Kick Your Mobile ADS Solution Up a Notch

The Configure Components page, which Figure 1, shows, lets you specify a different default port for the Virtual Server Administration Website. However, in this case, you should leave the default, which is port 1024. Also leave the default option of Configure the Administration Website to always run as the authenticated user selected. (You'd select the option to run the Administration Website as Local System account if the Administration Website needs to be hosted on a server separate from the Virtual Server service.) Click Next.

Click Install to start the Virtual Server 2005 R2 installation. During the installation, you'll briefly loose network connectivity while the network drivers are being installed. After the installation is complete, you should receive a Web page with installation notes and links to the local installation. Click Finish to close the setup program.

Virtual Server 2005 R2 is now installed, but there is one configuration change that needs to be made because of Microsoft Internet Explorer's (IE's) heightened security configuration. If you're running Windows 2003 SP1 and you attempt to load the Virtual Server Administration Website, you'll be prompted for credentials, even if you're logged on as the local administrator. Although you can still use the Administration Website, having to enter your credentials every time you connect to it and every time you use the Virtual Machine Remote Control client can quickly get annoying.

To eliminate the prompts for credentials, you need to add the mobile server's URL (in this case, http://mobilep2v) to the Local intranet security zone in IE. By default, this zone is configured to automatically provide credentials (if requested) when accessing a Web site. Open an IE window, and choose Internet Options on the Tools menu. On the Security tab, click the Local intranet icon to modify its settings. You should have the security level set to the default of medium-low. To add the mobile server's URL to the Local intranet zone, click the Sites button, then click the Advanced button. As Figure 2, shows, enter the URL and click Add.

Step 3: Install VSMT 1.1
The next step in expanding the mobile ADS solution is to install VSMT 1.1. VSMT 1.1 is included in ADS 1.1, which you downloaded when you created the basic mobile ADS solution. So, VSMT 1.1 should already be in the C:\temp directory on MobileP2V. If you didn't previously install ADS 1.1, you can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/management/ads/default.mspx. Extract the contents to the C:\temp directory on MobileP2V. Note that you can't install ADS 1.1 on a 64-bit version of Windows 2003 or on Windows XP.

Follow these steps to install VSMT:

1. Double-click the C:\temp\vsmt\vsmt_setup.msi file to start the installation. On the Welcome page, click Next.
2. Review the EULA. If you accept the terms, select the Accept option and click Next.
3. Select the Full installation option and click Next.
4. Click Install. After the installation completes, click Next to close the setup program.

At this point, VSMT is installed. However, I recommend that you perform two more tasks: create the default virtual network to make sure that VSMT successfully performs migrations and load Virtual Server Additions to improve image deployment performance.

Step 4: Create the Default Virtual Network
When VSMT performs a physical machine to virtual machine migration, it will, by default, assign the virtual machine to use a virtual network named VM0. However, the VSMT installation program doesn't create this virtual network because it can't assume VSMT will be installed on the same computer as Virtual Server 2005 R2. So, the VSMT installation program leaves it up to you to create the virtual network.

In migration scripts, you can use the /vsHostNet command-line option to specify a different virtual network to use for a migration. However, if you fail to specify this option and the default VM0 virtual network doesn't exist, the deployment will fail. For this reason, I recommend that you create the default virtual network, even if you don't think you'll use it.

To create the VM0 virtual network, you can use the Virtual Server Administration Website or run the createvirtualnetwork.vbs script that VSMT provides. To run the script, open a command-shell window and type

cscript "C:\Program Files\ 
  Microsoft VSMT\Samples\ 
  createvirtualnetwork.vbs" 

(The column width forces us to wrap this command here, but you'd type it all on one line in the command-shell window.)