Vista Tutorial - Creating a "virtual" network AND domain on a Vista x64 system

Greetings all. I'm studying for my MCSE in Server 2003, and am also a
Technet Plus subscriber. My machine at home is custom-built, and believe
that it has plenty of horsepower; Intel Core i7 920 CPU, 6 gigs of DDR3-1333
RAM, an X58 Gigabyte board, a pair of 150GB RaptorX drives, and a 500GB and a
1.5TB SATA drives. Here's what I'd like to setup.

I want to create 2 virtual machines: one running Server 2003 SP1, and one
running XP Pro. In and of itself, this isn't a problem; I can do this easily
under Virtual PC 2007, I'd ASSUME I can do this also under Virtual Server.
But, the issue is this: I need to have both these machines "see" and speak
to each other in the same domain. In the MCSE literature, they're using the
Microsoft standard contoso.com domain (which is used in all MS Press books).
I guess my main issue/question is how to configure the networking options
BOTH in the Virtual PC program, AND once each VM is running, in each
machine's network properties settings. I don't think it's critical that
either machine can "see" the outside world (aka the Internet); I feel that
would be a bonus.

So folks, do any of you have experience at this? Any and all help is
immensely appreciated!

On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 05:56:01 -0800, Mike Porcellana
<MikePorcellana@xxxxxx> wrote:
Why would you want to do this under Virtual Server 2005? If you do not
intend the test domain to be a 24/7 system but instead be used
interactively by you when studying then I suggest you do this under
VPC2007 since it is a lot simpler and you also already know how to do
it.
If you absolutely need 24/7 operation then create just the server in
VS2005 and keep the workstation XP in VPC2007. A workstation is much
easier to access in VPC2007, than in VS2005.
As above:
- Use VPC2007SP1 as your base
- Create both virtual machines normally, but assign the networking to
"Local only". This will create a private network for the two machines
only so you will isolate them from everything else. A good thing when
you try out stuff. Note that this also precludes using Internet and
accessing the host machine.
- When you start up the guests you will find that they will not yet
communicate because the virtual NIC in both will *not* get a working
IP address since your outside network is isolated.
- So now open the NIC properties in each and set the IP address
manually to something private like 192.168.1.1 for the server and
192.168.1.10 for the XP client.

Now you have a small network with two computers that is isolated from
the rest of the world and can start working on it. Note that from now
on you need to learn from your course how to manage the serber and
domain, so I won't go into that here.

To get Internet connectivity you need to do the following:
- Shut down the server guest completely
- In tye VPC2007 settings for this guest add another NIC and for this
point to the host NIC so that this NIC will be a part of your external
network.
- Start up the server again and check that the server now has Internet
connectivity.
- Next enable the routing role on the server such that it routes from
the internal NIC to the external NIC for any PC on the private
network.
- Then in the XP guest open again the NIC properties and set the TCPIP
gateway to the server's IP (192.168.1.1 in the suggestion above)

I hope this is all steps (taken from memory). Test now that the XP
machine will get Internet connectivity too, this traffic will be
routed by the server guest out to your internal LAN and from there
out to the Internet. Note that the Vista host is not involved in this
at all.

Any other things you need to do on this small network should be
described in your course.

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

Will give it a try later today...THANK YOU very much!!

"Bo Berglund" wrote:

"Mike Porcellana" <MikePorcellana@xxxxxx> wrote in
message news:5696A184-51CB-4A34-A6C9-056626270547@xxxxxxI would just add one proviso to what Bo has said. If you are running a
domain, it is not a good idea to use the dc as a router. (This is a general
rule, not restricted to virtual machines. The only exception is sbs server
which is designed to run like that).

Since you have ample memory I would run a separate machine as a RRAS
router between the virtual network and the physical network.

I would go ahead and set up the domain in local only on its own private
subnet. After this is running successfully you can look at connecting this
network to the physical network for Internet access. I use Server 2003
running in a vm as a NAT router for this.

Here is how I had this set up under VPC.

Internet
|
Netgear
192.168.0.1
|
LAN machines including VPC host (workgroup)
192.168.0.x dg 192.168.0.1
|
192.168.0.200 dg 192.168.0.1
RRAS vm
192.168.21.254 dg blank
|
DC
192.168.21.1 dg 192.168.21.254
|
AD clients
192.168.21.x dg 192.168.21.254

You can even run DHCP on the virtual network for you private LAN if you
like, because it is isolated from the physical network.

Because all AD machines must use the local DNS, you need to set the
local DNS server to forward to a public DNS (such as your ISP) so that AD
machines can resolve "foreign" URLs (such as Microsoft Update).

On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 09:57:17 +1100, "Bill Grant"
<not.available@xxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks for the pointer on the router. I have seen it before but
forgot. I have not built an AD domain myself yet so all my "knowledge"
is theoretical from reading this ng.
So the test system needs basically 3 virtual machines minimum.
The router guest can be running on very low memory since it does not
do much, though, so resources should not be an issue.
I have a virtual server guest running W2003 as an inbound VPN router
for my (physical) network and it is running just fine on 256 Mb RAM.
--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

Hey Bo and Bill, I set things up exactly as you both suggested, and
EVERYTHING works perfect! Thank you both very much again!

I want to add one more thing for anyone reading this, since you probably
already (and hopefully) have decent technical skills: BUILD YOUR OWN
COMPUTERS, PERIOD. I've described most of the particulars of my current rig
at home that I built about 2 months ago, and I paid a total of USD$984.71
for everything, case, power supply, "soup to nuts", the works. Only items I
carried over were my mouse and keyboard.

Just a couple of minutes ago, I "built" a similar system on Dell's website,
using the Mid-line XPS systems, and it STILL cost almost $800 more than mine.
Plus, I couldn't upgrade to a 1GB video card, the RAM is 1066 instead of
1333, etc. PLUS, you're stuck with Dell's proprietary piece of junk
motherboards.

Now, you might argue that Dell gives you a better warranty...NOT! EVERY
component in my system comes with a minimum 3 years, except the power supply,
which, let's face it, unless you underpower your system, you will not have a
problem. AND, is that worth $800? I think not!

In summary, if you're comfortable opening up and working inside a system, by
all means stay far, far away from the mainstream manufacturers...you'll make
a better system (which isn't loaded with all the crapware they stuff on it),
and save yourself a ton of cash.

"Mike Porcellana" wrote: