Virtulization newbie.

[Pantz]

I thinks i should clear up a few mistakes i made in the posts, the specs in my profile is not the specs i am using now, i am on a 4 year old Dell 1520 W7 32 bit, by mistake i was trying to install WS 2008 on VMware player on it.

During the installation of WS2008 i encountered an error when the VM machine rebooted, say the boot manager could not load, ( see link in previous post ) i then got worried thinking that if i rebooted my Dell it would not load up W7, due to the error ,i have yet to reboot the Dell, so i followed Kado897 advice.

I am confused. Did you install in the VM? If so just delete the VM (right click on the machine entry in VMPlayer and select delete), set it up again and install the 32bit version.

i was able to delete the VM but i have not tried to install the 32 bit WS 2008 as of yet. so if i continue with the installation of WS2008 32bit, and it installs successfully and i then reboot my Dell, will i have any issues booting into W7,?

sorry for any confusion.

 

[kado897]

No the boot problem was in the VM itself because it didn't support a 64bit guest. You should have no problem re-booting your PC as the VM doesn't do anything to your real PC boot.

 

[Pantz]

Well thanks for your reply i feel a lot better now, just one more question before i install the WS2008 32bit, after it asks for the product key and i tell VM yes to continue, it asks what name i would like to use , ( i give it a name ) and the default location of of the VM is
C:\Users\Pantz\Documents\Virtual Machines\Windows Server 2008
i can choose to install it on my External drive , or does the VM create a location on the external drive automatically ? i think i believe VM keep it seperate from my C :\ ?
but i would just like to make sure,

Thanks

 

[kado897]

The default location of the virtual machine is in you documents folder. I would put it on another drive as the virtual disk can be quite large.

 

[Pantz]

Hello again, well after a bumpy start i successful installed WS2008 in the VM.
I would like to thank everyone who made this possible, props to kado897 who was able to explain the thing i was not sure of so that i could understand.

Now that i have it installed i guess i need to play around with it, is the anything that i should be aware of,? i guess my server can be seen in the net?, what if anything i should be installing to protect the server?.

Once again thanks.

 

[kado897]

You are welcome Pantz. You should use an AV especially if you are sharing with the Host. MS Security Essentials should do.

 

[Pantz]

hello. i already have outpost running on the host, do i need one for the VM also? or will outpost be ok for both host and VM ?

Thanks.

 

[kado897]

You need a separate AV in the VM.

 

[Pantz]

OK... thanks.

 

[Pantz]

well i am back, nothing serious, i had shut down my VM and restarted it some time later. when the VM started back up i got an error ( see attachment), i guess i did not shut VM down correctly, what is the correct way to shut VM down,?

Thanks.

Never Mind, i figured it out.

 

[Pantz]

Back again with a few questions, whats the difference between the VM player and VM workstation? and i am a little confused on how i would install a l a program on my VM Guess OS, i would do it the same way i installed the OS?, by pointing to a file within the VM?

Thanks in advance.

 

[kado897]

VMWare Workstation is a more comprehensive virtual environment in which I think VMWare Player is a part. I've never considered it myself as it costs $200.

Yes you install a program in the guest just as you would on the host. Download an installer in the guest and run it. The program will install itself in the guest. That is the main reason I run a Win 7 VM to test out new software before I install it in the host.

 

[Pantz]

Thanks, i will see if i can install a suite on the guest OS in the VM,

 

[kado897]

It should be just the same as installing a program on the host but done inside the VM.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
installing a guest OS on vmplayer is simple.

1) make an ISO image of the os you want to install and copy it to your HDD.
2) start the vmware player program.
3) on file==>open_>create new virtual machine.

The wizard will guide you through the whole process. It will even suggest disk size to allocate for your vm.
Note don't allocate too much when installing a guest vm -- you can add more virtual disks later.

4) power on the vm -- eventually you'll see the same logon screen as you did for your normal OS -- just logon with your user account and password.

5) when the vm has booted up the first time you might find screen resolution strange and mouse not very reponsive -- you need from the powered on virtual machine's menu go to intall vmware tools.

it will do thes and then restart the virtual machine.

You should then be able to adjust the screen resolution and have decent mouse control.

To get the vm into FULL SCREEN mode simply press CTRL-ALT-ENTER.

In Windowed mode you wil need to press CTRL-G to release the mouse from the VM.

Have a look at Brink's Tutorials -- they are excellent but using the wizard is probably the easiest way to get up and running.

To install software on your VM just install exactly as you would on the Real machine. Note on the VM you can dynamically add and remove devices too so you can add things like usb printers, HDD's, usb sticks, CD/DVD drives and iso images as emulated DVD drives.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Pantz]

Hello everyone, Well i managed to install a couple of programs on my VM 2008 server and on my VM Win7, it seems simple enough, just a tad slower than using the host, now that i kind of understand the VM here is my new question, ( maybe i should post it in the Networking section) but i will give it a shot here first.

I am trying to simulate the MCITP lessons on my VM's that i do in class, i have created a few non admin users on the VM WIN 7 and i have administrator account on there also, i have created a shared folder on the host C:\ drive, which i am able to see if i turn on network discovery. (security issue i know )

i am looking for the safest way to simulate these lessons on the VM's without actually having to share anything on the C:\ drive.

Also since i have a 192.168.X.X internal IP address, would it be possible to assign different IP addresses to each of the VM's and not have them be seen outside the 192.168 X.X

Thanks.

 

[kado897]

I'm not really an expert on Networking but it may be worth looking at the Host Only option which I believe can be used to network between VMs without internet access.

Perhaps someone with more experience of this will step in.

 

[Pantz]

Ok, you mean the Host only options on VM? or my local host machine? thanks Kado you have been of great help, i will see if anyone has any suggestions here then i will try the Networking section,
Thanks.

 

[kado897]

I have posted on another private thread asking if anyone else can help out.

 

[Pantz]

Thanks, one other question, i noticed that VM 2008 sever's default installation required 40GB of HD space, and VM Win 7 default required 60GB and the each Guest OS is only taking up 20 and 10 Gigs respectively, why such a big difference in the VM default requirements? and the actual Guess OS install requirement, also since there will not be much being installed on the VM's anyways, can i reduce the VM's default HD space allocation to something more suitable like say 20GB for the 2008 sever VM, and 20 for the Win 7 VM ?

Thanks.