In this section, we will cover the hardware and software prerequisites, as well as other information that will help you get the most out of this cookbook.
Necessary Hardware to Follow Along
In order to learn the basics of using Virtual Server and Virtual Machine Manager, you will need the following hardware in your test environment when going through this cookbook:
Two (2) physical servers
The first physical server, DC_SRV, will host Virtual Server and System Center Virtual Machine Manager, and it must have one of the following operating systems installed on it:
• Windows Server® 2003 Standard Edition (x86 or x64 Edition) or Enterprise Edition (x86 or x64 Edition), R2 SP1
To best ensure the responsiveness of the environment and to shorten the wait time for installations to complete, the server should have these recommended characteristics:
• 2 gigabytes (GB) RAM
• 2 GHz or faster CPU
• 10 GB free hard drive space
• 1 NIC
The second physical server, MEMBER_SRV1, represents your production workload that will undergo P2V migration. It must have the following operating system installed on it:
• Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition, SP1 or later.
Note: SCVMM does not support 64-bit guest operating systems.
For specific system requirements and recommendation information, consult the Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager sections later in this cookbook.
Note: It is possible to follow along in this test scenario using Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server with SP4 on the physical server representing your production workload (MEMBER_SRV1). The steps to follow are identical, though you will need to add required hotfixes. You will also need to install the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for a successful P2V migration. Also note that your Windows 2000 Server must have SP4 installed in order for the migration to the virtual machine to work.
You may also consider deploying the solution outlined in this cookbook in your production environment on Dell® hardware. Dell PowerEdge™ Servers are available in a wide variety of configurations to meet any price or performance need. Dell servers carry Microsoft certification, so finding a Dell server to meet your Virtual Server needs is simple. Dell also offers energy-smart servers to reduce the overall power and cooling costs in your datacenter.
Dell can pre-install your Windows® operating system (OS) on a Dell PowerEdge Server. If you choose pre-installation, you also get Dell-customized Windows OS recovery media. Guest operating systems installed using the Dell-customized Windows OS recovery media will not prompt for a license key during installation and will not prompt for operating system activation after the installation. Dell OpenManage™ Suite works with Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 and Microsoft® System Center Operations Manager 2007 to help simplify management of your virtualized data center. To learn more, see the white paper in the August 2007 edition of Dell Power Solutions magazine.
Test Topology
In the course of the going through this cookbook, you will install Microsoft Virtual Server R2 SP1 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager on the physical server DC_SRV. You will then use SCVMM to migrate the physical server MEMBER_SRV1 to a virtual machine hosted on DC_SRV. Figure 1 shows the test topology, and Table 1 describes the physical machines used in the test environment for this cookbook.
Note: When you perform the P2V conversion, the size of the virtual machine you create will be equal to the size of the physical machine you started with. You must therefore ensure that the host computer has enough space to accommodate the virtual machine.

Figure 1 Test topology

DC_SRV MEMBER_SRV1
Operating system Windows Server 2003 R2
Standard Edition SP2 Windows Server 2003 R2
Standard Edition SP2
Memory 2 GB 512 MB
IP addressing information 10.0.0.1 10.0.0.2
Installed services DNS, DHCP None
Physical or virtual Physical Physical (will be migrated to virtual)
Host server DC_SRV, after migration
Domain name contoso.com contoso.com
Table 1 Computer configurations for the cookbook test environment
Note: You can also use Windows 2000 Server with SP4 on MEMBER_SRV1. The steps to follow will be identical, with the exception of adding required hotfixes. This will be explained at the appropriate step.
The topology we will use in this test scenario for SCVMM, called the standalone topology because all components are housed on one physical server, is only one way in which SCVMM can be configured. For standard data center environments, SCVMM offers a management solution that monitors and controls virtual machines running on co-located servers. In these scenarios, SCVMM is most advantageously paired with other Microsoft® System Center products, such as Microsoft® System Center Data Protection Manager, System Center Configuration Manager, and System Center Operations Manager. For an enterprise environment, SCVMM supports management of hosts on a perimeter network (also known as DMZ, demilitarized zone, or screened subnet) and also supports the utilization of a remote clustered database.
Figure 2 shows the topology of the DC_SRV physical server, which hosts Virtual Server and the virtual machines created. It also hosts System Center Virtual Machine Manager, which installs Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 Express Edition, a library, Windows PowerShell™, the Administrator Console, a delegated provisioning UI, and the SCVMM agent. The glossary that follows gives further description of these components.

Figure 2 Topology for DC_SRV
Production Network Topology
The test scenario presented in this cookbook takes you through the steps for P2V migration of Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Server SP4 using SCVMM. In a real-world production environment, you may have previous applications in one of these environments. If you have applications in other environments, you may need to use the Microsoft® Virtual Server Migration Toolkit (VSMT) or other project-based P2V migration tools.
SCVMM requires Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 for its database, and it will install SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP1 by default. If you have an existing instance of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition SP1 or SP2, or SQL Server Standard Edition SP1 or SP2, you can use it instead; refer to the SQL Server product documentation for minimum hardware requirements.
In a production environment, it is common to have a separate server to act as your library server, the server which houses the “building blocks” of your virtual infrastructure (virtual machines, virtual hard disks, CD/DVD media/ISO images, post deployment customization scripts, hardware configurations, and templates). This gives you additional flexibility and storage space.
Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1
Virtual Server provides for the isolation of each server workload and for consolidation of workloads onto fewer physical machines. In this section, we will outline the requirements and considerations for this powerful technology.
Virtual Server 2005 R2 Glossary
Here are some of the basic terms concerning virtual machines in general and Virtual Server in particular that you will encounter repeatedly in this cookbook.
guest operating system
The operating system running on a virtual machine.
host computer
The physical computer running the Virtual Server service.
Microsoft® Internet Information Services (IIS)
A powerful Web server that provides a highly reliable, manageable, and scalable Web application infrastructure for all versions of Windows Server 2003. IIS helps organizations increase Web site and application availability while lowering system administration costs.
virtual hard disk
For Virtual Server and Virtual PC, a file, referred to as a .vhd file, which provides storage for a virtual machine. The .vhd file can reside on any storage topology that the host operating system can access, including external devices, storage area networks, and network-attached storage.
virtual machine
Essentially a computer within a computer, implemented in software. A virtual machine emulates a complete hardware system, from processor to network card, in a self-contained, isolated software environment, enabling the simultaneous operation of otherwise incompatible operating systems. Each operating system runs in its own isolated software partition.
Virtual Machine Additions (VM Additions)
Software drivers that maximize performance and provide a better user interface (UI) experience within a virtual machine. Virtual Machine Additions are available for the following guest operating systems:
• Windows Server 2003 R2 (all versions)
• Windows Server 2003 (all versions)
• Windows® XP (all versions)
• Windows 2000 Server
• Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Professional
• Microsoft® Windows® Millennium Edition (ME)
• Microsoft® Windows® NT Server 4.0 with Service Pack 6a (SP6a)
• Microsoft® Windows® 98
• Microsoft® Windows® 95
Virtual Machine Remote Control (VMRC)
A feature of Virtual Server that enables a running virtual machine to be managed remotely.
Virtual Server 2005 R2 System Requirements
The server hosting your virtual machines should conform to the following requirements and recommendations:
Minimum CPU speed 550 MHz
Recommended CPU speed 1.0 GHz or higher
Processor information • Intel Celeron, Pentium III, Pentium 4, or Xeon
• AMD Opteron, Athlon, Athlon 64, Athlon X2, Sempron, Duron Core Duo, or Duron Core 2 Duo processor
Supported host operating systems • Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, Datacenter Edition, or later versions
• Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition, Enterprise x64 Edition, Datacenter x64 Edition, or later versions
Minimum RAM 256 MB (additional memory needed for each guest operating system)
Required available hard-disk space 2 GB (additional disk space needed for each guest operating system)
Table 2 Virtual Server R2 system requirements
Note: Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 can also be installed on Windows® Small Business Server 2003 Standard Edition or Premium Edition, and Windows XP® Professional SP2 or later. System Center Virtual Machine Manager, however, must be installed on Windows Server 2003 SP1 or later.
Licensing Considerations
The license for Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition, or later versions on the server hosting your virtual machines enables you to run up to four instances of Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, or later versions as the operating systems for those virtual machines, at no extra cost.
The license for Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition, Windows Server 2003 Datacenter x64 Edition, or later versions on the server hosting your virtual machines enables you to run an unlimited number of instances of Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, Datacenter Edition, or later versions as the operating systems for those virtual machines, at no extra cost.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager
We will use System Center Virtual Machine Manager to perform the P2V migration of workloads. SCVMM is a core application that communicates with the virtual machine hosts and maintains the system information in a SQL Server 2005 database. The SCVMM server runs on either a 64-bit or 32-bit version of a Windows Server 2003-based R2 server, and can scale to manage hundreds of virtual machine hosts running thousands of virtual machines. Table 3 gives the system recommendations for SCVMM.
Processor information Pentium 4 2.8 GHz
Supported host operating systems Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, Datacenter Edition, or later versions
Minimum RAM 2 GB
Required available hard-disk space 80 GB
Table 3 System Center Virtual Machine Manager system recommendations
Virtual Machine Manager Glossary
Here are some of the basic terms concerning Virtual Machine Manager that you will encounter in this cookbook.
library server
Holds stored virtual machines, virtual hard disks, ISO files (CD/DVD software images), post-deployment customizations scripts, hardware configurations, and templates. The library provides a single interface for all of these virtualization building blocks.
migration
A term used to describe the upgrade of software applications to newer, more robust IT platforms and technologies. Migration is also referred to as legacy transformation. Migration aims to retain and extend the value of the legacy investment.
Microsoft® .NET Framework
A software component that can be added to or is included with the Windows operating system. It provides a large body of pre-coded solutions to common program requirements, and it manages the execution of programs written specifically for the framework. It is required by SCVMM.
Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML)
A set of services that allows applications written in Jscript®, VBScript, and other development tools to build Windows-native XML-based applications required by SCVMM. It supports XML 1.0, DOM, and other XML-related technologies.
Windows PowerShell
An extensible command-line interface (CLI) shell and scripting language based on object-oriented programming and on the Microsoft® .NET Framework version 2.0. It is the foundation for the administrative tools for SCVMM (as well as for Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 and System Center Operations Manager 2007), where the administrative GUI is layered on top of the CLI.
Windows Remote Management Services (WinRM)
The Microsoft implementation of WS-Management Protocol, a standard Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)-based, firewall-friendly protocol that allows hardware and operating systems from different vendors to interoperate. WinRM is required by SCVMM.