As mentioned in a previous post we are using Virtual PCs for MS Exchange training. Here are some details.
The computer is a Dell Dimension 3000
2.8GHz with 2GB RAM
XP Pro SP2
The hard drive is swappable so each class can have its own drive.
The ones we used had 3 partitions
C:\ 5.28GB
D:\ 9.78GB
E:\ 59.4GB with the images amd their backups (1.4GB each)
We used Windows Virtual PC, but since it is provided by Microsoft that makes sense.
I have some pictures:
The control panel shows the different images available and includes a view of what is happening on the screen for that virtual computer.
This shows some details about one of the computers.
The icons at the bottom left under the start button tell you how the virtual system is connecting to the hardware. When both servers (Server 2003 with Exchange 2003 and one of them was the Domain Controller) and the client (XP Pro) running it was interesting to see all three of them light up as they communicated together.
You should check out VMWare. I haven’t tried it recently, but my understanding is that it is now free. Check out this post for more info.
http://jpowell.blogs.com/jason_powell_church_it/2006/02/free_vmware_ser.html
Hey Chris.
I have been looking into it and the teacher recommended doing virtualization for servers. He did recommend the also now free Windows Virtual Server since it is better built for the server environment. In fact, the Servers we were using griped about being in the virtualized environment, but he said that doesn’t happen with the virtual systems meant for that.