SCVMM 2008’s Virtual Machine Templates

The final step, Select Path, is a bit confusing. You might wonder why, if a VM template is a database object, this step asks for a share location in the library. This location is where the VHD that you associate with the template will be stored. To minimize confusion, I recommend that you create a subfolder in the VHD folder, called Template VHDs. This way, when you view the library via the file system you can easily see these VHDs' purpose. Confirm your settings, and click OK to begin the template creation. Figure 4 shows how the VM is stepped through the Sysprep process during template creation.

Now that we have a template, we can use it to create a new Windows 2003 R2 x64 VM. With the W2K3R2x64 template highlighted, click New Virtual Machine in the Actions pane to launch the New Virtual Machine wizard. (Alternatively, you can right-click the stored W2K3R2x64 template in the Library view and select New Virtual Machine.) For this article, I used W2K3R2x64-1 as the new VM's identity. As you progress through the wizard, you can make different hardware choices and choose a different guest OS profile—but if you just click Next, the wizard will use the values from the hardware and software profiles you incorporated into the template. Select the host on which you'll deploy the new VM (I deployed the VM to HANSHI) and select the path on the host where the VM will be stored. If you previously configured the default VM path, you can just click Next. Select the network interface on the host you want to use, and indicate what actions the VM should take when the host server starts and stops. In the Summary screen you can choose to automatically start the VM after it's been deployed to the host server. Click Finish to start the VM creation.

If you encounter a problem working with a VM in SCVMM that requires repair outside of SCVMM (e.g., in Hyper-V), right-click the VM, select Repair, then select the Ignore radio button to dismiss the failed state and simply refresh the VM's status within SCVMM. Hyper-V networking can be confusing. SCVMM has a "view networking" feature that shows you a graphical representation of how a VM is connected to the host and network. You can even broaden the scope to show the network configuration of all the VMs on the host. Using this feature is helpful for ensuring that you configured networking correctly in case you have connectivity problems.

SCVMM's VM template feature lets you quickly and consistently provision VMs. Although you might be tempted to start creating VMs within minutes of installing SCVMM, I recommend that you take the time to understand VM templates first. Then, gather your requirements for both VM hardware configurations and OS profile types. Use these requirements to create appropriate hardware profiles and guest OS profiles. Copy your stable of ISO disk images to the VMM library, and consider using a feature such as DFSR to keep all your libraries in sync with one another.

Once you have all the building blocks in place, create and configure template VMs of each OS type, and perhaps even for configurations within types. Clone them for safekeeping into the VMM library, then create VM templates from these template VMs. With the resulting library of preconfigured templates, you can quickly provision VMs when the need arises. Just don't forget to manage these VMs through their complete life cycle, which includes storing them back in the VMM library or decommissioning them when they're no longer needed.