Back in the days of the original MCSE certification, you needed to practice. In order to practice, you needed machines. Lots of them that you could tear down and build back up. This wasn’t necessarily an easy thing, especially if you were doing a certification run with your own buck. I built two machines out of the cheapest parts I could get away with and still run Windows NT to have a lab to practice on. These days, with the power of our trusty computers, they actually will support running virtual machines.
What is a virtual machine? Well, it is an environment setup by special software that allows the operating system to run without being the only operating system running. In this case, Vista will be blissfully unaware that it is running on top of your Windows XP machine where you just got done blasting out some aliens. For situations where you need multiple machines to test and practice, deployment and event forwarding being two examples, then you can just turn to your smoking hot machine to do all the dirty work and you or your wallet don’t even need to break a sweat.
There are several options to run virtually with a continuing thriving community thinking of new ways to put many virtual machines into one physical box. For your needs, I would recommend one of the options that run on top of your existing operating system. These options include the recently released Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, Microsoft Virtual Server 2005, VMWare Workstation (there is a charge) and Player (free but requires a pre-built virtual machine). There are also products that run underneath the operating system, called a hypervisor, that are more appropriate for servers. If you want to try one out, give Citrix XenServer Express Edition a go.
For my purposes and while writing my MCITP Vista books, I used Microsoft’s Virtual PC 2007. It installs just like any other program on your Windows XP or Windows Vista (not home editions) desktop operating system. The best thing about it is its price, free. For someone on a budget, that has to be the best price of all. Anyway, you’ll want to have a decently beefy system to run a VM, particularly in the RAM department. I’d recommend no less than 1GB, which now seems to be the desktop/laptop standard. Put 2GB in and you will have a much smoother ride. If you’ll be using your host OS at the same time, a dual-core processor helps since the VM will only take advantage of one of those cores, leaving the other core free to download the latest Ricky Martin tracks.
The interface will seem deceptively simple. Above is a screenshot of my Virtual PC Console. To get started, just click File | New Virtual Machine Wizard. All of its virtual machines are based on .vmc files. You can use these to setup multiple boxes with the same settings. My purposes don’t get that fancy, so I just select Create a virtual machine.
Pick a name and save the .vmc file to another location if you choose, I just go with the default.
Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 includes native support of Windows Vista as well as several other operating systems. If you just have to get that DOS game working again, here is your chance.
The next screen will ask you for the amount of RAM you want to dedicate to the VM. I usually go with the recommended amount since I won’t be doing much heavy lifting with the VM, I just need to play with it until it doesn’t work anymore.
Here is the answer to the question, where do all the files go for this virtual machine? They exist in a file called a virtual hard disk. Create a new one, or point to an existing disk. Microsoft and some partners make VHD’s available for download and evaluation. Pick “A new virtual hard disk” when starting out.
Now you get to decide how big the VHD will be and where to put it. This is entirely up to you since you know your machine better than I, but remember that you will likely not be loading all of your applications and other fun onto this VM, just Vista so you can tinker. 20GB is plenty for Windows Vista if you are doing nothing else but practicing with the machine.
After you setup your VM, it will show up in the Virtual PC Console. From here, you can access the settings for your VM ad change things you deem necessary.
This is only the beginning. Now that you’ve built the VM, you essentially have a fresh computer with no operating system installed. How do you get Vista on this thing? Just click Start in the Virtual PC Console. From the CD menu you can capture an optical drive on your computer or an ISO image. After you do this, you’ll be able to boot the machine and start the setup process. I personally like to use the ISO image because it is just a little easier and faster. You can capture your DVD copy of Vista to an ISO using many CD Burning suites, like products from Nero or Roxio or some free alternatives.
That’s really it. Now you’ll have a fully functioning Vista machine without having dropped the dough to buy new hardware. You didn’t even have to upgrade your own computer’s host operating system if you didn’t want to. You’ll also be able to connect it to the existing network or create a private network between your virtual machines via the Console’s settings menu. Just select Networking and choose Shared Networking (NAT) (KB833134).
Some extra pointers. When you first get started and you click your mouse inside the VM window, you will likely be stuck there. Hit the right ALT key on your keyboard to return control to your host. Most shortcuts in VM PC rely on the right ALT key. Virtual PC will whine about the Virtual Machine additions. You can’t install this until the operating system is installed, but it is necessary to get rid of that annoying mouse control problem. You can install it from Action | Install or Update Virtual machine Additions. I hope this makes it easier to get going on your quest to be a fully certified MCITP.
- Eric Beehler (www.consortioservices.com/blog)
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