibility of forwarding graphics, and performance with it will be appropriate.

Answer 2

If you have a device with 4 video cards - probably, though this is purely a theory, of course I have not tried it myself. I tried to stir up something similar on XenClient, but after I realized that their idea was not exactly what I was looking for, I refused.
You can try a little differently - Linux host, it has KVM with Windows and Apple. I won’t tell you about forwarding the vidyuhi in this way either - but very soon a new car will come to me, in which there will be both a separate vidyukha and a built-in one - and then I’ll check.

Answer 3

Without three video cards, this is not realistic. And besides video cards, you need 3 more mice and 3 keyboards - you need it.
I read an article at one time, they made a similar constructor there to save on office equipment.
But it was easier there - they collected 2 jobs from one PC, so 2 mice and keyboards did not strain. And you have 1 work place.
As far as I remember, Linux was the host there, KVM is deployed on it, and virtual machines are under Windows. The experience was quite successful. I can't find the link, of course.
Set the most commonly used OS as the host, and run the rest as virtual machines.
Or 3 operating systems at the same time, but then there can be no talk of any on-line switching.
Or a remote hypervisor with the required set of virtual machines, you connect to the virtual machines remotely using RDP / VNC. To do this, you need another device from which you will connect to the VM.

Answer 4

1 powerful computer, it has a card www.nvidia.ru/grid (the price tag for a decent card)
This card can be thrown into a bunch of virtual machines (firewood allows it to be divided between virtual machines).
I heard that there is a solution on AMD cards with patched firewood, but I haven’t tried it myself ....
vmware & citrix can do this (I won’t tell about others)
+ a thin client to a virtualization server.