Installing Windows 2003 on virtual machine Posted by Zafar Iqbal at Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Previously we had created our first virtual machine, and then I showed you how we can configure it further for our likings. Now we need to install any guest operating system on this machine. As we have to create an environment where we can emulate a full intranet system, with its own domain controller, so we need to install any server operating system which can support these things.

I know currently Microsoft is planning to release Windows 2008 Server, but I could only get my hand to a Windows 2003 media for installation. I will use our first virtual machine as a base machine, and would create other machines from this, just by creating another copy out of it. That way we don’t have to install things on each machine.

Configuring a virtual machine Posted by Zafar Iqbal at Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Lastly we had created our first virtual machine. We had provided some configuration options while creating that machine. Mostly that would work for our purpose, but if someone want to tweak some configuration items, then this would help him do whatever he needs to change.

That machine is now listed on your virtual server main page. You can see this machines settings and configure it further, to do that, click on “Virtual Machines” > Configure > WIN2K3 menu item on the left sidebar.

Using Sysprep for virtual machine image duplication Posted by Zafar Iqbal at Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Microsoft provides a system preparation tool, Sysprep, which helps in deploying Windows on multiple computers. It has many scenario usage, but we will be using it for duplicating our virtual machines images, so that we don't have to install all things from scratch each time.

Microsoft TechNet has listed detailed requirements when this tool can be used for duplication purposes, and analyzing that I think our scenario fits in it perfectly. Our master and destination computers have compatible hardware, no extra drivers, and disk are exactly same.

How should we walk our walk for this work, lets list them down.

Creating a virtual machine Posted by Zafar Iqbal at Monday, June 08, 2009

Some might wonder what a virtual machine is? It is an emulation of real world computer, which emulates complete hardware system, from process to network card, in a self-contained, isolated software environment. Virtual machine facilitates in running different operating system on a host system.

After installing Virtual Server, it’s time to create a new machine to play with. Open Virtual Sever Administration Website in your browser, you will see your server’s status screen, and list of recent events, which you can see below.

Setting configuration and search paths Posted by Zafar Iqbal at Thursday, May 28, 2009

When I initially worked with Virtual Server, I used default configuration. That caused me some trouble, as I started creating new virtual machines, my system drive started loosing space. I had to move all those virtual machines and their virtual disks manually to another location to release some space. Then I had to add those machines again, after doing what I should had done earlier.

You can avoid this problem by settings these paths after installing Virtual Server. There are two paths associated with Virtual Server.

Virtual Machine configuration folder: this is where virtual machine configuration files, virtual hard disks, undo disks would be stored for each virtual machines.

Search paths: These are additional paths, where you can look for existing virtual machines, virtual hard disks, undo disks, any ISO image files (.iso) that you can use later on.

Installing Virtual Server Posted by Zafar Iqbal at Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Considering how I wanted to approach my SharePoint exploration, I had to install Microsoft Virtual Server on my machine. That way I would be able to emulate a true intranet environment, in which I would have a domain controller, and other required resources.

Another reason I had in mind was that, I could save images of these machines at different stages, and then can experiment with different configurations, saving some of my time to redo all those installation again.

I am using Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1, which is the latest at the moment. I have Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3 installed on my physical machine, with a lot of RAM, and disk space. One more thing I must check, do I have installed IIS (Internet Information Services), yes I do. I have IIS 5.x with me, and it should be there, because Virtual Server presents web interface for its administration.

Who am I, and Why here? Posted by Zafar Iqbal at Monday, May 25, 2009

Hi, everyone, my name is Zafar Iqbal, most of my friends call me Bhatti, but online I am mostly known by nickname "ziqbalbh".

I was introduced to computing way back in 1995, when I started learning Quick Basic. I used my mathematics for appreciating what can be done through programming, and that was really incredible.

Then after a little gap I was formally inducted in computing industry, by first doing graduation in computer science and then accepting my first job offer.

I never had a chance to officially touch "Microsoft Sharepoint" till now, and colleagues around me acquired different skill levels in it. Some even went on to be Microsoft MVP in sharepoint and some even joined Microsoft itself based on its expertise.

At last I too got an opportunity to dirty my hand in this technology. I did some work for one of our clients, and am involved in various phases of its implementation.

After going through all this, I thought of exploring it further, and have setup a draft for myself. I do not have enough hardware to create a physical workable environment, so I have decided to use Microsoft Virtual Server for virtualizing everything, and would create my intranet on it.

I will start with Windows Sharepoint Services 2.0 and Microsoft Sharepoint Portal Server 2003. I know some would say, why not with the earliest version. I think this would be enough to test all recent upgrade and migration issues, as these were the latest being used.

I will need all of my viewers to help me go through this learning process and help me sort out various issues, which hits me through this time.