Win385 Advanced Desktop Testing Scenarios With Virtual PC 2004 Robert Larson Subject Area Manager Microsoft Corporation

Agenda Key features for testing Things to watch out for Desktop Testing Scenarios Demo

Terms TermDescription Virtual Machine The virtual hardware environment provided by Virtual PC 2004 Host OS The operating system that is installed on the physical computer Physical Computer The actual hardware that is being used and where Virtual PC 2004 is installed Guest OS The Operating software that is installed on the virtual machine Virtual network A network created in software Virtual Machine Additions Software loaded on the guest operating system that provided increased functionality and performance enhancements Virtual CDROM A CDROM implemented in software that can share the physical computer CDROM or access ISO images VHD Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) is the file on the physical computer that a virtual machine uses as a hard disk and perform all the reads and writes VMC Virtual Machine Configuration (VMC) file is where all the settings for a virtual machine are stored Shared Folders The ability to use a folder on the host as a mapped drive letter in the virtual machine Drag and Drop The ability to drag files or folders between the virtual machine and the host

Key Features For Testing Virtual disk types Undo disks Virtual machine states Networking Command line interface

Virtual Disks Types of virtual disks Dynamically expanding virtual disk Fixed virtual disk Differencing Use a host partition Use a host volume Default is dynamic – 16GB 35KB when created on disk, expands as you write data to it Use Virtual Disk Wizard to pre-create other disk types

Differencing Disks Allows for the creation of a base read-only guest image (parent) that can be shared with unlimited other virtual machines (children) All children store their disk changes in a separate file Can be chained together Once parent is used it cannot be modified without invalidating all children Parent can be placed on DVD or network share

Undo Disks Allows all changes from power-on to be saved, committed or discarded Reboots are not affected Enabled per virtual machine, applies to all disks Writes are made to a separate undo file per disk

Virtual Machine States Running states Pause Save State Turn off Shutdown the Guest OS Undo disks add these states Save State and save changes Save State and commit changes Turn off and Save changes Turn off and discard changes State options are configurable in the guest settings What options are presented Selecting a forced automatic option

Networking Up to 4 NICs per virtual machine Modes Not Connected Local Only (virtual machines only) External NIC Shared NAT Use a MS Loopback adapter to get internal only traffic between host and virtual machine Virtual networking is like a hub with a switched uplink port

Command Line Options Allows modification of some settings during virtual machine launch Allows the modification of parameters when guest is running Great ability to Create shortcuts on the desktop Script the registration of VMC files To start a virtual machine without opening Virtual PC Console: "Virtual PC.exe" –pc Contoso –singlepc –launch To start a virtual machine and specify the asset tag: "Virtual PC.exe" –pc Contoso –launch -setassettag asset_tag

Things To Watch Out For BootingInstallingUsingSecurity

Power-on Cannot attach a virtual CD or floppy until the guest is powered on Pause after power-on, attach, then resume Cannot edit a running virtual machine configuration to change hardware

Additions Virtual Machine Additions provide high levels of integration between the guest and host operating systems; Integration features include: Integrated mouse Time synchronization Cut and Paste Drag and drop Folder Sharing Arbitrary screen resolutions Full integration support is only available for Windows guest operating systems Install from Action->Install Virtual PC Additions Auto-mounts an ISO CDROM image and launches the install

Security Networking Security Virtual machine has a completely different network stack and identify from the host ICF on the host does NOT protect a virtual machine configured for external networking Patching You must patch all virtual machines individually Using Shared NAT or enabling ICF on the guest operating system is a good way to protect the virtual machine until patched

Remote Access Not a concern for local testing Remoting a virtual machine Until virtual machine additions are installed, mouse can keyboard is challenging Can remote desktop to the host and use VPC without issues Can remote to the virtual machines if they support remote control Remote Desktop Remote Assistance NetMeeting 3rd party

Desktop Testing Scenarios Patch Management Application Development and Test Setup and MSI Repackaging OS Deployment Support

Patch Management Maintain standard desktop OS configurations without the hardware investment Test clients for Windows Update Services Easy to build/clone Reduce project costs Reduce project timeline Perform quick what-if scenarios Undo Disks No reimaging Perform chained patch scenarios Differencing drives Easy to discard or integrate

Application Development And Testing Run Visual Studio entirely in a virtual machine Easy to maintain standard configuration of Visual Studio Run in Local Only network mode Isolates the dev environment Test the next version of Visual Studio No need to dedicate a machine Easy deployment (have someone else build the test machine, sysprep, clone it, and copy to the developers machines) Run your test clients Test setup routines Test multiple builds off the same configuration Test web applications against different versions of a web browser Easily test multiple authentication options Test network bandwidth usage

MSI Setup And Repackaging Setup Test your Visual Studio setup routines Repackaging Toughest problem = rebuilding base packaging box Undo disks make it fast and painless Enable Undo disks Power on virtual machine Perform repackaging procedures Copy off package files Turn off and discard changes Power on virtual machine and start next package

OS Deployment Planning a deployment of Windows XP Test your deployment method UnattendedImaging Remote Installation Services (RIS) Test bandwidth usage Planning to deploy Longhorn Test the new deployment features

Application Deployment SMS 2003 package deployment Methodology Distribution testing Compatibility testing OS Coexistence with other applications Network bandwidth Understand the network impacts ProceduresStep-by-stepScripted

Support Microsoft Windows desktop testing library Single install that can be shared (within licensing constraints) Easy to build a new base virtual machine Process Build a set of base OS configurations Place them on a server with fast disk and network access Recommend a dedicated network interface Build differencing drives on your local machine using the library as read-only parents Place them in a folder with each machine as a subfolder Enable NTFS compression Add them to the VPC console Local Only networking or sysprep to prevent collisions Optionally enable undo disks

Features In Use

Attend a free chat or web cast List of newsgroups communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx MS Community Sites Locate Local User Groups Community sites

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