Complete Hyper-V based lab on your laptop part 1

All the stars have aligned to make it relatively easy to have an enterprise level lab on a single machine. In this two-part article I will explain how to set up a full Hyper-V based windows domain test enviroment.

The Hardware

For a long time hardware has outpaced software, and we now have powerful enough consumer machines  to run one or more VM’s on something as portable as a laptop. I used a Dell Precision M4400 with an Intel CORE 2 duo @ 2.54GHZ, 320GB HD and 4GbB of ram. This should work on any other machine with similar specs.

The Software

Microsoft has made software easily available for people interested in learning Microsoft products through programs like DreamSpark and Technet. DreamSpark is program aimed at students that allows them to download fully licensed copies of software, they would otherwise not be able to afford, all completely free. Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2003 are all part of the DreamSpark program. Technet is aimed at professionals who are looking to extend their skills and get knee deep in Microsoft technologies. With subscriptions starting as low as $199.,00 for a one year subscription, subscribers have access to a vast array of fully functional licensed Microsoft Products including Windows 7, Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2. For this lab I used Windows Server 2008 R2.

Installing Server 2008 R2 on a VHD

With Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 you have the option to boot of a VHD. This allows you to keep your current configuration intact and dual boot  Server 2008 and your current Windows 7 installation without having to partition your disk.

We will first create a virtual disk using diskpart, mount it and install Windows Server 2008 on the virtual disk.

1. Create a folder in your c: drive and name it VHDS
2. Open a command prompt and type DISKPART and hit enter.
3. Once in diskpart type SEL DISK 0 and hit enter.
4. Once the disk has been selected type CREATE VDISK FILE=C:\VHDS\WINDOWS2008R2.VHD MAXIMUM=100000 TYPE=EXPANDABLE and hit enter. This will create a 100GB expandable virtual disk.
5. Once the disk has successfully been created. Boot  your machine from the Windows 2008 R2 DVD.
6. Click next on the language selection screen and hit SHIFT+F10 on the next screen.
7. This will bring up Windows PE command prompt. Type DISKPART and hit enter.
8. Type SELECT VDISK FILE=c:\VHDS\WINDOWS2008R2.VHD and hit enter.
9. After the disk has been successfully selected Type: ATTACH VDISK and hit enter.
10. After the disk has been successfully attached Type: CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY and hit enter.
11. After the partition has been successfully created Type: FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK and hit enter.
12. Once the formatting has completed successfully Type: EXIT and hit enter, to get out of diskpart.
13. At the command prompt Type SETUP.EXE and hit enter. This will launch the setup window.
14. Click on Install at the setup windows and agree to the license.
15. Select custom installation and you should see the 100 GB drive available, select it and click next
16. At this point Server 2008 R2 should install on the VHD we created.

Once the installation has completed, the boot loader will display both the current Windows 7 installation  and the new Windows Server 2008 installation.

In part 2 I will go over virtual networking, installing Active Directory, DNS and DHCP.