Server Preparation
Basic Steps: Installing Windows 2008 R2 on VMWARE (Virtual machine)
Create sub-folder called Red Beans (All Virtual machines will reside here ) and than create 3 different sub-folder as shown below.
Example F:\Virtual machines\Red Beans
Steps to create a Virtual machine (FlatFile_40) that will be used later to build other server (DC, SP2010, E2007) by cloning this VM (FlatFile_40).
Open VMware and Select "New Virtual Machine"
The new virtual machine wizard is opening
Choose the option "Installer disc image file” and browse to existing windows 2008 R2 Binaries (ISO file located on hard disk).
The wizard will detect automatically the OS version and will start easy install.
The wizard will retrieve automatically your user account.
Windows product key: Blank
Full Name: Administrator
Password: Password1
Click OK to the warning message
Choose your Virtual machine name (FlatFile_40) and specify correct location. F:\Virtual machines\Red Beans\FlatFile_40
On this screen below select these values (Select maximum disk size = 40 GB)
The Wizard summarize your settings but you can still change some by clicking "Customize Hardware...". Especially the RAM allocated to the Virtual Machine.
Change the memory to 6 GB below
When you click "Finish", the installation begins by loading the files.
Then, you have to choose the version of your Operating System.
Do not choose a Web Server version otherwise you will not be able to add an "Application Server" role to the server later.
Choose the Full Installation of the Enterprise Version.
The Easy install will install the OS automatically and in my case it did it in approximately 30 minutes!
Connect the virtual machine to internet (FlatFile_40)
Click on Virtual machine > Setting > network adapter > Select NAT
Do the windows updates.
Now your VM is ready to be cloned as DC, SP2010, and E2007. Before cloning make sure you run sysprep on windows server 2008 server (flatfile_40 ) VM
With VM powered ON... Go to this location C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep and double click on sysprep.exe
c:\Windows\System32\sysprep\sysprep.exe
The experience is also streamlined considerably. Simply run sysprep.exe above and you are presented with:
Check the “Generalize” checkbox (regenerates system SID), change the Shutdown Options to “Shutdown”, and click OK.
