Vista - Can I run Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Ed as a guest OS under

Hi all,

I have downloaded a copy of the VPC 2007 SP 1. When I create a new VPC,
there is a drop down list where I can select the type of OS to run under the
VPC, amongst the list are:

Windows NT Server
Windows Server 2003
Windows 2000 Server

I have check on the two URLs below


http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...ng=en#filelist

http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...tes.htm#ID0EYE

And there is no where it states that VPC supports Windows Server 2003 as a
guest OS. Yet it is listed in the drop down list in the program.

So my concern is , is it supported to install Windows Server 2003 R2
Enterprise Ed under VPC 2007 SP1 for production use?

On Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:07:01 -0700, anonymoussg
<anonymoussg@xxxxxx> wrote:
If by "production use" you mean to virtualize a server used for normal
server chores, then you have chosen the wrong virtualization system.
You need Virtual server 2005 (also a free download), because this has
functions for handling server guests that need to be running 24/7.

VPC2007 is basically for desktop use, i.e. for workstation type
systems where the uesr interacts intimately with the desktop of the
system. You *can* run a server like this but you cannot really use it
as a server in its real role in a production environment because a
guest in VPC2007 never runs unless someone is logged on to the desktop
of the host and has started VPC2007 and alunched the guest.
In VS2005 you can set the guest to start up with the operating system,
thus not needing anyone to be logged on to the host.

If you have the needed hardware then Hyper-V would probably be your
best choice, however that is *not* a free download....
--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

Hi Bo,

thanks for pointing out the feature of Virtual Server. When I tried to
install it, it prompts that I need to configure my IIS. Is the IIS really
necessary, or can I skip configuring the IIS portion?

Assuming in my environment, I can live with the fact that I do not mind
manually starting the VPC after the host has started up, is it fine that I go
ahead to use VPC to run Windows 2003 as the guest OS?

"Bo Berglund" wrote:

"anonymoussg" <anonymoussg@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1B9DA0E6-ACB1-410E-87DF-7012BA15B4BB@xxxxxxYes, it will work fine. I do this daily. I do software development, and
I have 2 copies of XP, 1 Vista Business and 1 Server 2003 (running SQL
Server 2005) running in VPC 2007 on 64 bit Vista Ultimate (company-provided
MSDN subscriptions are great!) All of this is running on a Core 2 Quad
machine with 8 GB of RAM and 1.5 TB of SATA-2 disk space. Performance is
excellent.

While this is not exactly a "production environment", it works fine. All
you need to do is boot the machine, start the 2003 VPC, then ctl-alt-del and
"lock" the host machine. Server 2003 will continue to run just fine. You
do not need to remain "logged in" to the host machine for Server 2003 to
continue to run. You can then Remote Desktop into the Server 2003 VPC to
administer it, from any PC on your LAN.

Of course, you can remain logged in, and continue to use the machine for
your daily use. You can minimize the Server 2003 window, and it will
continue to run. VPC has Options you can set to give minimized VPCs equal
time. I would recommend a minimum of a Core 2 Duo with 2 GB RAM for this,
with more of each always welcome. Make sure you have turned on "Hardware
Virtualization" in your host computer's BIOS. This only apples to Core 2
Duo and above CPUs. Core Duos and below don't have this. This makes VPC
run much more fast and smooth. Also install the "Virtual Machine Additions"
once you get Server 2003 installed. This makes a HUGE performance
improvement.

On Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:41:01 -0700, anonymoussg
<anonymoussg@xxxxxx> wrote:
No, it is not. It is just for administration of VS2005 and there is an
excellent alternative in VMRC+ (also a free download from Microsoft).
I have Apache on my PC and don't care much about installing IIS so I
just unchecked the web parts of the install of VS2005 (custom install
probably).
Then I used VMRC+ to register my virtual machine, which I had already
built using VPC2007. You need to be a bit careful if you go the way of
migrating a guest from VPC to VS:
- Only use yje VHD (hard disk file) from VPC2007, never the VMC file.
- When setting up the guest in VS2005 make sure that it is set to use
IDE disk access. The default is SCSI and the disk from VPC2007 is an
IDE disk.
It *will* work, but your server will be treated as a workstation...
In production it is not a very good solution, I still recommend
VS2005. VS2005 will also run the guest quicker since it does not have
to bother with sound and the graphics systems.

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

v7wnSm hi! nice site!

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