View source for MS Windows/Virtual Appliance

== Limitations for deploying on MS Windows ==

Altough Zoneminder´s interface is based on PHP and the system database uses MySQL, (both of which that may easily be deployed under Windows nowadays),  the system core [[Main_Documentation#Components|components]] are coded in Perl, and it´s structure is built considering a Linux traditional structure;

The new virtualization technologies available, on the other hand, may ecourage experiences of deploying the ZoneMinder system into a virtualized space under Windows; but then a first and strong limitation would be the capture device sharing;

Observing that most users deploy ZoneMinder systems using PCI (cheap or professional) capture devices, sharing the device among the host and the guest would be the first challenge to face; One first possibility that shows up then is the use of PCI PASS-TROUGH methods;

PCI PASS-TROUGH is a recent implementation for virtualization softwares that may share the capture device resources, or even assign it´s resources exclusively to the guest system; unfortunately, accomplishing that may not be an easy task; you may find below some web links that may help on better understanding the virtualization and pass-trough technics, but that would be interesting to think first about how usefull or how stable a Windows implementation would be;

A Much better, simpler, safer and more reliable solution, tough, would be forget the Windows implementation and use the available live cd ZoneMinder Distributions; they´re actively updated, and you may even experiment a full working ZoneMinder system without even changing one bit in your hard-disk; 

For more information on ZoneMinder Live Cd distros, roll down the ZoneMinder [http://www.zoneminder.com/downloads.html downloads page]; Please also get to check the [http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=1 announcements] as newer implementations seem to appear first there and only aftterwards on the downloads page;

== Pros and cons on the Windows Implementation ==

=== Pros ===

* Windows users may use their ZoneMinder Server side-by-side with a Windows OS; traditionally, dual boot implementations are used to have ZoneMinder in one partition (or entire disk) and Windows on another, so you can´t use both at the same time;

=== Cons ===

* Stability and safety: Windows safety implementations are known to be harder to maintain (arguable, tough);

* Permormance: sharing your operational system with another virtualized systems, besides it´s implementation efforts, will result in degraded overall performance; Using a dedicated surveillance system is far better and safer;

* Getting support, mainly free support, under a virtualized implementation of ZoneMinder, under Windows, is a challenge itself; maybe you will find yourself in a very uncomfortable situation on which you´ll be on your own;

== External references ==

* Virtualization: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtualization
* Pci Pass-trough: http://bitbud.com/2008/11/12/a-virtualization-first-from-kvm/
* Pci Pass-trough: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=974060