I have started playing with VMware because I needed to set up a test environment to play with zEntity. I tried a Windows Server 2008 install in VirtualBox on a Windows 7 host, but was getting some strange crashes. A passing consultant recently recommended VMware to me, and it seems we already have a VMware ESXi server running so I might as well get used to it.
The potential benefit here is that I can create and run a virtual machine locally and then move it off to the server if I want to keep it semi-permanently.
The consultant recommended VMware Server (which is actually a desktop product), but it seems this is reaching its end of life very soon. The internet recommends VMware Workstation as a replacement, but it’s a pay-for product and I’m just playing with it at this point. VMware Player seems to be the way to go – the current version allows a virtual machine so be created (I’m guessing earlier versions didn’t, hence ‘Player’). Very confusing nomenclature.
As I have access to an Action Pack I can get hold of install disks for lots of Microsoft stuff – they come with a variety of trial periods so there’s no immediate issue with licenses, and if we decide to keep something we have budget to get licenses after the trial. My laptop has some Roxio disk burning software bundled with it so I have used that to copy the install disks to the hard drive as ISO images which can then be mounted into the virtual machine and installed from. Handy if I need to reinstall as I won’t need to get the physical disk again.
It seems that Windows 2008 Server R2 is 64-bit only. I’m running 32-bit Windows 7 Ultimate on a Dell Precision M6400, which has 4GB RAM and a Core 2 Duo CPU @ 2.26 GHz. VMware doesn’t seem phased by this and happily lets me create a blank Virtual Machine (VM) and install Windows 2008 Server R2 from the ISO. It defaults to the Data Centre Edition for some reason, so I delete it and start again, this time choosing the Standard Edition.
I got the server installed and found 54 updates waiting. No problem – I let those install. It stops at update 31. Just sits there. Downloading, it says, but nothing happens. I cancel the download and ask it to reboot. It quits my desktop and starts installing the 31 updates. This never completes. The screen is updating the status dots, but the install is stuck. I cycle the power to the VM and it comes back up. I carry on installing updates and also install SQL Server 2008. Another update sticks. Cycling the power won’t unstick it – it refuses to download it. The Server Manager also won’t show me what roles or features are installed or let me add more. This is going to be a problem as I need to get IIS running and I didn’t install it yet.
Eventually I decide to start again and delete the VM. This time I give the VM 2GB of RAM – the first attempt only had the default 1GB. I also decide to install updates in batches of ~10 – earliest first and with a reboot between each batch. I’m only installing the ‘important’ updates – I ignored the optional ones previously and will do so again for now. The following table summarises the sets of updates that were applied.
| Date range | Updates |
| 2009 | 3 |
| Jan-Jun 2010 | 9 |
| Jul-Nov 2010 | 11 |
| Dec 2010 | 10 |
| Jan-Mar 2011 | 6 |
| Apr 2011 | 10 |
| May 2011 | 2 |
I opt to leave IE 9 uninstalled for now and I also install the Security Update for .Net Framework 3.5.1 and the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool update individually at the end.
This appears to have worked. All the updates went on without me needing to manually power-cycle the VM and the Roles and Features stuff in Server Manager is still operational.
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