Virtualization : Windows 7 and Existing Virtualization Environments - Sun xVM VirtualBox

Sun xVM VirtualBox

The first environment we want to discuss is Sun’s xVM VirtualBox software. This open source virtualization software can be downloaded from www.virtualbox.org and installed on your system. At present, VirtualBox requires one of the following host operating systems to run properly:

• Linux (We have tested this on both Fedora and Ubuntu and have seen no issues.)

• Mac OS X

• OS/2 Warp

• Windows XP or later

• Solaris

If you plan to run Windows 7 using VirtualBox, you should make sure that your system has sufficient resources for all the various system configurations you plan to use. In addition, allow for system resource utilization by the host and allow 256MB of memory for the VirtualBox software itself. Your video output should also be fully supported by the host system.

Installing Windows 7 Under Sun VirtualBox

Before installing Windows 7 as a virtual system, you need to make sure your host operating system is installed on your computer and you have installed the Sun VirtualBox software.

After you have done these two things, you can start installing Windows 7.

1.	Your first task is to start the VirtualBox console and then use it to create and configure a virtual hard disk instance for your Windows 7 installation. We have found that the settings shown in Tables 1 and 2 are the bare minimum that is acceptable for running Windows 7 from within VirtualBox. Table 1. Minimum Settings for Running Windows 7 Under Sun VirtualBox OS Type Microsoft Windows Version Windows Vista (see note below) Base Memory Size 512MB Boot Hard Disk Click New, and see below Hard Disk, Storage Type Dynamically Expanding Storage Hard Disk, Location Any appropriate location on your system Hard Disk, Size 20.00GB Table 2. Expanded Recommended VirtualBox Settings for Windows 7 Virtual System Section Tab Field Notes/Entry General Basic Operating System Microsoft Windows. Basic Version Windows Vista (we expect that an updated version with Windows 7 compatibility will be available by the end of 2009). Basic Base Memory 800MB. Basic Video Memory 128MB. Basic Enable 3D Acceleration Yes. Advanced Boot Order Whatever you think is appropriate. However, note that initially you will need to enable CD/DVD-ROM boot ahead of the hard disk. Advanced Enable ACPI Yes. Hard Disk Enable SATA Controller Yes. Slot Hard Disk The VDI file that you create for the virtual system instance. CD/DVD-ROM Mount CD/DVD Drive Yes. Host CD/DVD Drive Normally we would suggest this. However, see the next item for an alternative option. Host CD/DVD Drive Enable Passthrough You must enable this option if you plan to let the virtual installation of Windows 7 use your computer’s CD/DVD drive. ISO Image File We found some issues with DVD drive passthrough from our host system. As a result, we wound up creating an ISO from the DVD drive on the host system and then mounting the ISO as a DVD image with this option to install Windows 7 to our virtual environment. Floppy Mount Floppy If your system has a floppy drive, and you plan to allow the virtual system to use it, you must select this option. We never used it because none of our test systems had floppy drives. Audio Enable Audio If you want your virtual system to be able to use the host computer’s audio capabilities, you must enable this option. Audio Host Audio Driver If you select Null audio driver, the Windows 7 virtual system will “see” an audio card but will not be able to send any sound out through it. Audio Audio Controller SoundBlaster 16. Network Adapter 1 Enable Network You must enable at least one network adapter for your virtual system to be able to communicate on the Internet. Network Adapter 1 Adapter Type Intel Pro/1000 MT Desktop. Network Adapter 1 Attached to NAT. Network Adapter 1 Cable Connected Yes. Serial Ports Port 1 Enable Serial Port Enable this only if you plan to let the virtual system use your computer’s serial ports. In our test cases, we left this turned off. USB Enable USB Controller Yes. USB Enable USB 2.0 (EHCI) Controller Yes. Shared Folder By default, no shared folders are created. We found it useful to create a shared folder for the virtual system, which linked to the host system’s desktop. Click the plus sign (+) icon in the upper-left corner to create a shared folder.
2.	After you have created the virtual system instance, including its associated virtual hard disk image (VDI file), you can install Windows 7.
3.	Mount the Windows 7 DVD in your system’s DVD drive.
4.	From within VirtualBox, select the Windows 7 virtual system instance and then click the Start arrow (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Starting the Windows 7 instance for system installation.
5.	Based on the recommended settings, your virtual system should start to boot and then load from your host system DVD drive. If you have any issues with this process, stop the virtual system, copy an ISO image of the Windows 7 DVD to your system, and then mount that ISO image as the DVD drive under VirtualBox.
6.	Install and configure Windows 7 as you normally would.
7.	After Windows 7 is installed in your virtual environment, test the network connectivity from within the virtual system using Internet Explorer.
8.	Configure the Windows 7 virtual instance as you would any other system installation. Note that you can perform normal application migration operations from within VirtualBox with no issues, so migrating applications and settings should be as simple as they would be to a regular Windows 7 installation.

VMWare

The next environment we discuss is VMWare. In this case, we ran Windows 7 under VMWare Workstation 6.5.2. However, any VMWare product will support the 32-bit x86 platform that you need to run Windows 7, and virtually any VMWare product that you can get will also support 64-bit Windows 7 installations if your underlying hardware will support it. In practice, this means that you can run Windows 7 virtually under VMWare installed on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003, Server 2008, any recent version of Linux, and Macintosh OS. The precise operating system requirements may vary depending on which version of VMWare you are using. VMWare Server, for example, requires that you use a server version of Windows as your host operating system; Windows XP and Windows Vista would not work properly.

You should note the minimum system requirements for running Windows 7 under VMWare shown in Table 3.

Installing and Configuring VMWare

The first task you need to perform is to install the VMWare software. Install and configure the VMWare environment using the procedures laid out in the VMWare documentation. In our case, we needed to install both VMWare Workstation (which creates the virtual machine) and VMWare Player (which runs it).

After you have done so, create a new virtual machine. During the configuration, you will be asked for the location of the installation media, as well as configuration information, such as your license key and the default user. By entering this information ahead of time, you can allow VMWare to automatically configure the system. This situation also pointed up the ease of having an ISO image of the Windows 7 installer. From within VMWare Workstation, we selected File, New, Virtual Machine, which launched the New Virtual Machine wizard. From there, we selected a typical installation and then pointed the installer at the ISO file we had created earlier. The wizard asked us for a product key, user name, and password; then it asked for a virtual machine name and a location in which to store the virtual machine. Finally, it asked for some configuration information—how big the disk was to be and whether to store the virtual system disk as a single file or split into smaller files.

Once the virtual system was created, we ran it from VMWare Player. The first time we powered up the virtual machine, it automatically detected the ISO; started it; and ran the installation process, configuring the Windows installation using the information we had already entered.

Other Virtual Environments

A number of other virtual environments exist that you can use to virtually deploy Windows 7. As a rule, you should stick to virtualization software that supports either x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) technologies. Wikipedia maintains a useful list of virtualization software that supports Windows-oriented virtualization.