Windows XP Virtual Lab Question

So I have a MS Technet subscription and I have d/l'ed one Win XP Pro iso and via VMWare, I'm running two XP Pro hosts.

Not sure I am able to do this or if this is correct. I checked the VMWare forums and Google and didn't get an answer, of course I could be wording all of this incorrectly.

thanks

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dynamik

I'm not sure what you're asking...

Do you want to know if you can create two VMs with that? AFAIK, you can install it as many times as you want as long as it's for evaluation or educational purposes; that's the entire point of a Technet Subscription.

JockVSJock

I'm probably not clear with the question.

I have one XP pro .iso file. From VMWare, I am using the same .iso file to create multiple clients in that environment.

I wasn't sure if that was correct to do or not.

Let me know if this makes sense in what I am asking.

thanks

dynamik

Yea, that's fine. What VMware product are you using? Some allow you to clone a VM (or you could just copy/paste the VM files). After that, just run sysprep to generate a new SID, and you're set. That's much faster than having to install the OS every time you want a new VM.

I actually have a clean VM of every OS I use, and whenever I want to start something new, I just clone that and go from there.

JockVSJock

Using VMWare 1.0.6 under Ubuntu 8.04.

Not clear on the sysprep, however I have read about it. I'll have to Google around and figure this out, cause I don't want to go thru the whole install process twice.

Not sure what you mean by a clean VMWare. Seems like under Linux it is hard to remove the VMs that you don't want/need anymore.

crrussell3

JockVSJock wrote: »

Using VMWare 1.0.6 under Ubuntu 8.04.

Not clear on the sysprep, however I have read about it. I'll have to Google around and figure this out, cause I don't want to go thru the whole install process twice.

Not sure what you mean by a clean VMWare. Seems like under Linux it is hard to remove the VMs that you don't want/need anymore.

By a "clean" install he is probably refering to a basic install of the OS,syspreped, without it being customized, extra programs, utilities, etc installed. So that way it can be used for anything.

Sysprep (or one of its alternatives) resets the SID (Security Identifier) on the computer, which is basically like a social security number, ie, unique to that machine and not in use anywhere else.

Just google "Sysprep" and you will find in the first few links great information on its usage.

dynamik

crrussell3 wrote: »

By a "clean" install he is probably refering to a basic install of the OS,syspreped, without it being customized, extra programs, utilities, etc installed. So that way it can be used for anything.

Exactly.

Don't make the noob mistake (like I did) of simply copying/cloning the VMs. You'll encounter all sorts of weird problems when working with multiple machines that have the same SIDs.

JockVSJock

Ok, reading thru the 1st chp on Exam Cram it gives an overview of Sysprep, instead of doing a bunch of XP installs manually.

It talks about creating the image, however I'm not sure how to move that image to a new vm instance (not sure if this is the correct term or not for another virtual machine).

Any ideas on the best way to do this?

UPDATE: Or could I setup a Win 2003 server and use RIS to create my two clients? Doing all of this from VMWare?

thanks

dynamik

When you run sysprep, just choose to have it shut down the machine. You can then simply duplicate (copy/paste) the VM files and you magically have a new VM (I don't think VMware Server has a "clone" feature like Workstation does).

You can definitely set RIS up like that. Since you're working on 270, it would probably be good for you to get that down. However, that's more for your education. You're not going to beat copy/paste in terms of speed and ease-of-use.