Virtual Exchange Test Bed Part 1
We will be installing VMWare Player onto windows to install ESXi, on top of that we will then install 2 instances of Windows Server 2008R2, one running as a Domain Controller and the other running Windows Exchange 2010. As you can read above we will install virtual machines into a virtual machine so this is far from good for a productions environment where I would suggest to install EXSi directly onto physical hardware. This will however work very well as a test bed to learn with.
I will attempt to cover everything in a way that should make sense to all. If you are unsure of any part or have any questions please do use the comments section.
Software Used
1) VMWare Player Version 4 (Free)
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_player/4_0
2) EXSi V5 (Free Basic License)
https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/index.php
3) Vsphere 5 (Free)
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/datacenter_cloud_infrastructure/vmware_vsphere/5_0
4) Windows Server 2008R2 (Free Trial)
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/windows-server/2008-r2-trial.aspx
5) Microsoft Exchange Server (120 Day Free Trial)
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=21570
If you plan to follow this write-up then I suggest getting everything to hand including all downloads and a copy of Windows Server.
Hardware Used was a Samsung RV520 Laptop with the following spec:
1) 8GB DDR3 Memory
2) Intel I3 2310 Quad Core 2.1Ghz
3) 500GB Hard Drive
3) Running Windows 7 SP1 64bit
Right lets get to it….
Installing VMWare Player/Create your first Virtual Machine
VM Player is a simple install using the above linked download, installation can take roughly 10 minutes and you will be prompted to restart your computer when it has completed.
Upon running the software for the first time you will see a screen like the image below.
To create your virtual environment clicked the ‘Create New Virtual Machine’ button (I’m sure you saw that coming).
1) At the first screen we will select to install from an ISO (If you are not already aware an ISO file is like a disk image). Browse to the location that you Download ESXi 5 and select it.
2) At the second screen the name of your Virtual Machine will automatically be filled, so press next (You can change the location if you wish to). Here you will be asked for a HDD size for this virtual machine. Remember that on this machine you will be installing 2 instances of windows server. I chose a HDD size of 80GB and had no problems with space, this can always be increased at a later date. I also suggest to split the virtual disk into multiple files, this can make moving around in the future easier, although there can be a performance impact it would not be noticed on a drive of our size.
3) At the next screen you are given a brief description of what you are about to setup. optionally you can press the customize hardware button and remove the floppy drive and USB controller as this will not be needed, In this screen you can also specify the amount of memory and CPU cores that are assigned to your virtual environment. I suggest 2 cores and 4GB of memory, again this can be changed later if needed.
In this screen you can also change the network card type, there are three options to choose from:
1) Bridged: This uses a connection to your network like any other physical machine, for example your home router will show this as a separate machine with its own IP address.
2) NAT: Although this will get an ‘outside’ connection it actually uses your hosts Network card to transmit traffic, this means that it ‘shares’ the IP address of your host machine (in my case this is my laptop).
3) Host Only: The machine will not get an outside connection and can only be contacted via your host machine
I chose a connection type of Bridged as I may want to have my setup available to other physical machines on my network.
So conclude by this point we have created a virtual machine running in VMWare Player ready to install ESXi with 2 assigned CPU Cores and 4GB of memory.
In Part 2 I will go through the installation of ESXi and installing Windows Server 2008R2 on this platform using VSphere 5.
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