Setting up test lab with Vmware

dmw

Hi,

Looking for some help setting up a test lab with Vmware Workstation 5.5. I have Windows 2003 Server installed in Vmware and have Windows XP Pro running on the same machine – the host machine. I am able to ping by IP but not name from Vmware to Host and vice versa. I am able to login using remote desktop from the host machine to the server in Vmware.

I want to have it setup so I can login to a domain from the host machine (or another machine on the small LAN if its easier) to the server. I can’t wrap my mind around how to accomplish this. A few questions I have. What would be used for name resolution? Should the server 2003 in Vmware be setup as a DNS server? DNS and DHCP server? Should I use Vmware’s DHCP server? Should I have a complete virtual network with Vmware host-only networking and 2 VM’s running simultaneously one client and one server? These are just thoughts feel free to fill me in if you have ever done something like this before.

hhisgett

The short answer to your question. Install DNS and/or WINS on the server and set up a static DNS IP address on your client host machine that points to your server. You have to have some sort of name to ip resolution setup.

Now, what a better setup would be is not have your host machine login to the virtual domain, but setup a Windows XP virtual instance and use the XP and Server 2003 virtual instances to do your lab.

dmw

When you say the virtual instance are you saying have an XP virtual machine and server virtual machine both running in Vmware? The one disadvantage I see to this is the memory issue's with the machine. I have 1 gig of RAM do you think its enought to run the 2 VM's and my lcoal machine?

Thanks for the help

hhisgett

You are correct. 1 GB ram should be plenty for two virtual machines unless your host machine is hogging alot of it already. I have 4 virtual machines running on 1.5GB ram right now. Granted I am not allotting very much RAM to these machines, but that is because I understand that these are just for my test lab and nothing more.

DapperDan

I have 2003 server and 2 XP clients on a machine w/ 1.25 GB

dmw

Dan,

How did you setup name resolution? DNS or WINS. I have very limited experience setting up TCP/IP on the server side so want to start with the easiest way. I guess I'll just figure out the simplest way to do DNS between the 2 machines or since its only the 2 machines I could just edit the hosts file, right?