Let’s take a look at this screen, one section at a time. First, you must specify a name for the virtual machine you are now creating. In our case, let’s name it node1. If you don’t enter a path, the virtual machine configuration file (which is what we are actually creating in this step) will be saved in the default path. If you want the virtual machine configuration file stored in another patch, you can manually specify the path.
Second, you must specify the amount of physical memory to allocate to this node. On my host computer, which only as 1 GB of RAM, I have specified 384 MB as the size for node1. Any amount smaller than this will cause the node to run very slowly. The more RAM you can allocate, the better. If you make a mistake here, this will not cause any problems, as you can change the amount of RAM allocated at any time after the virtual machine is created.
Third, you specify the drive “C” for node1, which you created earlier. You do this by selecting “Use an existing virtual hard disk” and pointing to the filename and path of the virtual hard disk.
Fourth, you must specify the “Public” virtual network adapter that you created earlier. Your completed screen should look similar to the one below.
Once you are done, click on “Create” to create the virtual machine configuration file. Once the virtual machine configuration file has been created, you will then see the virtual machine name you just created in the “Master Status” screen of the Virtual Server 2005 Administrator’s Website.
Next, we must configure the virtual SCSI controller, the shared disk, and the private network to be used by this virtual machine. Once we do that, we can then actually begin the installation of Windows 2003 Server as a virtual machine.
To configure the current virtual machine, go to the “Master Status” page and move the cursor over the name of the virtual server. When you do this, a sub-menu appears. Select “Edit Configuration” from the sub-menu. A screen, similar to the one below appears. Note that your screen will probably look somewhat different, as my system most likely is configured differently than yours.
The “Status” part of the screen appears first, and is not of much interest to us now. Our focus is on the “Configuration” part of the screen. It is here where we will create the virtual SCSI adapter, assign the shared disk to the adapter, and also add the private network to this virtual server.