Setup a virtual machine (VM)

[Lanarkshire IT Services]

Virtual Machines (VM's) are an excellent way to test, deploy, design or configure servers, client machines, operating systems, software, updates, networks etc especially when hardware resources ie spare servers or client computers are limited. For example, say you have a machine with Windows XP as the host operating system. You can then install virtual machine software and then run multiple copies of other operating systems for trial / testing etc such as Vista, Server, Windows 7 etc. Another bonus is that IT staff can test and configure VM's without having any negative affect on the current live IT structure.

Lanarkshire IT Services make extensive use of VM's especially in the areas of Servers for operating system deployment, testing and malware removal techniques.

So how do we setup a VM and what do we need?

OK first things first. We will need:

* Virtual PC - FREE download from MS or VMware Server (requires registration)
* A CD or .ISO image of the operating system you want to install / test - MS do evaluation software for most of their operating systems. Use ImgBurn to create .ISO files
* A host computer - the computer that the VM will run on with enough RAM and HDD space to run both the host machine and the VM and meet the Virtual PC requirements

For this example we will use Virtual PC 2007 due to its ease of use.

Next we install Virtual PC - A pretty straight forward and painless process although make sure your host computer meets the minimum requirements for Virtual PC

Once Virtual PC is installed successfully we can go to setting up the virtual machine

Here we will setup a VM using a test copy of the new, forth coming Windows 7 operating system FREE TRIAL OF WINDOWS 7 HERE

Other Windows Evaluation Software here

* So start up Virtual PC and the Virtual PC Console Window will open
* Select New which will bring up the New Virtual Machine wizard as shown:

* Click Next
* Next we have the Options screen. Here we will choose Create A Virtual Machine as shown:

* Click Next
* Here we name our VM and decide where we want to save - Default is My Documents > My Virtual Machines but this easy changed. A good idea is to save the VM on an external HDD, then you can have a portable operating system. For this example we will name it Windows 7 Test as shown:

* Click Next
* Here we select which operating system we are going to install on the VM. As Windows 7 isnt recoqnised it just name it as Other as shown:

* Click Next
* Next we can adjust the amount of RAM our VM will have. Here we will set this as 1GB (1000 MB). Make sure you have enough RAM in your system for this but at today's prices this shouldn't be a problem:

* Click Next
* Next we can choose a New or Existing VM hard disk. As this is a new VM we will select new as shown:

* Click Next
* Here we set the location and size of our VM HDD - The defaults are fine. Again the amount of space you can assign depends on how much HDD space you have on your host machine:

* Click Next
* Now we have a summary of what we have created:

* Click Finish
* And that's it. A Windows 7 VM created
* Now we go back to our Virtual Machine Console and look for our Windows 7 Test VM:

* Now we select our Windows 7 Test VM and click Start
* Our VM will start however we must tell it where our OS CD or .ISO image is located. We do this by selecting the CD item from the top menu and choosing either a physical CD/DVD drive present on our system or an .ISO image located some where on a HDD
* Now our VM will begin to load the OS in the exact same way as it would if installing on a physical computer so just go through the process as normal
* Once this has completed we can login to the VM OS and begin to install software, updates etc as well as configure users, groups, profiles, network settings etc etc
* A tip - Once the VM OS has completed, install the VM Additions from the Action menu
* If DO NOT want internet / local area network access then use the local only setting in the VM Settings screen. Should you require internet or local area network access for your VM then select your adaptor from VM Settings screen.
* Once you have created your VM use VMPlayer to use it instead of Virtual PC as this give you more advanced functionality such as attached USB flash drives, wireless network cards etc.

 

[stugster]

Brilliant post

There's also the free open-source VirtualBox by Sun, here: VirtualBox

 

[Lanarkshire IT Services]

Brilliant post

There's also the free open-source VirtualBox by Sun, here: VirtualBox

Hi Stuart

Was just trying to keep it simple. Obviously VMware / Virtual box have a lot more advanced features such as using external USB's, wifi cards etc.

But this should be enough to get people started and test various OS's without disrupting their current structure.

But as always your comments are welcome

Regards :thumbup:

 

[Mike Lewis]

I've often found VMs useful in my work as a software developer. They let me test my applications in different environments, without having to find space for multiple computers. They're also useful if you do something drastic that would otherwise crash the system. Switching away from a VM is generally easier and faster than rebooting the computer.

It's worth keeping in mind that if you want to run different operating systems, you will still need valid licences for each system, even though you might have already paid for a commercial VM system. With Windows XP, I suppose you could always re-install it before the activation period expires, but in general, buying a VM system is not the same as buying the individual OSs.

Mike

 

[stugster]

if you want to run different operating systems, you will still need valid licences for each system

Or you're running Linux/BSD based Operating Systems and not Microsoft/Mac :thumbup:

 

[Lanarkshire IT Services]

Hi There

Thats why I provided a link to MS Evaluation software - to test MS OS's. Unless you are using VM's as real servers then use ESXi.

Or as Stugster says to test alternative non-MS OS's.

Regards

 

[Lanarkshire IT Services]

I also have a Server 2003 DC VM on a laptop with various Windows OS RIS / WDS images on. So when I arrive at customers sites I can blast an image onto empty machines and just enter the customers COA details.

Saves me bags of time on multiple OS deployment

Regards

 

[Mike Lewis]

Clearly, my comment about licences refered mainly to commercial systems. But that's a good point about the evals.