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Strategy:
We are going to set up our virtual machine using a modular, layered
approach. First, we will create a base virtual machine using VMWare
Workstation, which will contain the Windows Server 2003 operating
system as a snapshot. Refer to the diagram below for an overview of the
VM:
Getting Hands Dirty:
Download the VMWare
and install Windows Server 2003 before moving on. When setting up the
VM, opt for NAT networking; this way, it will use your host machine to
connect to the Internet. Make it 40GB and choose to set the size in
advance. When installing the OS, create it on a single, 30GB partition.
Remember to run Windows Updates after installing the OS; ditto for the
.NET 2.0 and 3.0 frameworks. After the OS is installed, you must
install the VMWare tools before activation of Windows. You will
be prompted to adjust your hardware acceleration. You will need to
disable browser Internet security: Add/Remove Programs, Add/Remove
Windows Components, scroll down and uncheck it.
Refer to Keith Patton's great blog post
for this and other details of setting up ASP.NET, SMTP, etc. Take note
of some of the other performance tweaks to be made! I used Keith's
step-by-step guide throughout. Also, the only other time I attempted
this setup was with Virtual PC. So, this was my first time using VMWare
and it was pretty painless. Here's what the VM Manager looks like:
Finally, you can install Office 2007 and run the updates. Take a
snapshot of this before moving on so that we can roll back if need be;
the original can be a base for future installations. Next, we will
create two linked clone snapshots based on this fixed clone. One will
contain our development tools and database; the other will contain a
complete installation of MOSS and the various extensions. When we start
up our virtual machine, it essentially treats all three snapshots in
the hierarchy as one physical VM. After you have ASP.NET 2.0, Email and
IIS configured, defrag your external drive containing the VM three
times and run vOptimizer on the VM. Then defrag your host machine.
In the next installment, I will show you how to set up Visual Studio
2005 and SQL Server 2005. I will also show you how to work around a
common error when attempting to install the very large SP1 for VS
2005... Rock on!
