Virtual Server/PC set up

[rboucher]

Need a little advice folks...

I have a 2008 web server that i will eventually install SharePoint 2007 on. First, i would like to create a virtual installation to test installation, configuration, setup, ect... of SharePoint.

I installed Virtual PC SP1, but could not find a virtual trial image of 2008 to download. (they appear to require hyper V, which requires 64 bit)

So i installed Virtual Server 2005, to download an image of 2003 Server... but it appears the remote control client is all thats installed.

I have downloaded and extracted a 2003 trial image consisting of a VHD and VMC files... which i believe should open with Virtual PC, but the requirements stated Virtual Server 2005 is required so im going in circles at this point becuase i cant seem to open it with Virtual Server.

Im a newb to virtualization, so if someone could set me straight id appreciate it.

thanks in advance,

bobby

 

[Nelviticus]

If you have either Virtual PC or Virtual Server 2005 installed, double-clicking the .vmc file should launch the appropriate app. It'll ask you where to find the related .vhd file but from there it should just work.

Windows Server 2008 is 64-bit only but neither Virtual PC nor Virtual Server 2005 support 64-bit guests. If you want 64-bit guest support you could try Sun's VirtualBox which is free and very good. You'd probably have to install the guest OS from the set-up discs though, as pre-configured VMs from Microsoft probably won't work with it.

If you just want to try out SharePoint 2007 you can get a pre-configured trial VM from Microsoft. It requires Virtual Server 2005 which you can download for free from TechNet.

I'm not sure what you've installed already but it sounds as though it's the wrong components - just uninstall it and use the packages from those links.

Oh, one final point - SharePoint 2010 will be out of beta soon so you might want to try that instead. It's 64-bit only though, so you'd have to use Virtual Box for a virtual desktop trial. This MSDN post talks you through getting it set up.

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[Lemon13]

Windows Server 2008 is 64-bit only"
thats wrong, only the r2 edition lacks of 32bit support

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows_Server_2008

and only the r2 edition requires hyper-v.

here you can get virtual images of 2008 by microsoft

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/bb738372.aspx

M. Knorr

MCSE, MCTS, MCSA, CCNA