Setting up the Host Machine for the SharePoint, Office
and Project 2010 Virtual Machines
V4.0
"The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and
events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name,
email address, logo, person, places, or events is intended or should be inferred."
System Requirements
Requirement Item
Operating System Microsoft Windows® Server 2008 R2 with the Hyper-V
role enabled
Drive Formatting NTFS
Processor Intel VT or AMD-V capable
RAM 4 GB or more (8 GB or more recommended)
Hard disk space required for install 50 GB
Virtual Machine Software and Pre-Configuration
Virtual machine “a” contains the following pre-configured software:
1. Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Evaluation Edition x64, running as an Active Directory
Domain Controller for the “CONTOSO.COM” domain with DNS and WINS
2. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition with Analysis, Notification, and Reporting
Services
3. Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2
4. Visual Studio 2010
5. Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition
6. Microsoft Office Web Applications
7. FAST Search for SharePoint 2010
8. Microsoft Project Server 2010
9. Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010
10. Microsoft Visio 2010
11. Microsoft Project 2010
12. Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2
Virtual machine “b” contains the following pre-configured software:
1. Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Evaluation Edition x64, joined to the “CONTOSO.COM”
domain
2. Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
Active directory has been preconfigured over 200 “demo” users with metadata in an organizational
structure. All of these user profiles have been imported and indexed for search within SharePoint Server
2010.
SharePoint Server 2010 has been configured in a “Complete” farm using Kerberos authentication and the
default SQL Server 2008 instance for data, and has a site collection created using the Team Site template
at http://intranet/ and a FAST Search Center at http://intranet/search/.
Performance Considerations
1. Unpack and run the VM image on a separate, fast hard drive (7200 RPM or better) from the
operating system of the host machine. If this is being done on a laptop, a second internal drive or
external eSATA drive works best, though USB 2.0 (make sure it's 2.0, 1.1 is too slow) or Firewire
is acceptable. For absolute best performance use a second internal SSD drive.
Host Configuration
This section lists the tasks that you must perform on the machine being used as the virtual machine host.
Tasks Detailed steps
1. Install the Hyper-V role on your a. Install the Hyper-V role on your Windows Server
Windows Server 2008 R2 host 2008 R2 host
It is essential that you use Windows
Server 2008 R2. Older versions of
Hyper-V will not be able to import the
VM package, will likely trigger activation
of the software included in the image,
and will have reduced performance.
2. Extract VM Image a. Copy the archive files for the VM to local disk.
b. Extract the VM image by running the self-
extracting executable.
c. Set the extraction location, see the note in
Performance Considerations above for more
information
Configure Hyper-V for the Virtual Machine
This section lists the tasks that you must perform in Hyper-V
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT CONTAINS IMPORTANT
INFORMATION ON HOW TO CONFIGURE AND RUN YOUR VM.
PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO VERY IMPORTANT STEP 2J BELOW.
Tasks Detailed steps
1. Configure the Hyper-V Manager a. Start Hyper-V Manager from Control Panel ->
Administrative Tools
Do not use an External network for b. Confirm that the local host machine appears in the Hyper-V
this VM. The VM does not contain Manager list and select it if not already done
any antivirus software and can
conflict (MAC addresses, IP c. Under Actions, click Virtual Network Manager…
addresses, hostnames, etc) with d. Confirm that you have created an Internal virtual network
other running instances of the VM named “Internal”. Internal networks limit connectivity to
or potentially unrelated physical only VMs and the host. If such network does not exists,
machines. The Internal virtual create one now using the following steps:
network configuration in these
i. Click on Virtual Network Manager in the Actions
steps will allow the host to use
pane
remote desktop to access the VM.
ii. Choose New virtual network in the Virtual
Networks pane
If you must run this VM set with
iii. Choose Internal from the type list and click Add
external access, please setup a
second NIC in the Hyper-V iv. Enter a name of Internal and click OK
configuration for this purpose. v. Start menu -> right-click Network -> Properties
The primary NIC inside the VM is vi. Click Change adapter settings
setup to use a static IP address
vii. Find the adapter with a description of Internal, right-
and changing this setting will have
click and choose Properties
a wide range of undesirable side
effects. viii. Double-click on Internet Protocol Version 4 and
enter the following values:
1. IP address: 192.168.150.6
2. Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
3. Default gateway: (leave blank)
4. Preferred DNS server: 192.168.150.1
ix. Click OK
e. Close the Virtual Network Manager dialog.
2. Import and Configure the Virtual a. Under Actions, click Import Virtual Machine…
Machine b. Use the Browse button to select the folder where the
virtual machine package was extracted. Keep default
Due to the activation and settings.
expiration models in Windows c. Click Import and wait for the Import to complete – the
Server 2008 and R2, it’s highly import status will appear in the Operations column
recommended that you do one of d. Select the newly imported virtual machine and click
the following:
Retain a copy of the
unaltered VM
Create and retain a
snapshot from before first
run of the VMs
For more information see the
“Activation and Expiration” section
below.
Settin
gs in the right pane of the Hyper-V Manager
e. Confirm (and correct if necessary) that the Network
Adapter “VM Bus Network Adapter” is connected to
the “Internal” network from step 1d. Please DO NOT
add a new Network Adapter.
The end result of the correct configuration is
illustrated on the following image:
f. Close the virtual machine Settings dialog.
g. The new virtual machine will show up in your Virtual
Machines list.
h. Start the virtual image.
i. Once the machine starts, log in as Administrator (press
CTRL + ALT +END) to login. Password is pass@word1
j. After you login it takes 10-15 minutes first time to finish
the configuration and new drivers to detect and install for
the new hardware. Once done, it will ask to reboot.
k. After reboot the machine is ready to use.
l. Enjoy!
Post-setup Performance Tweaks
This section lists actions and settings for the host machine which will help you get best performance.
Tasks Detailed steps
1. Defragment all host drives a. Open Windows Explorer, right-click on the C:
drive icon, and choose “Properties”
b. Choose the Tools tab and click on the
“Defragment Now” button
c. Confirm that the C: drive is the chosen volume,
and click on the “Defragment” button
d. Wait for the defragmentation to complete. This
may take anywhere from a few seconds to a few
hours depending on the size of the drive and how
fragmented it is. You may need to run this
multiple times for full effect.
e. Repeat for all other host hard drives
2. Set the host video resolution a. Right-click on the desktop Properties
Settings
b. Confirm that the resolution is at least 1024x768
(minimum 1280x1024 recommended) and the
color depth is at least 16 bit
3. Confirm that the system date and a. Open the Control Panel Date and Time
time are correct b. Confirm that the date and time are accurate, if not
correct them
4. Disable Virus Scanning a. Follow the procedures for your antivirus software
to disable any “real-time” scanning of the Hyper-V
processes and the folder where you unpacked the
VM files. See
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961804 for more
details.
5. Convert the dynamic VHD included in 1. Open the Hyper-V Manager on the host
the VM into a static VHD 2. Select the VM in the Virtual Machines pane
3. Click Settings in the Actions pane
4. Choose the Hard Drive under IDE Controller 0 in
If drive space allows, consider doing
the Hardware pane
this conversion. The fixed VHD is
5. Click the Edit button directly below the path of the
considerably larger (135GB) but will VHD file
give better performance.
6. Choose the Convert radio button and click Next
7. Supply a file path and name for the new fixed disk
8. Click Finish and wait for the Edit operation to
complete
9. Click Browse for the VHD file and choose the
fixed VHD just created
10. Click OK to apply the change and close the
settings window
11. Defragment the host drive containing the new
fixed VHD
Start the Virtual Machine
Before each demo session the following steps are necessary to setup the environment.
Tasks Detailed steps
1. Start the “a” Virtual Machine a. Return to or start the Hyper-V Manager
b. Select the Virtual Machine
c. Click Start
d. Click Connect – a Virtual Machine Connection
window should appear
e. Wait for the VM to boot up and reach the login
screen.
2. Start the “b” Virtual Machine a. Return to or start the Hyper-V Manager
(optional) b. Select the Virtual Machine
c. Click Start
d. Click Connect – a Virtual Machine Connection
window should appear
e. Wait for the VM to boot up and reach the login
screen.
f. Close the Virtual Machine Connection window
3. Log in to the VM Image a. Login to the image using the Virtual Machine
Console as the following user:
Note: The Virtual Machine Connection User: administrator
uses Ctrl-Alt-Home instead of the Password: pass@word1
normal Ctrl-Alt-Del sequence for login. Domain: CONTOSO
Stop the Virtual Machine Image
After each demo, the following steps are necessary to reset the environment for the next use.
Tasks Detailed steps
1. Stop the VM Image a. Click Shut Down from either the Virtual Machine
Connection or the Hyper-V.
Snapshots and Saved State
Hyper-V introduces the concept of “snapshots” which can be used to revert a virtual machine to a
previous configuration state. As delivered, this virtual machine does not include any snapshots.
Tasks Detailed steps
1. Create a Snapshot a. Prepare the VM(s) in the state you wish to
capture.
b. Open or return to the Hyper-V Manager
c. Select the VM and click Snapshot under Actions.
d. Wait for the snapshot captures to complete
e. (optional) Select each VM and rename the
snapshots you have just created.
2. Apply a Snapshot a. Open or return to the Hyper-V Manager
b. Select the VM, right-click on the snapshot you
wish to use, and choose Apply. You will be
prompted to save the current state as a snapshot.
Doing so will retain your current state, skipping
will discard it.
Activation and Expiration
NOTE – Activation of the operating system in the virtual machine is OPTIONAL.
Please do NOT perform the following steps unless your initial 10 day evaluation
period expires.
The Virtual Machines contained in this package are un-activated 180 day evaluations. Additionally they
will require activation, or re-arming, after a 10 day period after which they will shut down after 2 hours of
continuous operation.
To reset the activation and/or expiration clocks, you may use the steps in this section.
Tasks Detailed steps
1. “Rearm” the Virtual Machine a. Startup and login to the Virtual Machine
b. Open an elevated (Run as Administrator)
“Rearm” may only be done a limited command prompt
number of times - generally 4 though in c. Run “slmgr –rearm” (no quotes) in the command
some cases less. It is highly prompt
recommended that you use one of the d. Wait for the popup confirmation that the
options in the “Configure Hyper-V for configuration changes are complete
the Virtual Machine” section to avoid
e. Reboot the Virtual Machine
being left without a functioning Virtual
Machine unexpectedly. f. Repeat for all Windows Server 2008 R2 VMs in
the set.
To Activate the Virtual Machine an internet connection is required. To do this, add a second NIC to the
VM using the Hyper-V management console & connect it to an external network connection that has
internet access. Activate Windows from within the VM. Windows will still expire after 180 days, but it will
not prompt for activation or shut down after 2 hours.
