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I have mentioned how I use Microsoft’s Virtual Server to create hosts for different projects. So I thought I would write a howto showing how to get Virtual Server up and running. I took screenshots of the whole process and describe some useful features that I use. There are several different virtualization products, but I think the Virtual Server is one of the better ones. It is also free too.
First download Virtual Server from Microsoft’s web site.

You will need IIS installed host computer for the virtual server administration website. IIS can be installed by opening up Add/Remove Programs in the control panel, select windows components from the bar on the left. Select IIS. When you click next it will ask for your windows disk and install IIS.

Then start the virtual server setup program. This series of screenshots shows the whole setup process. Its pretty simple, just select next for everything. The last screen shows what you will see if everything goes right. Click any image for full size.

To setup a new host:

Click on Create in the virtual machines section. You will see a screen like this:

Here you can give the virtual machine a name, setup how much ram, connect it to a network, and add a hard drive.

Then insert your windows xp cd into your hard drive and boot up the new virtual computer. It will boot off the cd and start windows setup.

After windows is setup be sure to install the Virtual Machine Additions from the status page. This will allow you to integrate the virtual machine with the physical host.

To access your virtual machines you use the Virtual Machine Remote Control Client. This utility is very similar to windows remote desktop, except that it show the console. To use this you must first enable the Remote control Server. The property page for this can be found by going to Server Properties, and then Remote control Server properties. Click enable and ok to enable remote control.

Then open up the client and connect to your machines by entering this long goofy string. I wish they would make it as easy as just entering a name. But this does allow this client to open virtual machines on other servers.

Other features
One of virtual servers features is the ability to have different networks. These are each bound to either an externally connected network interface or to an internal network. Virtual machines connected to an external network can access other virtual and physical machines on the same network. The internal network can also be setup to allow you to have virtual networks that don’t connect to the outside.

Virtual server has the ability to allocate cpu resources among different virtual machines. This can reserve cpu cycles for a specific virtual machine. This can be helpful if you have multiple virtaul machines all vying for cpu. If you have a multiple cpu system a single virtual machine can not use more than one cpu however.

Virtual server can create virtual hard and floppy disks. These are stored on the hard drive as .vhd and .vfd files. A useful feature is the Linked Virtual Hard Drive. This is a virtual hard drive that is linked to a physical drive. This is an easy way to have your virtual machine acces your host hard drive for file copying.

Microsoft’s Virtual Server is a great (free!) tool for create and running multiple machines. I have used it many times to create test networks, dedicate a virtual machine for an app, run honeypots, web servers, and anything you need an extra computer for. You can run any operating system you want with it too. I have virtual machines with Linux, BeOS, Plan9, QNX, and even Windows 1.01.