How Does Setting Up A Network of Computers Using Virtual Machines Work?

Ok so Im not new to VM's as I run XP, 7 and Ubuntu on a virtual machine on my MacBook however I am new to setting up a network/domain for lab purposes.

As stated in the other thread below about the 70-290 exam virtual lab setup, Im looking to setup something like this:

- Win2003 Enterprise Server (DC)
- Win2003 Enterprise Server (BDC)
- Client #1 (XP)
- Client #2 (XP)

and later some kind of file server, web server or other.

Can someone explain how that works? How do they all see each other? Do you you fire up all 4 virtual machines, starting with the DC presumably, then the clients. Can you login to the domain using the clients just by having all 4 running? How about the setting up of TCP/IP settings so that they are on the same network? I dont know how all of this works using VMs so it would be great if someone can explain.

I have a stack of 8 Compag desktops I had accumulated so I can set up my network for all the Microsoft exams but I am sitting on a stack of cash and Id rather sell them off and pocket the $$$ and use a virtual environment as it would save space and time. A lot of people in the MCSE forum section had asked why I was using real boxes and why not just go virtual so now I am thinking about it more.

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Comments

dynamik

There are various networking options. Most packages offer something along the lines of bridged, NAT, host-only, and some allow you to also create virtual networks where only a group of VMs can communicate with each other. It's quite easy and flexible.

Hyper-Me

Just as an aside, the whole PDC/BDC is no more in active directory.

There is a PDC emulator, but its not like youd think of a regular NT4 PDC.

JDMurray

If you will be getting a beefy machine (say, x64 with lots of RAM), I'd suggest using VMware Server and running all the VMs on the same physical box. The VMs will behave as if they are all connected to the same switch, and you can provision the guest OS' IP addresses to place them all on the same network segment (a guest OS is the OS running in a VM). The VMs won't even need to communicate with the host OS (i.e., the Windows or Linux OS that VMware Server runs on).

stonedtrout

Funny story.....when i was going to school i got vmware server and setup windows 2k3 as a dc on a virtual server.

Just for fun I wanted to know if i could join my host XP machine as member of the domains and sure enough I could. I figured this was going to end bad so i rebooting my computer and wanted to make sure i could log into the domain and i really worked.

dynamik

stonedtrout wrote: »

Just for fun I wanted to know if i could join my host XP machine as member of the domains and sure enough I could. I figured this was going to end bad so i rebooting my computer and wanted to make sure i could log into the domain and i really worked.

Why but of course

For all intents and purposes, it's just another machine on your network. It doesn't matter to either if the other is physical or virtual.

Pash

dynamik wrote: »

Why but of course

For all intents and purposes, it's just another machine on your network. It doesn't matter to either if the other is physical or virtual.

Exactly this. Remember VM's are completely virtualized PC's, hardware, filesystems, operating systems all Virtualized!

For example I am doing a dd bit by bit copy of a royally screwed windows partitioned disk at the moment, when its done I am going to mount the ISO in a linux bootable cd in VM and then hopefully recover the data (crosses fingers). Advantage of doing this, minmal clutter of hardware....and no messing anything else....

You will be limited in your VM environment by your available memory, CPU power and your hard disk configuration. I have a separate sata disk at home in my pc specifically for virtual machines. Some clever cloggs probably have raid0 (striped) setup for even faster hard disk access (remember your virtual machine hard drives will be sitting on your physical hard disk drives, memory usage is not the only important factor).