VMware Experts?

[jmr061]

I would like to run Server 2008 as my primary OS and then have Windows 7 run under VMware. I want Window 7 to autostart on boot up and also have Server 2008 assign Win7 a static IP addresses within my domain. Is this possible? From what I have found out VMware assigns its own IP and if you try to assign it one, it won't work.

Jason

[alex]

I would like to run Server 2008 as my primary OS and then have Windows 7 run under VMware. I want Window 7 to autostart on boot up and also have Server 2008 assign Win7 a static IP addresses within my domain. Is this possible? From what I have found out VMware assigns its own IP and if you try to assign it one, it won't work.

Jason

Are you using esxi or esx? Workstation?

Esx/esxi can do exactly what you describe without any huge hurdles... I don't know off hand though if you can set which os boots first or not.

Keep in mind for 64bit hosts you need to have a processor that supports intel vx-d with virtualization turned on. There is another intel spec for the motherboard which is optional I believe. Googling for esxi white box will bring up the hardware compatibility list.

Alex

[bnn121]

I would like to run Server 2008 as my primary OS and then have Windows 7 run under VMware. I want Window 7 to autostart on boot up and also have Server 2008 assign Win7 a static IP addresses within my domain. Is this possible? From what I have found out VMware assigns its own IP and if you try to assign it one, it won't work.

Jason

Are you set on using VMware?

You mentioned that you want to install Server 2008 as your base OS and then use VMware to run windows7.

Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter along with the same R2 versions come with the Hyper-v equivalent of VMware Server. You can install your server 2008 version and then enable the Hyper-v role and add as many virtual machines as you want to. You will certainly want to read up on how to configure it all, but once you understand the basics, it a snap to set em up.

You will however need to install the 64bit version of Server 2008 / 2008 R2 of your choice and then make sure that your CPU supports (Hyper-V has specific requirements. Hyper-V requires an x64-based processor, hardware-assisted virtualization, and hardware data execution prevention (DEP).

If you boot into your bios and you do not see a setting to enable virtualization then your CPU does not support it. It may support the 64bit architecture, but that's different from virtualization support. What this bios setting does is allow you to install a 64bit virtual machine under Hyper-v. The easiest way to find out if your CPU supports the 64bit virtualization is to try and add the Hyper-v role. It will tell you right away if your CPU supports it. If it installs, then the option in bios is already turned on. If it gives you a warning, then you'll need to boot into your bios and look for the setting to enable it.

Here is a link to Hyper-v in all its glory if your interested.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 10%29.aspx

These link will give you some software tools to check your CPU.

Intel
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_ ... iid=dc_rss

AMD
http://support.amd.com/us/Processor_Tec ... ity_V2.zip

Now with esx < they are phasing this one out >

or

esxi < this one I would choose >

You can install that as your base OS and assign it whatever IP address you want. Then you build your VM from the vcenter client app that you install on a separate machine.

esx and esxi are stand alone operating systems, one comes with a management level and the other does not, you have to install the management level as a vm inside the esx server unlike esxi, its built in. Since you are installing esx or esxi as your base OS, it does not really care if your CPU supports visualization or not until you try to install a 64bit vm, then it will bark at you. You can build 32bit vm's all day long and it wont care, even if esx/esxi was installed as a 64bit OS.

So, your first step would be to find out if your CPU supports x64bit nativity and then if it supports virtualization.

Also...pack as much RAM as you can into a box running any sort of vm's you'll thank me later.

As for the auto start up, both hyper-v and vmware provide a setting to specify which vm's get booted at what time.

You mentioned domain, are you running your own domain controller? Is this DC running DNS / DHCP for the same network you want to install this windows 7 OS on? If so, then you can configure the virtual nic card to be static or dynamic just like any real box.

Both vmware and hyper-v create virtual switches that are tied to your real hardware nic card, so depending on how you set up that virtual switch and then subsequently a virtual nic card, you can do pretty much the same as if it was not virtual.

Hope that helps.

[jmr061]

The computer is a 64 bit machine with 4gb of ram and Intel dual core 2.26 processor or something close to that. So it should handle it. I am not stuck on VMware. Just anything that will work. Yes I want Server 2008 R2 Enterprise as my main OS with it acting as DNS/DHCP sever. I then want Window 7 Ultimate to run as a VM and have it auto start and get asssigned its IP from the 2008 R2 OS all without any user intervention upon start up.

Jason

[bnn121]

The computer is a 64 bit machine with 4gb of ram and Intel dual core 2.26 processor or something close to that. So it should handle it. I am not stuck on VMware. Just anything that will work. Yes I want Server 2008 R2 Enterprise as my main OS with it acting as DNS/DHCP sever. I then want Window 7 Ultimate to run as a VM and have it auto start and get asssigned its IP from the 2008 R2 OS all without any user intervention upon start up.

Jason

In order to run a full DNS server in-house, you'll need to be able to add your ISP's name servers for DNS resolution from your inside box to the outside world. Are you on a residential ISP or Business? Are they blocking any TCP / UDP ports? Are you plugged directly into your cable / DSL modem or going into some sort of switch / router?

You'll need to do some playing around with DNS in order to allow the win 7 machine to obtain an IP address from your server 2008 DNS and then be route-able to the outside world, or if your not concerned about the win 7 box having access to the internet, no worries. You may also need to register a domain name and then setup the DNS at the register to point to your ISP's external IP address given they are not blocking any needed ports to resolve DNS.

Why do you want to run your own DNS server anyway? If you setup the server 2008 box with either a static IP address or dynamic assigned from your ISP, the VM running under vmware or hyper-v can be set to obtain your network setting from your modem or if you have a router that allows you to run a DHCP server. I'm just trowing stuff out there because I have no idea what sort of setup you have.

4GB of RAM???

That should be enough to power up the server 2008 box, however your adding a win7 vm into that on top of what ever hyper-visor you decide to go with. Your not gonna be happy when things begin to crawl along.

Certainly not trying to discourage you from accomplishing your goal, but I think you may want to reconsider what it is you really want to do here. I'm all for seeing more and more people get on the virtual bandwagon. I use it daily, but that's part of my job.

To make things easier on you, you could still install server 2008 R2 and then just install VMware Server or even Microsoft's virtual PC, not sure if it compatible on the serer 2008 platform or not.

Anyway...good luck with whatever you decide to do.

If you have any specific questions about the setup, I may be able to help, just ask.

[jmr061]

I just want to store roaming profiles and home directories on the server and have the server do DHCP. Ther server will run two applications, an in car video storage system (rarely used) and filezilla ftp server. The Windows 7 OS will be used for Windows Media Center hooked up to my flat screen TV. Nothing too big. I could do this with two separate computers but I want to get away with running one computer instead of two. If Microsoft would ever put Media Center on 2008 or their new home server I could probably get away with running one OS.

Jason

[tuckerm]

I think ESX would be overkill. Use something like VM Workstation or VM Server...it's a lot more simple and would work for what you are trying to do.

[tvsjr]

ESX wouldn't work... he's trying to do video out of the win7 OS to a TV. And 1080p in any sort of VM is going to suck massively. So, it's a Win7 host with a 2008 Server VM guest.

You don't want to let the 2008 server handle DHCP... the Win7 box will need to be up before the 2008 box will come up, so unless you have the VM running, you have no DHCP services.

Why not just run two devices? Find you a small form factor PC on the cheap (maybe an optiplex 755 SFF from ebay, or a 780 if you want to spend a few more bucks), toss server 08 on it, and you're good to go.

VMs are fantastic for some things, but sometimes a physical box just makes sense. I've got two quad-core i7 boxes at the house running ESXi/VMotion/HA (about 12 guests between them) using a homebrew SAN for storage, but I still have several physical devices for places where it makes sense (stuff that needs a sound card and/or serial port, mostly).

[jmr061]

Why not run 2 machines?? I'll let you catch the earful from the wife I get for having too many computers running at once

I have done 2008R2 with VMware with Win7. I can't get it to autostart however and I can't get it to assign the WIN7 VM an ipaddress. VMware assigns it some IP outside the DHCP range I would like to use and if I manually assign it then it does't hit the net anymore.

I have NO issues with the quality of the video or the speed of of WIN7 VM machine.

Jason

[jmr061]

I tried Hyper-V, its nice but no audio is supported with it. That defeats the my purpose of using it with media.

Jason