Virtual PC 2004

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Just about to install Virtual PC 2004 anyone got any tips on using it ?

 

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What would you like to know about it?

I use it all of the time, and have found it to be very good.

The only issue that I have with it is that the only Linux distro I can get to work on it is Fedora.

 

I know most people seem to prefer VM but i managed to get a hold of this at work and quite fancy setting up a test network


a couple of servers , client ,exchange and the like

probably mostly use MS OS's at the moment not really got into linux yet although i have installed fedora, mandrake

just any pros and cons thoughts really

going to start off with installing it on my laptop

P4 2Ghz with 40Gb HD and 512mb ram will this be ok for a couple of virtual machines ?

 

That should be ok.

You will have to remember to turn the RAM down on them though if you install Winodws 2003.

It requires 265mb to install, but I usually trun that down to 128 once it's done so that I can run two servers at once.

Two servers run fine on 128 each for me with 512 MB at work.

 

Right so far i have installed the Virtual Pc software

then installed Win2kS and copied the intsall to a new folder to create 2 Server installs

Installed XP Pro

the plan is to create a domain controller and then join the other server and install exchange 2000

then create some users

then upgrade to exchange 2003

then upgrade the servers to 2003

One thing iam not too sure without physical cabling is the network side of this virtual lab

any pointers ?

 

yeah be careful with your 'copy the folder' to make two instances, if SIDs start to conflict you will have a whole heap of trouble in a domain environment

 

When I forst got started in networking, I used VPC. It's still a great program. However, it's just not as customizable as VMware is, IMHO.

 

In the setting for the Virtual PC you can specify how you want the network cards to work.

For instance select local only if you simply want them to be able to talk to the host PC, and any other Virtual PC's installed on that Host.

If you select to use the physical adapter it will connect 'virtually' through your real network card allowing you access to the internet or LAN.

You can also specify how many network cards the PC is to have from within settings.

 

I also have a lot of problems with Linux distros in virtualpc, anyone got any tips? I haven't tried ubuntu yet, just had my disks delivered so i'm gonna give it a bash after christmas. It works fine with windows operating systems. At work some of our client computers still run Windows NT, I have installed it in virtualpc so i can keep this operating system fresh in my head. Really helpful in troubleshooting (Dr Watson you are evil and therefore must die! lol, sorry!!!)

 

Trislloyd,

Try this thread for getting Ubuntu to work.

 

Thankyou for your help simongrahamuk. I will have fun with this i'm sure!

 

Of course if you were using VMware, you wouldn't have this issue.

 

I don't really know anything about vmware, does it work in a similar way to virtualpc? I'm guessing it's better with linux distros on the whole? Which would be a bonus for me cause one of the directions i'm trying to go in is to get a much better understanding of linux in general and this would help.

 

VMWare provides good support for both Windows and Linux VMs as well as other operating systems. To find out more, you might want to go straight to the source:

http://www.vmware.com/products/ws/