Tuesday, January 25, 2011

MED-V Step by Step Setup Guide | Part 3: MED-V Client and Management Console

This is the last part of MED-V Step by Step Setup Guide which will cover the MED-V Client and Management Console installation. I will perform this installation in a Windows 7 operating system with 1.5 GB of memory. You need to have a machine with minimum of 1.5 GB memory in order to perform this installation. FYI, MED-V Client and Management Console only support Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 with minimum of 1.5 GB memory.

First of all, we’ll need to install Virtual PC 2007 SP1 located inside the MED-V folder and the required updates within the same folder.

After you’ve installed Virtual PC 2007 and all the required updates, execute the MED-V Client installer to kick start the setup. After you executed the installer, a prerequisites will check if you passed all the requirements.

MEDV MGMT 1Click Next on the Welcome page

MEDV MGMT 2Accept the terms in the license agreement and click Next

MEDV MGMT 3Click Next on the Destination Folder page. Of course you can change the location by clicking Change.

MEDV MGMT 4On the MED-V Settings page, tick Install the MED-V Management application and also rename the Server address to you MED-V Server name. For instance, MEDVSVR is my MED-V Server name.

*If you wanted to install the MED-V Client for user only, DON’T tick Install the MED-V management application.

MEDV MGMT 5Click Install to start the installation.

MEDV MGMT 6After the installation completed, un-tick Launch Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization and then click Finish.

Next, launch MED-V Management under All Programs\MED-V to start the MED-V Management Console.

MEDV MGMT 17Enter the User name and Password.

MEDV MGMT 18Now you can manage all the virtualized desktop with this newly installed MED-V Management Console.

Cheers~!!! You have just completed the setup. Sadly that I won’t cover the administration and operation in this MED-V Step by Step Setup Guide, maybe in near future. See you~!!!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Running Virtual PC 2007 Image within a Hyper-V Image

This is interesting!!! I was discussing this topic with bunch of my colleagues, one of my colleagues told me that we cannot run a virtualized image within a virtualized image. He said I watched too much of INCEPTION!!!

Today, I decided to do an investigation on that. I setup a Windows 7 image running in Hyper-V mode and then installed Virtual PC 2007 inside the virtualized Windows 7. I import an existing Windows XP image with the Virtual PC 2007 and then start the image. Guess what!!! It works fantastically!!! =)

This shows that the INCEPTION idea is working, doing virtualization within a virtualized environment…

Saturday, January 22, 2011

MED-V Step by Step Setup Guide | Part 2: Med-V Server Installation & Configuration

Continuing from Part 1, Part 2 will be focus on the server installation and configuration. Most of the configuration will be done on the Web Server (IIS). Before we start, please make sure that you done all the prerequisites shown in Part 1.
We’ll start with the Med-V server installation, double click the Med-V Server.msi.
Click Next on the Welcome screen
Accept the terms in the license agreement, and then click Next
Accept the default destination folder location and then click Next. You may change the location by clicking the Change button.
Click Install to proceed the installation
After the installation completed, un-tick the Launch MED-V Server Configuration Manager and Click Finish.

That’s all, the MED-V Server has been successfully installed. Now, we’ll proceed to the configuration.
Go to the Server Manager, expand Roles, expand Web Server (IIS), click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. Inside the IIS Manager, expand the tabs until you see the Default Web Site like picture above. Right click the Default Web Site and then click on Add Virtual Directory…
Enter the Alias and the Physical path. Click OK once you’re done
Go back to the IIS Manager and you’ll notice that a virtual directory is created after the Alias that you entered. Click on the newly created virtual directory, MEDVImages for my case. Look for MIME Types categorised under IIS, do a double click to enter.
Inside the MIME Types, click Add located under the Actions pane. You’ll need to repeat this step because there are two MIME Type needed to add.
Enter .ckm in the File name extension, and application/octet-stream in the MIME type.
Enter .index in the File name extension, and application/octet-stream in the MIME type.
Go to the IIS Manager, and click MEDVImages again. This time we need to configure the BITS Upload component located under other.
Inside the BITS Uploads, tick the Allow clients to upload files and then click Apply.
Next, Right Click the MEDVImages and select Edit Permissions…
Go to the Security tab and click Edit.
Click Add to add the appropriate groups.
In this instance, I’ll use Everyone.
Make sure that the group is granted to Read permissions.

We’ve done all the configurations needed in the Web Server (IIS), we shall proceed to MED-V Server Configuration Manager to complete the configuration. Launch the MED-V Server Configuration Manager under All Programs\MED-V.
In this instance we will use the default setting, Enable Unencrypted Connections (http), Using Port 80.
Click on the Images tab. Enter the VM Directory which is the physical path you entered during the installation, and also we configured the Web Server (IIS) to use the same directory.
As for the VMs URL, enter http://SERVERNAME/ALIAS. For instance, http://medvsvr/medvimages.
Click on the Permissions tab. You can add the preferred domain users or groups who will need permissions to manage the MED-V Management Server. I’ll accept the default, Everyone.
Click on the Reports tab. Click Create Database. If there is any failure due to administration rights, you may want to modify the Connection String to Data Source=localhost\sqlexpress;Initial Catalog=medv;UID=SA;PWD=P@ssw0rd. The UID is the SQL Server Administrator account while the PWD is the password.
Click OK after the database successfully created.
Click Test Connection to perform the database connection checking.
Click OK after the connection succeeded.
Click OK after you have configured all the configuration on the MED-V Server Configuration Manager. A window like above will be pop out, click Yes.

Good Job!!! You’ve successfully installed and configured the MED-V Server. The MED-V Server is now ready to host the MED-V images. =)

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

MED-V Step by Step Setup Guide | Part 1: Server Setup Prerequisites

In Part 1 of MED-V Step by Step Setup Guide, I’ll be concentrate on the prerequisites for MED-V server setup. First of all, we need to enable Web Server IIS role, followed by features like .NET Framework 3.5.1 and BITS. Lastly, we will install SQL Server 2008 SP2 Express Edition.

Open Server Manager, click Roles, and then click Add Roles

Click Next on the Before You Begin tab

Tick the Web Server IIS role on the Server Roles tab

Click Next on the Web Server (IIS) tab

Scroll down to the Security section and tick the following services:
- Basic Authentication
- Windows Authentication
- Client Certificate Mapping Authentication
Click Next once you’re done

Click Install on the Confirmation tab

Click Close after the installation finished

Go back to the Server Manager and this time click on the Features option

Tick the .NET Framework 3.5.1 features and BITS. A pop-up windows (Refer to below) will appear once you tick the features.

Click Add Required Roles

Click Add Required Roles

Click Next on the Web Server (IIS) tab

Click next on the Role Services tab

Click Install on the Confirmation tab

Click Close once the installation is done

Next, we will proceed to SQL Server installation. MED-V support both SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and SQL Server 2008 Express Edition. In my case, I'm using the SQL Server 2008 SP2 Express Edition. You can download it here.

After the SQL Server finished the extraction, click on the Installation tab. Select the first option, New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation

Click OK on the Setup Support Rules page

Click next on the Product Key tab

Agree the license terms and then click Next

Click Next on the Setup Support Files tab

Click Next on the Setup Support Rules tab

On the Features Selection page, tick the Database Engine Services and then click Next

Click Next on the Instance Configuration tab

Click Next on the Disk Space Requirement page

On the Server Configuration page, select the SQL Server Database Engine Service’ Account Name as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM. Click Next after you’re done.

On the Database Engine Configuration page, Account Provisioning tab, select the Authentication Mode as Mixed Mode (SQL Server authentication and Windows authentication). Enter the complex password, P@ssw0rd for my case. Click Add Current User to specify the SQL Server administrators. Click Next once you’re done.

Click Next on the Error and Usage Reporting page

Click Next on the Installation Rules page

Click Next on the Ready to Install page to proceed the installation

Click Next on the Installation Progress page

Click Close once the installation completed

Hooray… You’ve done all the prerequisites already. Next, we will proceed to Part 2: MED-V Server Installation and Configuration. Stay tuned~!!!