Windows Server 2003 : Creating Virtual Machines (part 1) - Initial Configuration of a Virtual Machine

2/3/2012 11:19:36 AM

Once you’ve got your Virtual Server environment set up and ready, it’s time to actually create a virtual machine (VM). The wizard will walk you through creating the virtual machine and let you make some basic choices. You can then adjust them as appropriate for your particular environment.

To create a basic Windows XP Virtual Machine, follow these steps:

1.	Log on to the Virtual Server Administration Website if you aren’t already logged on.
2.	Click Create in the Virtual Machines section of the leftmost frame to open the Create Virtual Machine page, shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. The Create Virtual Machine page
3.	Enter a name for the virtual machine. The name should be as descriptive as possible, especially if you’ll be running several different but similar virtual machines on the same host. The machine will be created in its own subfolder of the default shared virtual machine folder you specified previously. If you want this machine to be in a different location, specify a fully qualified path name to the location for the machine.
4.	Enter the amount of RAM to make available to the virtual machine.
5.	Specify the maximum size of the first hard disk for this virtual machine and the type of virtual hard disk to create (IDE or SCSI). If you already have a virtual hard disk you want to reuse, you can specify that instead of a new hard drive.
6.	Specify the initial network adapter to connect to. You can add more network adapters later.
7.	Click Create. the virtual machine will be created and added to the Master Status panel of the Administration Website, and you’ll see the status page for the virtual machine as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2. The status page for a newly created virtual machine

Initial Configuration of a Virtual Machine

When you first create a virtual machine, you’ll see the status page for that machine as shown in Figure 2 . From here, you can start the virtual machine immediately or set additional configuration details for the machine before starting it. Some configuration details can be set only on virtual machines that are shut down, so now is a good time to take care of those items. The default settings are listed in Table 1.

Table 1. Default Virtual Machine Settings
Property	Initial Default
General Properties	Don’t start automatically.
	Save state when the virtual machine stops.
Virtual Machine Additions	Not installed by default.
Memory	Depends on the guest operating system.
Hard Disks	1 virtual IDE hard disk.
	Automatically expands to 16 GB maximum size.
CD/DVD	1 virtual CD/DVD drive. Attached to the first physical CD/DVD drive in the host computer.
SCSI Adapters	None, unless you specified a SCSI virtual hard disk.
Network Adapters	1 virtual network adapter, with a dynamic MAC address.
Scripts	Initially disabled.
Floppy Drive	1 virtual floppy drive, but not connected to any device
COM Ports	2 initial virtual COM ports. Not connected by default.
LPT Ports	1 initial virtual LPT port. Not connected by default.

Under the Hood: Capturing a Physical Device

Virtual machines use a combination of the existing physical hardware on the host machine and virtual hardware that is generated by Virtual Server. The default hard disks are examples of virtual hardware—they are created on the host’s hard disks as a simple file, but they appear to the virtual machine as a hard disk, with partitions, files, and folders on it. Using the physical devices of the host computer, however, requires that the device first be “captured” by the virtual machine. Once a device is captured by a virtual machine, it isn’t available for any other virtual machine until it is released from the first virtual machine.

Captures can be changed while a virtual machine is running, but you can’t add or remove devices. So you can capture the physical CD/DVD drive, for example, while the virtual machine is running, or change to capture an .ISO file, without having to stop and start the virtual machine. When a physical CD/DVD drive is captured, you can insert or remove CDs and DVDs and they will behave as you would expect on the virtual machine where the drive is captured.

Devices that can be captured include a CD/DVD drive, a floppy drive, COM ports, and LPT ports.

Configuring CD/DVD

The default configuration for a virtual machine has a single CD/DVD drive attached to the master position on the second virtual IDE channel. This virtual CD/DVD drive is set to capture the first physical CD/DVD drive on the host machine. You can change this to capture a different physical CD/DVD if you have more than one CD/DVD drive on the host computer, or you can capture a CD or DVD image file. An image file, usually with the extension of .ISO, is an actual image of what the CD or DVD contains. It can be captured and used by Virtual Server just as if it were a physical CD or DVD drive. This is extremely useful for rapid access to operating system CDs, for example, where you have multiple VMs running different operating systems on the same host. You don’t need to have physical access to the host computer to swap out CDs; just capture the appropriate .ISO file for the operating system used by that virtual machine.

To configure a Virtual CD/DVD Drive, perform the following steps:

1.	Log on to the Virtual Server Administration Website if you aren’t already logged on.
2.	Click Master Status in the Navigation section of the leftmost frame.
3.	Highlight the virtual machine you want to configure the CD/DVD drive for, and select Edit Configuration, as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3. The action menu for a virtual machine
4.	The status page for the virtual machine will open. Click CD/DVD in the configuration section to open the CD/DVD Properties page for the virtual machine, as shown in Figure 4. Figure 4. The CD/DVD Properties page for a virtual machine
5.	Select No Media to release any existing captures. Select Physical CD/DVD Drive, and specify which physical drive to capture. Or select Known Image Files to specify the path to an .ISO file to capture.
6.	If you’re capturing an .ISO image and it is on your search path, you can select it from the drop-down list under Known image files, or you can enter the exact, fully qualified path name for the .ISO file you want to capture.
7.	Click OK to capture the file.

Starting the Virtual Machine for the First Time

OK, you’ve got everything configured and ready to go, and you really want to create that first virtual machine. There are two ways to start the machine and install the operating system:

Click the image of the virtual machine in the Master Status window.
Connect directly to it with the Virtual Machine Remote Control (VMRC) client.

Personally, we like the second option that allows us to do it directly from our main desktop, but there are significant security implications if you’re not certain of who might be listening to your network. Definitely don’t use that method over a wireless connection from a remote machine, for example. The more usual method is to open the Virtual Server Administration Website and click the image of the target virtual machine. This will start the virtual machine and leave it as a thumbnail on the Master Status page. Choose Remote Control from the action menu to open the remote control page for a particular virtual machine—you’ll see your virtual machine running directly in the Web page, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. The Remote Control page for a virtual machine

Note

The first time you launch this remote control page, you’ll be prompted to install the necessary ActiveX control in Internet Explorer. And some good news for x64 Edition users—there are both 64-bit and 32-bit ActiveX controls, so either version of Internet Explorer will work just fine.

To connect to a Virtual Machine with VMRC, follow these steps:

1.	Open the VMRC from the Start, All Programs, Microsoft Virtual Server menu to open the VMRC as shown in Figure 6. Figure 6. The Virtual Machine Remote Control client
2.	Enter the information for the virtual machine to connect to. You need to use the fully qualified host name, the port number (5900 by default) and the virtual machine name, as shown in Figure 6—for example: vmrc://xmpl-srv4.example.local:5900/xmpl-xp-vm1.
3.	You’ll be warned about the security implications with two separate messages, as shown in Figure 7, and Figure 8. Click Yes in each message box to proceed. Figure 7. The Unencrypted Connection VMRC warning Figure 8. The NTLM Authentication VMRC warning
4.	Finally, you’ll be prompted for credentials to connect to the remote host machine. Enter your credentials, and click OK to open the VMRC and connect to the virtual machine.

Installing an Operating System

Once your virtual machine starts, it behaves exactly like any other physical machine. You will see the standard power-on self test (POST) messages from the BIOS, the enumeration of your hard drives—including any SCSI devices—and the machine will boot from the available media. Follow the standard operating system installation instructions for your guest operating system.

Note

To configure the BIOS settings on your virtual machine, including the boot priority, press the Delete key as soon as the virtual machine starts to open the AMI BIOS for the virtual machine. The default boot priority is Floppy, CD/DVD drive, PXE, and then the first hard drive.

Installing SCSI Shunt Driver

If you’re installing Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Professional, or Windows 2000 and you want to use a virtual SCSI hard disk, it can be installed without extra drivers, but it will be faster with the Virtual Machine SCSI Shunt drivers installed. To load these during the setup process, use the standard Windows technique of pressing the F6 key when the first blue installation screen is displayed. When prompted to specify additional drivers, go to the configuration screen for the VM, click Floppy drive, and select Known Floppy Disks, and then select the SCSI Shunt Driver from the drop-down list, as shown in Figure 9. Click OK to capture the floppy image.