You’ve been tasked to download and test the Microsoft 2010 IW Demo VM that can be found at the Microsoft Download Center:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27417

You have over 44 files to download and each file are mostly 700 MB in size. You start the process by clicking  the download button for each file.

However you are limited to 3 download sessions at one time and limited by the amount of download speed

So how do you speed up the download process?

Continue reading “How to Download the Microsoft 2010 IW Demo VM Faster” »

Good news for those needing more graphics power. VirtualBox 4.1 just released today. Here’s a quick executive summary:

• Support for full cloning can be done through the GUI or VBoxManage
• New wizard for copying virtual disks
• Experimental WDDM graphics driver will now support Windows Aero (see image below)
• SATA ports are now configurable through the GUI

You can review the entire change log here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Changelog

Lots of goodness in this major release, but I’m not looking forward to updating all my virtual machines with the new version of Guest Additions.

But that’s the way it goes

.

Reconfiguring SharePoint 2010 Settings

I developed the following Graphical Step-by-Step procedures to ensure that you can demonstrate trial or evaluation VM images without purchasing and using Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V. I also added steps to increase performance specifically for the 2010 Information Worker Demo Machine and Project Server 2010 add-on.

In this series I divided the procedures into the following four parts:

Part 1: Working with 64 bit Microsoft Trial or Evaluation VM Images

Step 1 – Download and Prepare a 64 bit Microsoft Trial or Evaluation VM Image:
Step 2 – Read the Hyper-V VM Image Documentation:

Part 2: Working with VirtualBox

Step 3 – Download, Install and Configure VirtualBox:
Step 4 – Create the VirtualBox Virtual Machine:
Step 5 – Configure Virtual Machine Settings:
Step 6 – Install VirtualBox Guest Additions:

Part 3: Configuring the 2010 IW Demo Virtual Machine

Step 7 – Modify the Network Configuration and DNS Settings:
Step 8 – Disable Services Not Required:
Step 9 – Configure SQL Server 2008 Maximum Server Memory Settings:
Step 10 – Remove Software Not Required:

Part 4: Reconfiguring SharePoint 2010 Settings (Adding Project Server)

Step 11 – Install Microsoft Project 2010 Demonstration and Evaluation Installation Pack (Optional):
Step 12 – Stopping Non-Configured SharePoint Web Sites:
Step 13 – Stopping SharePoint Web Sites:
Step 14 – Manually Creating the PWA Instance (Optional):

Continue reading “UPDATE – How to use VirtualBox for Hyper-V Preconfigured VM Images (Graphical Step-by-Step) – Part 4 of 4” »

Configuring the 2010 IW Demo Virtual Machine

I developed the following Graphical Step-by-Step procedures to ensure that you can demonstrate trial or evaluation VM images without purchasing and using Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V. I also added steps to increase performance specifically for the 2010 Information Worker Demo Machine and Project Server 2010 add-on.

In this series I divided the procedures into the following four parts:

Part 1: Working with 64 bit Microsoft Trial or Evaluation VM Images

Step 1 – Download and Prepare a 64 bit Microsoft Trial or Evaluation VM Image:
Step 2 – Read the Hyper-V VM Image Documentation:

Part 2: Working with VirtualBox

Step 3 – Download, Install and Configure VirtualBox:
Step 4 – Create the VirtualBox Virtual Machine:
Step 5 – Configure Virtual Machine Settings:
Step 6 – Install VirtualBox Guest Additions:

Part 3: Configuring the 2010 IW Demo Virtual Machine

Step 7 – Modify the Network Configuration and DNS Settings:
Step 8 – Disable Services Not Required:
Step 9 – Configure SQL Server 2008 Maximum Server Memory Settings:
Step 10 – Remove Software Not Required:

Part 4: Reconfiguring SharePoint 2010 Settings (Adding Project Server)

Step 11 – Install Microsoft Project 2010 Demonstration and Evaluation Installation Pack (Optional):
Step 12 – Stopping Non-Configured SharePoint Web Sites:
Step 13 – Stopping SharePoint Web Sites:
Step 14 – Manually Creating the PWA Instance (Optional):

Continue reading “UPDATE – How to use VirtualBox for Hyper-V Preconfigured VM Images (Graphical Step-by-Step) – Part 3 of 4” »

Working with VirtualBox

I developed the following Graphical Step-by-Step procedures to ensure that you can demonstrate trial or evaluation VM images without purchasing and using Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V. I also added steps to increase performance specifically for the 2010 Information Worker Demo Machine and Project Server 2010 add-on.

In this series I divided the procedures into the following four parts:

Part 1: Working with 64 bit Microsoft Trial or Evaluation VM Images

Step 1 – Download and Prepare a 64 bit Microsoft Trial or Evaluation VM Image:
Step 2 – Read the Hyper-V VM Image Documentation:

Part 2: Working with VirtualBox

Step 3 – Download, Install and Configure VirtualBox:
Step 4 – Create the VirtualBox Virtual Machine:
Step 5 – Configure Virtual Machine Settings:
Step 6 – Install VirtualBox Guest Additions:

Part 3: Configuring the 2010 IW Demo Virtual Machine

Step 7 – Modify the Network Configuration and DNS Settings:
Step 8 – Disable Services Not Required:
Step 9 – Configure SQL Server 2008 Maximum Server Memory Settings:
Step 10 – Remove Software Not Required:

Part 4: Reconfiguring SharePoint 2010 Settings (Adding Project Server)

Step 11 – Install Microsoft Project 2010 Demonstration and Evaluation Installation Pack (Optional):
Step 12 – Stopping Non-Configured SharePoint Web Sites:
Step 13 – Stopping SharePoint Web Sites:
Step 14 – Manually Creating the PWA Instance (Optional):

Continue reading “UPDATE – How to use VirtualBox for Hyper-V Preconfigured VM Images (Graphical Step-by-Step) – Part 2 of 4” »

Working with 64 bit Microsoft Trial or Evaluation VM Images

This is an update from my previous blog post in 2010 as a few things have changed, such as new Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.x and the Hyper-V images for SharePoint and Project Server 2010.

Questions

What do you do if you downloaded the Preconfigured VM images for your favorite Microsoft 64 bit software from the MS Downloads site (as listed below), but do not have Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V installed on your 64 bit notebook or desktop computer and you don’t have the money buy additional software?

What do you do when you find out that most of these VM images are not configured for the limited amount of hardware resources (RAM, CPU, etc.)

Answer
Use VirtualBox with your Microsoft preconfigured VM image and fine tune the VM settings

I developed the following Graphical Step-by-Step procedures to ensure that you can demonstrate trial or evaluation VM images without purchasing and using Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V. You only need to complete Part 1 & 2.

I also added steps to increase performance specifically for the 2010 Information Worker Demo Machine and Project Server 2010 add-on.

Continue reading “UPDATE – How to use VirtualBox for Hyper-V Preconfigured VM Images (Graphical Step-by-Step) – Part 1 of 4” »

First of all a Big Kudos go out to the Project 2010 product team for building and making the Microsoft Project Server 2010 – Virtual Machine publicly available. If you haven’t downloaded the virtual machine image yet, here’s where you can get it:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=21099

Now the really nice thing about this VM image is that it’s already preconfigured and ready to go and comes with a VERY detailed demo script that covers a lot material. Let’s fast forward a bit… You’ve gone through the demo script and really like all the new features, heck you might even be asked to do your own demo for your fellow colleagues or God-forbid, the Management Team or Executives.

But the good news is they like it too and all agree that you need to do a “Proof-of-Concept” or “Pilot” for the organization, but obviously you won’t be able to use the pre-configured Contoso PWA instance as it won’t be the same configuration as your organization.

So what are your options?

Continue reading “How to create a new PWA instance on the Project Server 2010 Beta VM Image (Graphical Step-by-Step)” »

I thought I have seen some very large virtual machines in which so much software was installed it was amazing that it would actually launch. Well I think I found the Microsoft Pre-Configured VM that beats them all, hands down.

I just downloaded the Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 (with Service Pack 3) Pre-Configured VM. Now the actual size of the vhd was not too bad, (Only 41 GB), but it’s the list of software installed that’s mind blowing.

Continue reading “The Largest Microsoft Pre-Configured Virtual Machine” »

Do you know if your Project Server VM solution is supported by Microsoft?
(Or any other Microsoft server product?)

Well after receiving many calls and emails to MS Support, Microsoft has created a cool web wizard (called Support Policy Wizard) that can help you determine if a virtualization configuration is supported without having to call Support.

Continue reading “Thinking about Virtualizing Project Server 2007?” »

I use Virtual Server a lot in teaching and in my Project Server consulting practice. After upgrading to Windows 7 over the weekend, I come to install Virtual Server 2005 R2 with SP1. It installs with no problem, but when I go to open the Virtual Server Administration Website and I receive the following error:

I then go to check the Services console and sure enough the Virtual Server service is not running:

So I decided to to try starting up the service and it was a No-Go. 

Time to do some searching and I found this great post on the Microsoft TechNet Windows 7 forum:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itprovirt/thread/a98e77b7-95d4-444f-8dbc-630c98074436

So not missing another teaching opportunity I decided to take Robip’s post an transpose it into a graphical Step-by-Step procedure. Here it is: