Spodworld

What i do when creating a virtual machine.....

• Carefully select drive size, if doing lots of rollbacks do you need 20G free or just enough to test your apps?
• Install OS/windows etc...
• Get it to the state youe require. 
• Turn off autoupdates if you dont want it to change in the future.
• remove old updates files/ clear temp files and recycle bin etc...
• Install tools you need for testing. notepad ++ is good.
• Install required browsers etc...
• Install vmware tools
• Change admin password to something memorable, but not insecure
• Set VMware tool to sync the clock with host.
• Add commonly used shortvuts to your desktop.
• If you'll edit lots of files, open them once in your favourite editor to ensure the apps are mapped to the tools you use.
• RUn your required apps at least once, so they get their initialisations out of the way
• Restrict resource hungy apps.eg:  like SQL server(fix memory usage to prevent excessive hard drive growth)
• Clear out event logs
• Set up Internet explorer with trusted sites you use most often.
• Defrag the hard drive....reboot.... defrag again
• Shrink the hard drive using VMware tools
• Reboot
• Shutdown
• Ssy prep the VM if your coing to make many copies
• Take a snapshot

Possibly the most frustrating afternoon i've had in a long while is trying to install Windows 2000 on VMWare workstation.

 What was the big problem?

Hanging on the "Installing Windows 2003" shortly after it had copied it's basic drivers to begin the install.

Firstly, bear in mind that Windows 2000 was always a bit poor when it comes to SCSI drivers etc... 

Second ...note, that whizzing through the default set-up wizard will probably provide you with an emulation running on a SCSI drive.

Thirdly... all the forums inform you to try adding

 MAGICBOOT1 = 400

To the .vmx configuration file.

Here's what I did, follow the process bit by bit, if it works, fine... use it asa it is:

• Add the magicboot command as the forums recommend. 
• Go to [Edit]->[Preferences] and Change the default hardware compatability to "Workstation 4".
  (This was the last thing i tried before it worked so it would be wise for you o try it first ;)  )
  It also makes sense to downgrade the hardware a bit.
  Dont trust VM to do this... close VMWare and open up the .vmx file, you can change this from 6 to 4 in the config.
• If that doesnt work, go to the hardware settings
  Use the [remove] button on USB, Network, Sound and Hard Disc Sections so that the icons are gone.
  Change your CD ROM advanced settings to use IDE 1:0 for your CD
  Create a new Hard drive. Make sure it's IDE (I used IDE0:0). I also reduced the size to 6GB and reserved the space in advance, so that the disc is all nice and ready.
• Check the .vmx file try removing any references to SCSI drives and repeated referenced to the same hard drive on disused IDE controllers.
• Reduce the processors from 2 to 1. (Simplify things for the installer)
• In [virtual machine settings] ->[options] ->[advanced]... Disable acceleration and disable memory page timing. (It might help... although mine worked without changing this on the successful run)

Windows 2000 Server.vmx (1.92 kb)

I've been avoiding blogging for a long while now..Im not sure why people do it, but as i'm always finding useful bits of information on other peoples , i thought i'd share a bit of the knowledge.

Who knows... someone might find something useful on here, if you do , send me a postcard, or even better a blank cheque :)

I'll try and keep the coding stuff separate from teh insane ramblings, but there might be a grey area in between the two. I appologise in advance.