Unfortunately, Lightroom 3′s catalog is essentially a database of photos, and the more you put in it, the more slowly it will run. In this case, the MacBook Pro’s stock 320GB 5400 RPM hard drive just isn’t cutting the mustard. Simple actions like scrolling through images from the last import can be painful. Using Firefox or Chrome while importing makes everything crawl, and I’m forced to look for entertainment in Meat Space. The horror!

I know, “it can’t be that bad” is what you’re thinking. It is. Imports can take up to an hour. While on vacation, the last thing I want to be doing is waiting for imports of photos I’ve already taken while I could be out taking more photos.

I mentioned the fact that I use Windows 7 on the MBP. This is via either Boot Camp or VMware Fusion (running the Boot Camp partition). Things work swimmingly in Boot Camp, but I really have to be careful in Fusion because many of the newer Mac applications are RAM-hungry, and you start paging to disk quickly. Since the disk is so slow, you’re at a standstill within minutes.

So the problem essentially boils down to two things, both of which could have been resolved at time of purchase had I looked into the specs a bit further.

1. Not enough memory
2. Hard drive too slow

Costs add up

The memory upgrade, direct from Apple, via their online store, is a whopping $420. The hard drive upgrade from 320GB 5400 RPM to 500GB 7200 RPM is $158. Together I would have shelled out $578 in order to get the system where I think it needs to be.

Enter the Apple Technician

In the not-so-distant past, I repaired Apple laptops for a certified depot. It used to be pretty difficult as some of the Mac laptops had an inordinate amount of screws of varying sizes and dizzying teardown diagrams. I would say I was competent, but it really wasn’t something enjoyable. That said, I have been out of the game for a bit, and things have seemingly gotten much easier for the majority of Apple laptops. Often, you can simply remove the bottom case to gain access to wireless cards, Bluetooth, SuperDrive, hard drive and memory. And such is the case with the Macbook Pro 15″ i5.

Using the diagrams found at iFixIt, I was able to confirm that only a little bit of work would be needed to perform the upgrades. That means I save money on labour, which isn’t cheap.

Price Comparison

I was able to source hard drives at the 500GB capacity ranger running at 7200RPM for very cheap. I’d be looking at around $80, worst case. But being spoiled on other computers running solid state drives, I thought I should look into the option of adding an SSD instead. Though they have come down in price, getting larger capacity SSD drives can run upwards of $400 easily. Ouch. I decided to settle on one of Seagate’s newly-released “hybrid” drives that combine 4GB of superfast SSD with 500GB of traditional rotating platter storage. This should hopefully give me the best of both worlds. The cost? About $140. That’s definitely a few dollars less than the “off the shelf” Apple price, though it’s also double the cost of a typical 500GB 2.5″ hard disk. But speed is the issue to address, and I’m confident the HDD will address that. My only concern will be the speed of the platters may produce noise.

The memory for a MacBook Pro i5 is slightly harder to find. It took some poking around to find the exact speed and latency of the chips, as I want to make sure the logic board won’t complain, and no unforeseen issues would be introduced. After looking at Kingston’s website, I was able to deduce that the full specifications of the RAM are as follows:

• Format – 204 pin SODIMM
• Speed – PC3-8500 / DDR3 1066MHz
• Latency – 7-7-7-20

This is not cheap memory. We’re talking high speed, high density, low latency RAM. After searching high and low, I came across some Mushkin RAM that was Mac certified. I wasn’t even aware that Mushkin made Mac certified RAM, but boy was I happy. The cost for an 8GB pair of 4GB SODIMM modules was only $260! In case you’re interested, the part number is “996644″, and I still don’t see a better deal from ANY vendor for memory this fast with timings this tight. Even for PC.

Our current total is sitting at $400. That’s less than even the RAM would cost from Apple.

Going Forward

Not to miss any opportunities, I decided to go one step further. Removing the memory and hard drive would leave me with spare parts. These could be sold on Craigslist locally for cheap, or I could re-use them. Use for the hard drive is pretty easy: Time Machine backup. A $20 external AcomData 2.5″ Ruggedized Samurai enclosure would fit the bill well, but the last thing you want to do on vacation is lug around cables and accessories. In my experience, they either get lost or forgotten (or both). This may not be the case for everyone, but I actually rarely use optical media. My data is transferred using USB sticks if I need to sneakernet, over wifi or LAN if I need to backup (and again to another location off-site to be safe) and when I do make audio “mixtapes”, it’s not often as I use an iPod for music.

So here I have a useless device taking up space in the laptop. Some digging, and looking at the tear-down told me a 2.5″ hard drive could fit in there easily. Excellent, a use for the old drive that takes up no extra space! Of course, like many good ideas I think I have come up with first, someone had “been there, done that” before, and you can buy full kits online for cheap. I found two companies that sell these: MCE and OWC. I opted for OWC because I really don’t have a need for the external optical drive that MCE throws in for “free”, creating a $20 difference in price as I have a Lacie DVD-RW already. Cost of this part: $80. (MCE’s is around $100 if you still might need that SuperDrive)

The total now sits at $480. More than the cost of the RAM, but still considerably less than the over $700 cost to have Apple do this at time of purchase. If you had messed up and bought the lower-end 15″ i5 Macbook Pro, there would also be at least an hour of labour on top. Typically that would run about $150.

I’m left with 2x 2GB DDR3 SODIMM modules, which might be hard to get rid of at any price, though they make a good upgrade for Mac Mini users. I’ve looked high and low for DDR3 SODIMM “RAMDisks” to no avail. I realize these aren’t the best devices, and never really had a following, but it would certainly be handy to have on one of the servers. One can only dream, I suppose.

So there you have it, cheap upgrade, easy install, no regrets. Preliminary testing tells me that the boot time has been halved, and Lightroom is much faster, though it’s not as fast as running it on my Mac Pro with SSD.

At some point I will probably look at replacing the second internal drive with a solid state boot drive when I replace the Intel X25-M G2 80GB in the Mac Pro with a SandForce SSD, and I will make sure to post some speeds when that frabjous day finally arrives.

Why, you ask? Simply because I thought I could… A little while after downloading the Windows Home Server trial, it became apparent that there was no selection for this operating system. No matter, I thought, it’s based on Windows Server 2003, so I should simply be able to select that, right? Unfortunately not that easy. First, the hard disk type selected by default by VMware Fusion is SCSI. Without a driver disk (virtual floppy), you’ll have no luck. Also, the amount of memory available doesn’t meet the Windows Home Server requirements.

My method?

Try these settings:

- Windows Server 2003 Web Server

- No “easy install” settings

- 512MB RAM

- Remove the default HDD

- Add an 80GB IDE HDD

- Make sure the ISO is mounted

Things seem to be working at this point.

Hope this helps someone, I trawled Google and the Fusion forums with no luck.

Check out the full blog post on Fusion 2.0 Leopard Server support at the VMware VMTN blog site here.

[A] new security technology called VMware VMsafe™ that protects applications running in virtual machines in ways previously not possible in physical environments. The VMsafe APIs allow vendors to develop advanced security products that combat the latest generation of malware. VMsafe technology integrates into the VMware hypervisor and provides the transparency to prevent threats and attacks such as viruses, trojans and keyloggers from ever reaching a virtual machine. Twenty security vendors have embraced VMsafe technology and are building products that will further enhance the security of virtual machines, making the virtual environment unmatched in the level of security and protection it provides compared to physical systems.

“VMware already has the most trusted virtualization platform for running applications, and we are now raising the bar on security in ways that physical systems simply cannot match,” said Raghu Raghuram, vice president of datacenter products and solutions. “The industry has come out in full force to support VMware VMsafe technology with plans for a whole new class of security products that offer customers new advantages to running applications in virtual machines.”

So it looks like VMsafe will be a method that security vendors can use in order to ensure that operations in the virtual world will remain just as protected as our meatspace servers

In Dianne Green’s keynote today, you’ll note that almost all of the typical security players have signed up to be part of this platform – I’m guessing it could be quite lucrative, with TCOs everywhere looking for bigger, better tinfoil hats.

Also not that there is a thinstalled version of Firefox available for download from the same page.

Through Dianne Green didn’t speak a whole lot about Thinstall at VMworld today, it’s good to see VMware at least touch on it a bit as the appvirt vendors are keen to find out what sort of developments are to come.

The buzz at VMworld Europe, before it has even started, is that Novell is to purchase Canadian data center management software company Platespin. Novell has now posted the news on their site, and many are scrambling to figure out where this will lead them as the software is very popular in the VM market. (UPDATE: Platespin have posted their announcement regarding the Novell acquisition as well)
Novell is starting to grow again: it now owns SuSE Linux, Ximian (original makers of Gnome), and just recently purchased open colaboration vendor SiteScape.

If you’d like more info about the acquisition, feel free to register for the Novell-Platespin webinar.

From the Platespin announcement:

On February 25, 2008, Novell announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire PlateSpin Ltd. The combination of Novell’s platform and automation management with PlateSpin’s leading solutions for workload relocation, protection and provisioning will give customers the agility to cross physical and virtual boundaries so IT can work together. Both organizations are focused on helping customers maximize the strategic value of the heterogeneous data center. Novell and PlateSpin will deliver products for complete workload lifecycle management and optimization for Linux, UNIX, and Windows operating systems in the physical and virtual data center. Below you will find details about the acquisition and what it means to current and future PlateSpin customers and partners.

From the Novell announcement:

The acquisition of PlateSpin will allow Novell to offer customers a full solution stack with a powerful virtualization platform and a best-in-class heterogeneous management solution. Together, Novell and PlateSpin will solve many of the data center challenges that customers face today, including:

• Relocation: PlateSpin provides a completely integrated product suite that automates the assessment and migration phases of data center initiatives, like server consolidation, data center relocation and hardware upgrades, to help customers reduce costs, power consumption and space in the data center.
• Protection: PlateSpin’s disaster recovery solutions offer affordable workload protection that leverages virtualization technology to protect both physical and virtual servers in the data center, for improved security and business continuity.
• Provisioning: Using PlateSpin’s technologies, customers will have a single approach to imaging and configuring physical and virtual workloads regardless of platform. This eliminates the manual install process and dramatically reduces the time to provision new server workloads. It will also enable customers to address changing resource requirements at peak demand times as well as in test lab scenarios.
• Optimization and Management: Novell and PlateSpin optimize the balance between physical and virtual infrastructure by automatically monitoring and making infrastructure adjustments based on server availability and workload demand. By automating the process and increasing the visibility into how workloads use physical and virtual resources over time, customers will be able to increase server utilization and optimize their data centers by better addressing common workload movement challenges.

The acquisition of PlateSpin will enable the heterogeneous data center with support for leading operating systems and virtual platforms. It will also further enhance Novell’s leadership in open source virtualization by providing tools that easily enable customers to move physical workloads to Xen*-based virtual machines running on SUSE® Linux Enterprise as well as other virtual platforms provided by VMware*, Citrix*, Microsoft* and others.

Ron Hovsepian, president and CEO of Novell, said, “The PlateSpin acquisition will be a cornerstone of our two-pronged enterprise Linux and IT management software strategy. With the addition of the PlateSpin product portfolio, Novell will be uniquely positioned to deliver the next generation infrastructure software that is at the core of the data center. Together, we will have the most comprehensive workload management solution that allows customers to monitor and analyze what to virtualize, provide the tools to seamlessly virtualize and unvirtualize workloads, automate the management of workloads, and provide the leading open source platform from which to run virtualized work.”

Stephen Pollack, founder and CEO of PlateSpin, said, “PlateSpin’s ability to manage workloads is unparalleled and is an essential part of making the data center truly respond to the needs of the business. Combined with ZENworks Orchestrator and virtualization from Novell, we are very excited about the synergies that this acquisition will give to customers.”

This all came about with me wanting to learn ESX 3.5, and needing the hardware as well as the network to run a feasible set up, with DRS, HA and Storage Vmotion. And I did it – on the cheap.

The first thing that you should know about ESX 3.5 is that it now works with many non/budget-RAID SATA chipsets, though not supported. Two that are readily available are Intel’s ICH5 and Silicone Image’s Sil SATA line. This typically depends on the BIOS you are using, but in regards to the ICH5, you’ll want to disable IDE compatibility mode, and as for Sil – you’ll sometimes want to turn on the RAID (though some Sil single channel cards also work, ie the Vantec SATA 1-port).

The second is that drive space is inexpensive. A 500GB SATAII Western Digital drive will only set you back about $100 CAD/USD. Two of these gives you redundancy! Combine the cheap drives with software like FreeNAS or OpenFiler, and you have yourself a 1TB iSCSI NAS for a fraction of the cost/MB of larger solutions. Just don’t pretend it’s foolproof… With any proper iSCSI, you’ll want some nice and spiffy ethernet cards, and in my case I used the tried-and-true Intel Pro 100 successor, the Pro 1000. You can find the Pro1000 GT for roughly $40, and a PCIe version of similar capabilities for about the same amount. The PCI version is compatible with VMware ESX 3.5, OpenFiler, FreeNAS, and Windows Server 2008. I hear the same goes for the PCIe version, and I will be able to let you know shortly.

Since we’re on the topic of networking, you’re going to either want two gigabit (gbit) switches, or a nice gbit switch with more ports and VLAN ability. I lucked out, and got a used 3Com SuperStack III (3C17706) for next to nothing. I’ve seen plenty of somewhat lesser-known (but just as nice) gigabit HP Procurve, Extreme Networks, and even Dell gear at plain stupid prices on ebay and Craigslist. Seriously. I’m talking 50$ for a 24 port 10/100/1000 switch! The trick on ebay is to not bid at all on stuff until it is about to end… then just pick it up. Well I guess everyone has figured that out by now, but it still works. Don’t draw attention to it by watching it like a hawk – just set up instant messaging reminders, and swoop in. As for Craigslist, I have RSS feeds for things I am interested in: 1U, 2U, 3U, 4U, 6U, rack, rackmount, etc. I check these on a regular basis, and make sure to email right away. Craigslist people are friendly, but will typically sell to the person who a) emails first, b) offers to pick it up the soonest, and c) doesn’t give them a hard time.

Now we’re into routing, mostly because I want to talk about it. This setup does not require any routing at all, but it’s a bit better to have a protected connection to the internet. My personal opinion here is to avoid Cisco at all costs, as recently the re-licensing has made buying one used a lot more expensive than in the past. That said, I do, in fact, own a Cisco router – what can I say! It’s like the gold standard. Of course my opinions are my own, and not that of my employer. For a cheaper routing solution, look to used Juniper, SonicWALL, and even open source stuff like Astaro (which also happens to run in VM…) Peronsally, I run a home licensed Astaro ten user virtual machine, a Juniper 5GT wireless, and barely use the Cisco 2611. That’s just me. If you’re having a hard time finding the Astaro licensing, just let me know, but rest assured it does exists, and is perhaps the EASIEST way to turn on VPN so you can have access to your virtual lab anywhere.

Alright, now we’re at the meat and potatoes – CPU and memory, the power behind all of this. Now, if power isn’t really a big deal, but you want to learn the cool features like the afore-mentioned DRS, HA and Storage Vmotion, the main thing you will want is memory. I’ve found that buying enthusiast RAM on Craigslist is VERY easy. Pick a brand like Crucial, OCZ or Kingston HyperX, and you’re bound to have masses of kids who all read the same articles, and are all selling the same RAM used, pretty much at the same time. Watch the trends, and you can easily build 4 boxes running over 3GB or RAM each, for cheap. Dirt cheap.

If you’re going the consolidation route, your best bet (used) is an Opteron solution. While you can find Opteron 185 and 175 chips on ebay, I find that they are asking a fortune for them because they are socket 939, and are considered top of the line for the specific platform. If you opt for the 165 dual core version, you can use cheap enthusiast RAM with great timings, and get a pretty good processor at the same time. It also means that you can get a motherboard to support both pretty much anywhere at bargain basement cost, and one that will typically have a Sil SATA chipset, or you can add one later.

In the case of the multi-box scenario – I’m using 4 Intel P4 3.0GHz HyperThreading processors. Not powerhouses by any means, but when it comes to storage, you can get Intel P4 motherboards that have ICH5 chipsets very easily because they well so prolific at the time – just make sure to watch those temps.

I think that kinda sums it up, as far as a used, cheap, VMware ESX 3.5 lab goes.

If you have any questions, feel free to shout them out.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure allows you to provision desktops as if they were terminal server sessions, but gives users access to their very own desktop.

From VMware’s page on VDM / VDI:

“VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is an end-to-end solution for virtual desktop management that gives you the ability to deliver desktops from the data center for greater control and flexibility. With VMware VDI, you get:

• VMware Infrastructure 3, the proven virtual infrastructure software suite, including VMware VirtualCenter for management
• VMware Virtual Desktop Manager (VDM) 2, the enterprise-class connection broker that connects remote users to centralized desktops and manages VDI environments”

The VMware Fusion Team is happy to announce that VMware Fusion 1.1.1 is now available, addressing 15 issues reported by our customers.

VMware Fusion 1.1.1, a free update for current VMware Fusion customers and available in all the languages Fusion currently ships in, also adds a nifty new feature to transparently remap keyboard shortcuts when going back and forth between applications in the virtual machine and the Mac, regardless of what view the virtual machine is in.

For example, VMware Fusion now remaps Command –X from the keyboard to Ctrl-X in the virtual machine whether in Full Screen, Single Window or Unity. The same remapping happens for Command-Z/-C/-V/-P/-A/-F. Previously, VMware Fusion only did this remapping in Unity mode.

What this means to users, is that when copying something from the Mac side to paste into the virtual machine, and vice versa, you no longer have to remember “Is it Ctrl-V, or Command-V to paste here? Which machine am I interacting with?”

The effect is a more integrated blending of the two operating systems, so your Mac and Windows work together seamlessly, where the user only has to remember one set of keyboard shortcuts!

Keyboard remapping can be turned on and off in the VMware Fusion > Preferences dialog.

This means that you can now easily convert old virtual machines that you might have running on G3/G4/G5 PowerPC Macs, as well as convert newer virtual machines on Intel Macs running Parallels to VMware Fusion – the better product in my honest opinion.

The operating systems supported are Windows XP Home and Pro, Windows Sever 2003, Windows 2000 and you also get the added bonus of being able to import Microsoft Windows Vista virtual machines from Parallels.

Take that with a grain of salt though… I do currently work for a VMware partner On the other hand, VMware Fusion did just receive the annual MacWorld Editors’ Choice Award – you be the judge.
Here are the release notes from the VMware blog:

This is interesting because there are new versions of products to talk about, along with new features.

What really made US happy, was seeing that security is still a concern on older releases – specifically VMware Workstation 5.5 (now 5.5.5), which many developpers use to this day for many reasons.

VMware describes the toolkit as “an easy-to-use Perl scripting interface to the VMware Infrastructure API (VI API). Administrators and developers who may be more familiar with Perl (rather than with Java, C#, or other programming languages) can readily leverage the VI API. For developers who have previously worked with the Scripting API (VmPerl API), the VI Perl Toolkit is the tool of choice.”

An example VI3 Perl script, perf.pl, can be downloaded at the VMware forums site. Perf allows you to measure the performance of your virtual machines running on ESX 2.x or 3.x servers during a specified period of time.

This doesn’t come as much of a surprise as we know Citrix has been looking long and hard at a virtualization platform.

While this seems to be a very good move on behalf of Citrix, it remains to be seen what the fate of the open source Xen project will be.

As predicted, 2007 is shaping up to be the year of the virtual machine with Microsoft, SWSoft, EMC/VMware and now Citrix ready and set to keep spending and marketing this paradigm.

• vTiger CRM Virtual Machine
• RDP Manager for your Windows System Tray
• HOWTO TrixBox – VoIP Virtual Machine
• Online Virtual Machine Builder
• Microsoft Distributes Demo Software via VHD
• FREE Terminal Server Monitoring Tool
• VMware Workstation 6 Feature List
• Multi monitor support for RDP 6
• Add Reflections to bbPress Images
• Google PageRank and Alexa in Your Firefox 2
• Display Digg in WordPress – Digg Dugg Plugin
• Google Analytics Plugn for bbPress

Following my friend’s guide to setting up Virtual PC 2007 on Windows Vista found over at WebandRaptors, I was able to get VPC 2k7 set up quickly and without pain.

Next came the Windows Vista install, which was pretty straightforward. Something to note: you don’t actually need to use a CD key during installation, you can simply click the “next” button and the installer will inform you that a CD key will be needed later, I think it’s about 30days before it becomes necessary.

Once Vista is installed and configured for remote access from within VPC, all you need to do to get Aero Glass running is to connect to the virtual machine using the Remote Desktop Connection (RDP 6) client. If your host, or physical, machine supports Aero Glass, the virtual machine will allow you to take advantage of it, giving you transparent blurred windows, mouse-over taskbar previews, and cool windows+tab animation!

Virtual Lab Manager is a product for managing virtual machines running on ESX 3 or VMWare Infrastructure servers, and allows you to do nifty things like save SIDs, MAC and IP addresses, and deploy groups of configurations to multiple machines.

Here’s a full rundown of the features from the datasheet:

Multi-Machine Configurations
• Create multi-machine configurations in seconds using machine templates – no limit on machine count, no manual adjustments
• View configurations in use with thumbnail console views, public-private scoping and list filtering
• Act on machines in a configuration as a unit: suspend, multi-snapshot, revert to, shutdown, turn on, turn off, suspend, reset, deploy, undeploy, clone, capture to library, and modify properties
• Share templates and multi-machine configurations between users
• Share captured, live configurations via URL-based “LiveLink” capability
• Interact with all configuration consoles side-by-side on a single browser page
• Setup machines in a configuration to boot in controlled sequence
Configuration Library
• Near-instantaneous check out of configurations with memory and CPU state preserved
• Simultaneous use of library configurations by multiple users without changing MAC and IP addresses or SID, using

VMware network fencing
• Efficient storage compression algorithms maximize library entries per storage server
• Public and private library entries
• Public-private scoping and list filtering of library
Media Library
• Central repository for all development and test media
• Tag media with descriptive attributes
• Upload media from the browser or directly to the file share
• Easily make media available to VMware-managed virtual machines
• Public-private scoping and list filtering of media library
Deployment
• Browser- or Web service-initiated deployment
• Copy from or execute from storage server
• Configuration or machine deployment granularity
• Automatic load balancing of machines deployed on host servers
• Side-by-side execution of cloned configurations across physical server boundaries, even when IP addresses are duplicated on a subnet
• Selectable provisioning heuristic – enabling rapid startup and maximum performance when deploying configurations
Machine Templates
• Instant creation of new machines from templates with distinct personalization-automated assignment of MAC and IP addresses, and SID (for Windows systems)
• New template creation via cloning and modification of existing templates
• Import pre-existing virtual machine images for use as templates
• Automated installation of mouse and keyboard enhancements for virtual machines
• Optional physical-to-virtual (P2V) capability for storage and management of existing machines
• Public-private scoping and list filtering of templates
Resource Management
• Automated tracking and issuance of IP addresses
• Storage server management: add, delete, refresh and modify properties
• Managed server management: add, delete, refresh, agent upgrade, remove from service and modify properties
Monitoring
• Active unified “in motion” view of server pool and virtual machine operations
• Drill-down on server, configuration and machine details
• All deployed machines view
• Comprehensive event and job log viewer
Web Services and Command Line Interface (Automation API)
• Full programmatic control of capture-and-restore operations
• Out-of-the-box automation with leading test automation tools
• Standards-based interface (SOAP, WSDL, HTTP)
• Sample .NET and Java code illustrating use of APIs
Administration and Security
• User, permission and quota management
• Out-of-the-box support for LDAP
• Administrator role assignment to multiple users
• User self-managed preferences
• Context-sensitive on-screen help
Installation
• Standard Windows setup.exe installer for all components
• Automated addition of managed servers to deployment pool
Supported Managed Server Environments
• VMware Infrastructure 3

Later on, I found out about Berry Linux, a Japanese LiveCD distro based on RedHat/Fedora that can easily show off Linux and allow users to do things like compose email that Japanese people can actually read (common problem on Windows), and surf the web in Japanese by default, instead of having to manually choose codepages and the like, which frustrates must computer users (if they haven’t already given up).

Berry Linux got an update today (to version 0.75), and now supports fancy-pants XGL – which I’m sure you’ll agree kicks Aero’s behind quite handily (footily?). If you’re trying to run Berry Linux Mini as a virtual machine you’ll get a console instead of X and you’ll lose the XGL capabilities, so I’d recommend testing it on a physical machine instead of a virtual machine – it’s a LiveCD so it’s quite safe to do so.

Here’s a feature rundown taken from the Berry Linux site’s English page (corrected a few typos):

Common Features:
• Support for Kernel-2.6. ALSA, ACPI, selinux.
• Overlay Filesystem Support.
• XGL, 3D Desktop, support.
• Berry Linux is not necessary to install. (Root partition is in the RAMdisk using initrd, all commands are operated by being transfered from CD-ROM)
• It can install on Windows without parting partitions to use Setup.exe or install.bat. (Using squashfs/cloop/loopback device)
• It can install to your hard disk on Linux. (Use Berry Linux Installer or Copy under /BERRY/, and set up LILO or grub)
• Berry Linux can boot from USB-HDD/memory.
• Berry Linux uses WHIZ, a very sharp Kana-Kanji conversion system. (WHIZ Project)
• If you push the windows key, and show the K-Menu.
• Automatically recognizes USB storage, and show icons.
• Berry Linux uses free Japanese True Type Fonts.
• Berry Linux uses bootsplash when booting.
• Berry Linux uses DHCP to connect the Network. (If you’d like to use PPPoE, you should setting up it on the Terminal)
• It’s possible to save personal setting.
• Red Hat Fedora compatible.
• Using new technologies.

Berry Linux’s Features:
• You can listen to mp3 using BMP/XMMS, and play DVD/DivX using MPlayer, XINE and Kaffeine.
• You can edit files of Microsoft Word, Excel by OpenOffice^(TM).

Berry Linux Mini’s Features:
• Minimum Linux environment is available by using Berry Linux Mini.
• Its file size is very small. (148.0MB)
• It’s light. Because of the Window Manager is Fluxbox.
• You can enjoy comfortable Linux environment.

Berry Linux Server’s Features: (Published Berry Linux Mini as alpha version)
• Build the Linux Server easily.
• Minimum Server Linux enviroment is available by using Berry Linux Server.
• Its file size is very small. (161.3MB)
• It’s light. Because of the Window Manager is WindowMaker.
• You can enjoy comfortable Linux enviroment.

To do:
• Support Software Suspend.
• Support Captive NTFS.

Known Bugs: (Please help me!)
• Kernel panic on boot after realtek RTL-8139 ethernet intialization. (Kernel Bugs)
• Using cloop with kernel-2.4.22-pre7 to 2.4.23-pre2 sometimes stops in boot. (pre5 is OK)
• Sometimes gcc 3.3 is not good ! (Berry Linux 0.19 only)
• krb5.h isn’t in krb5-devel-1.2.8-4. (Berry Linux 0.19, 0.20 only)

You can grab Berry Linux from the SourceForge page or the Berry Linux main page – but I’d recomend using SourceForge if you are in North America as it is much faster.

Although you can currently run Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 in 32 bit mode on a Windows Vista physical machine, I’ve learned that I was recently accepted into the Virtual PC 2007 beta tester program, and that Virtual PC 2007 can run on 64bit Vista.

If you are interested in joining the Virtual PC 2007 beta program, I highly suggest you sign up, then play some fantastic Rod Stewart albums until you are accepted.

By the way, this does in fact mean you can run Vista on Vista reliably now. VMWare Workstation and Server still don’t work at this point, but it’s on the way, just stay tuned.

VMware Converter provides an easy-to-use, scalable solution for migrations of machines, both physical to virtual and virtual to virtual. Optimized for mass migration, VMware Converter is equally effective for single-machine conversions. With its comprehensive and comprehensible wizards and task manager, VMware Converter imports virtual machines faster, with fewer manual steps required, and fewer source hardware limitations than other methods. Converter can, with its ability to hot clone, import with no downtime on the source physical machine.

VMware Converter combines and expands the functionality available in P2V Assistant and Virtual Machine Importer. It eases interoperability among VMware hosted products (Workstation, VMware Server, and VMware Player), VirtualCenter-managed ESX Server 3.x and 2.5.x, and unmanaged ESX Server 3.x.

Import from Physical Machines (Source)
VMware Converter can hot clone and reconfigure any local or remote physical machine running an operating system noted in Platforms VMware Converter Boot CD can be started from, and clone, local machines outfitted with storage controllers and network adapters that Microsoft lists as supported in Windows 2003

Import from Various Third-Party Formats and VMware Products (Source)

Microsoft Virtual PC (version 7 and higher) Microsoft Virtual Server (any version) Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery images1 VMware Workstation 4.x virtual machine (compatible with VMware GSX Server 3.x) VMware Workstation 5.x virtual machine (compatible with VMware Player and VMware Server 1.x) VMware ESX Server 3.x VMware ESX Server 3.x (when managed by VirtualCenter 2.x) VMware ESX Server 2.5.x (when managed by VirtualCenter 2.x)

Export to a Virtual Machine for VMware Workstation and Datacenter Products (Destination)

VMware Workstation 4.x virtual machine (compatible with VMware GSX Server 3.x, ESX Server 2.5.x)2 VMware Workstation 5.x virtual machine (compatible with VMware Player and VMware Server 1.x)3 VMware ESX Server 2.5.x (when managed by VirtualCenter 2.x) VMware ESX Server 3.x (when managed by VirtualCenter 2.x) VMware ESX Server 3.x Not Supported: VMware ESX Server 2.5.x when managed by VirtualCenter 1.x VMware ESX Server 2.5.x unmanaged

1. The Symantec family of products includes the Backup Exec System Recovery (formerly LiveState Recovery) products and the Norton Ghost 9 (and higher) products. Only images from the Backup Exec System Recovery products are fully supported, but images from Norton Ghost 9 (and higher) are likely to work.

2. For ESX Server 2.5.x the .vmdk files must be imported using the vmkfstools utility.

3. Only Workstation 5.5 can power on linked imports of .sv2i images.

For more info please visit VMWare’s Converter 3 Beta Refresh page.

But wakeup, we’re no longer in the 80s – people want GUIs, let’s give them fancy-pants graphics, bouncing cursors and silly linux wizards. Remotely.

Enter Xming, what I would name as top of my favorite applications. Xming is just like X over SSH, for dummies (or people who would rather spend more time working).

Xming allows you to connect to remote or local Linux workstations and servers and run full graphical applications on those remote machines on your local Windows computer.

Here’s how it works: all of the applications are run remotely, but when it comes to the graphics, the information that would invoke the graphics is sent to your local computer, not a bitmap or a sequence of bitmaps like VNC. Xming uses a local X server on your Windows computer in order to display your remote applications. This local X server is 2D accelerated, and it’s sometimes difficult to even notice that you are working remotely.

Since Xming can run in windowed or full-screen modes, you can establish thin client connections in this fashion, or you can publish applications Citrix-style.

Xming is completely free to install and setup. It is a great way to manage virtual machines, and in fact is often faster than Microsoft’s Virtual Server ActiveX control (surprised?), VMWare’s Virtual Machine view (even with VMWare tools!), and even Parallels speedy virtual machine view.

To set the whole thing up, you’ll need a computer running Microsoft Windows, one Linux box, a network connection between the two, but you won’t need much effort.

First install the Windows Xming server on your Windows computer. We’ll use Windows XP SP2 in this example, but it could easily be other varieties. Xming can be found on Sourceforge quite easily, download it, run the install (use defaults), and start XLauncher.

On the Linux computer this are slighlty more complicated, but not by much. For Gnome or KDE on Ubuntu Edgy, go to the System>Administration menu in your menu bar. In Administration, we’ll select login preferences as we’ll be setting up a new logon method (we’re using XDMCP). Select the Remote tab, and enable remote logon (same as local) to your Edgy Eft machine.

Now on your Windows machine, set up XLaunch to logon to your Linux machine using it’s IP address. Save the setting if you want, and connect. You will be presented with a logon screen to your Linux desktop!

While this isn’t extremely exciting news, I was impressed nontheless that they didn’t edit the artcile at all – the whitepaper is wholly taken from my article on installing Ubuntu Edgy Eft Knot 3 on VMWare Server (if you haven’t read it yet check it out).

Alright back to work!

1. Accessibility Controls – access.cpl
2. Accessibility Wizard – accwiz
3. Add Hardware Wizard – hdwwiz.cpl
4. Add/Remove Programs – appwiz.cpl
5. Administrative Tools – control admintools
6. Automatic Updates – wuaucpl.cpl
7. Bluetooth Transfer Wizard – fsquirt
8. Certificate Manager – certmgr.msc
9. Character Map – charmap
10. Check Disk Utility – chkdsk
11. Clipboard Viewer – clipbrd
12. Command Prompt – cmd
13. Component Services – dcomcnfg
14. Computer Management – compmgmt.msc
15. Control Panel – control
16. Date and Time Properties – timedate.cpl
17. DDE Shares – ddeshare
18. Device Manager – devmgmt.msc
19. Direct X Troubleshooter – dxdiag
20. Disk Cleanup Utility – cleanmgr
21. Disk Defragment – dfrg.msc
22. Disk Management – diskmgmt.msc
23. Disk Partition Manager – diskpart
24. Display Properties – desk.cpl
25. Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility – drwtsn32
26. Driver Verifier Utility – verifier
27. Event Viewer – eventvwr.msc
28. Files and Settings Transfer Tool – migwiz
29. File Signature Verification Tool – sigverif
30. Findfast – findfast.cpl
31. Folders Properties – control folders
32. Fonts – control fonts
33. Game Controllers – joy.cpl
34. Group Policy Editor – gpedit.msc
35. Help and Support – helpctr
36. HyperTerminal – hypertrm
37. Iexpress Wizard – iexpress
38. Indexing Service – ciadv.msc
39. Internet Connection Wizard – icwconn1
40. Internet Explorer – iexplore
41. Internet Properties – inetcpl.cpl
42. Keyboard Properties – control keyboard
43. Local Security Settings – secpol.msc
44. Local Users and Groups – lusrmgr.msc
45. Logoff Windows – logoff
46. Malicious Software Removal Tool – mrt
47. Microsoft Chat – winchat
48. Microsoft Syncronization Tool – mobsync
49. Mouse Properties – control mouse
50. Netmeeting – conf
51. Network Connections – control netconnections
52. Network Connections – ncpa.cpl
53. Network Setup Wizard – netsetup.cpl
54. Object Packager – packager
55. ODBC Data Source Administrator – odbccp32.cpl
56. On Screen Keyboard – osk
57. Outlook Express – msimn
58. Password Properties – password.cpl
59. Performance Monitor – perfmon
60. Phone and Modem Options – telephon.cpl
61. Power Configuration – powercfg.cpl
62. Printers and Faxes – control printers
63. Regional Settings – intl.cpl
64. Registry Editor – regedit32
65. Remote Access Phonebook – rasphone
66. Remote Desktop – mstsc
67. Removable Storage – ntmsmgr.msc
68. Removable Storage Operator Requests – ntmsoprq.msc
69. Resultant Set of Policy – rsop.msc
70. Scanners and Cameras – sticpl.cpl
71. Scheduled Tasks – control schedtasks
72. Security Center – wscui.cpl
73. Services – services.msc
74. Shared Folders – fsmgmt.msc
75. Shutdown Windows – shutdown
76. Sounds and Audio – mmsys.cpl
77. SQL Client Configuration – cliconfg
78. System Configuration Editor – sysedit
79. System Configuration Utility – msconfig
80. System Information – msinfo32
81. System Properties – sysdm.cpl
82. Task Manager – taskmgr
83. TCP Tester – tcptest
84. Telnet Client – telnet
85. User Account Management – nusrmgr.cpl
86. Utility Manager – utilman
87. Windows Address Book – wab
88. Windows Address Book Import Utility – wabmig
89. Windows Explorer – explorer
90. Windows Firewall – firewall.cpl
91. Windows Management Infrastructure – wmimgmt.msc
92. Windows System Security Tool – syskey
93. Windows Update – wupdmgr
94. Windows Version – winver

Also to note: any executables found in PATH folders, for example “Program Files” can also be run from the Start -> Run dialog as well. This means to start VMWare Sever, you can type in “vmware” and it will start for you!

I’ve been trying to get the Remote Desktop Connection v6.0 client from Vista to run on Windows XP for months now. Microsoft has announced many times that it’s available tobeta testers through the Connect site, but try as I may I still can’t find it (I’m not alone). So I went ahead and popped the new RDP 6 client from Vista onto Windows XP and tried everything from dependency walking to regsitry hacks to get it going but to no avail. So i kept testing, and set up a Google alert to let me know if anyone had found a method or any information that I could use to get this done.

I got results from the hook today, and what a big fish it was. It seems that I had probably fixed it early on, but hadn’t followed the proper procedure of changing one setting, testing, then moving to the next. I had simply set up all the hacks I thought were needed and plowed ahead. This is what happens when you test with a bottle in hand.

So here is what I found out today: originally from a thread by Caelum over at AtomicPC, this quick hack allows you to install the Microsoft Vista RDP v6 client on a Windows XP computer. Caelum was trying to get widescreen working in RDP on XP, and most of you know that works fine already. But Caelum, you’ve solved another problem in the process!

The 6th iteration of the MSTSC binary has a bunch of outstanding feautures. The biggest one for me is better support for sound and video over terminal services, but also includes ClearType support for those with LCD monitors so fonts look much nicer now.

Let’s get cracking.

1. Download this MSTSC zip(1.3MB)

2. Unpack the ZIP file to a folder

3. Run the “Install.cmd” file

4. Once the installation has completed, press any key to close the window

5. The script does everything but copy the MUI files to SYSTEM32, so we’ll do that now: open your Windows folder, then SYSTEM32, and then en-US. Copy the *.MUI files from your unzipped folder to the en-US folder

6. Run your remote desktop connection application the same way you normally would

Note: If you use Windows XP 64bit Edition you’ll want to grab the 64bit bit files from a 64bit version of Vista.

Now we can connect to Vista and Longhorn Terminal Server using the most up to date client and test the new features offered by Remote Desktop Client 6. I’ve tested this out on both using my VMWare Server virtual machines and the results are very favorable so far – it’s faster than before!

We’d previously written an article about installing Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft Knot 2 (it IS a long name) on a Mac Mini, so to do the same would be batty. Instead, this guide covers testing the newest Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft Knot 3 on Windows XP using free (as in beer) virtualization. This guide would also apply to anyone testing on various flavours as well, as long as they can run our free virtualization software: VMWare Server 1.01.

Setting up the Ubuntu virtual machine in VMWare server is very easy (click the pictures for larger versions):

Connect to your local VMWare Server installation if you run it locally, or connect to your remote VMWare Server.

We’ll select “typical” for this virtual machine as VMWare Server includes a configuration for Ubuntu already.

And, speaking of which, here it is! Make sure to select the plain “Ubuntu” option, unless you are running a 64bit host, and downloaded the 64bit version of Edgy Eft knot 3.

Name your virtual machine and select the location. The defaults should be fine here but feel free to tinker.

I typically use bridged networking, but for added obfuscation you can use NAT (which creates a virtual network based on your host’s network connection). You could also select host-only if you only want to be able to contact the host operating system. In fact, if you really wanted to make sure the machine is isolated from the wiki wikid web, don it with a nice tinfoil hat and disable networking completely. Ubuntu won’t be happy, but it looks pretty nice in a tinfoil hat.

8 GB of diskspace is fine for testing.You’re not going to be leeching full seasons of Lost… at least we hope so.

Since we opted to allocate diskspace now, VMWare Server will start creating the 8GB file. This can take some time depending on your computer’s hardware. In my case this took a few minutes – I use SATA2 NCQ hard drives and have 2GB of RAM. Your mileage may vary.

You now have a default virtual machine set up, but it will need some slight tweaking in order to install Edgy Eft Knot 3 as fast as possible. Click on “edit virtual machine settings” and remove the floppy drive – we don’t need it. Set the memory to at least 512MB, but it really depends on your total amount. Since I have 2GB total RAM on my host I select 1GB normally. Edit the CDROM settings and point it at your Ubuntu Edgy Eft Knot 3 CD image. Click “OK” – we’re set for lift off.

Press start and drool over the new llivecd boot screen. Note the reflection on the logo. How original.

Now we’re at another original boot screen – the progress loader. Note the gradient progressbar, and the Crystal-esque Ubuntu logo. Reminds us of 3 years ago, doesn’t it precious? Yes, yes it does.

We’ve landed at the desktop. You may stop here if all you wanted was a secure browsing solution with no cookies and passwords to worry about. Should we wish to continue, our mission involves double-clicking that obvious “install” icon. Let’s go for it.

This is an easy 6 step process. Step 1 – select your language.

Step 2 – Select your location or timezone.

Step 3 – Select your keyboard layout. I normally recommend you test the layout just in case. We’ve typed in “blandname” here for demonstration purposes. You may wish to try typing “Ubuntu”, but nothing else lest ye be stricken down.

Step 4 – Identify yourself. This information will be used later in life to incriminate you. Be choosy with naming and passwords. Harry MacDonald that means you! Try typing in something other than your real name here – it works, I promise.

Step 5 – We’ve pre-allocated our diskpace, so no need to worry about this one. Just click the “forward” button.

Step 6 – There really isn’t a step 6. The Ubuntu team has decided to waste our time by confirming the already tedious and easy task. Onward, ho!

Installing – took me 30 minutes. It may take you an eternity, but with hardware prices where thet are, I seriously doubt it will take you long to be rolling with a virtual Edgy Eft install.

The eternity has passed, and we’re going to reboot. Don’t forget to disable or otherwise change the CDROM settings so you don’t end up installing again – that would be embarassing, right?

There you have it – the pretty login screen. Note those options. XDMCP looks very intriguing doesn’t it? We’ll get to that later…

And presto! What have we got here? Firefox 2.0b1 – Bon Echo Beta 1! Try it out and see what you think, I’m impressed so far to be honest.

So that’s it, you now have a working Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft Knot 3 test virtual machine (edit: let’s make the name longer). And it weren’t hard neither! When Knot 4 comes out you’ll be able to do it in your sleep. If not, well we’ll see you searching for it again.

Over the years I’ve tried FTP, Samba, NFS and a host of others. When configured well they work like a charm. However, when a new node joins the network (that shiny new Mac Pro of yours), things need to be reconfigured and can generally be a royal pain.

That has changed, though. We now have an acceptable solution that is free, easy to use and above all, secure. Introducing… SCP.

SCP has been around for a while now, and is gaining quite a bit of traction in the hosting world where it is (albeit slowly) starting to replace FTP for upload and download tasks. SCP stand for Secure Copy (CP being Copy on *nix variants). SCP works a lot like FTP in that you require an address to connect to, a username (login) and a password (we won’t get into stored keys today).

Now that we’ve decided what to try in our ad hoc network, how do we set it up? If you’re blessed with any variant of Linux or Unix, the work has been done for you already – the tools come with the operating system, and are generally found under the network tools in your fancy menus.

It’s a different story on Apple Macs and PCs, though. For example, Tiger comes with an SCP server, but no client. Right, about the Mac server. In order to activate it in Panther, Tiger and even Leopard, head on over to the System Preferences pane, and choose the Sharing applet (the folder with the caution sign on it). Once it has opened, check the Remote Login checkbox. This will enable SSH, and in turn, SCP. We’re halfway there. You can connect to an SCP server by using the Terminal on a Mac, but from what I can tell most Mac users are frightfully scared of it. But that gives me the oppurtunity to tell you about one of my favorite applications – Fugu (japanese for blowfish – and sporting a suitably cute icon to boot). Fugu allows you to connect to an SCP server to both download and upload files. Fugu is quite easy to use, so we won’t get into that, but will save it for another time if need be (just like stored keys). Oh, and as the screenshot shows you, it works with Mac OS X Server 10.4.7 too! (as well as Leopard)

In the PC world, WinSCP is Fugu’s sibling. You get an extremly easy to use interface, complete with drag and drop. Installation is a breeze, and best of all it’s free as in both beer and speech. Just like those soapbox ramblers. Getting a Windows SCP server is a bit more difficult, but currently exists in the form of BitVise WinSSHD. WinSSHD is slightly complicated, but most of the configuration is done during the installation procedure. They supply you with the needed variables, and one you have finished you will have set up an account you can use to test from your other workstations. The screenshot above was taken with the wonderful WinSnap – it comes highly recommended.
Let the cross-platform filesharing begin!

If you have any questions, or would like to suggest a topic for a future article, head on over to the blandname contact page and we’ll see what we can do!

Oh, and by the way, since you’ve noticed I always talk about virtualization, this certainly applies to getting files to and fro from your virtual machines in VMWare Server, Virtual Server (Virtual PC if need be) and Parallels – I have even found it to be faster than any other technique!

The real new, exciting operating system from Microsoft is on it’s way and is supposedly slated for January.

Here’s a shortlist of reasons why you should care and what to look for:

LLMNR – Have you ever had master WINS browser woes? Name resolution problems? Microsoft wants to make this a thing of the past. In my experience this has been one of the largest pains – when the master browser goes down you lose name resolution. LLMNR fixes that. I’m happy. Testing the current Windows Server Codename Longhorn on virtual networks has shown so far that it works as expected already. I’m still happy. Basically this is multicast DNS (mDNS). Follow the link for a nice wiki article that will surely convince you.

Core Server Mode – Longhorn has a new locked down mode meant for bare-bones brass tax servers. They call it Core. What this means to the regular Windows admin is that there are no more wizards. Heck, there’s no more standard graphical UI. You get a command-line shell (DON’T call this DOS, they’ll find you!) to play around with. Servers are configured via preconfiguration scripts, this shell, and remote administration tools. If this is as fast and secure as it is supposed to be, it’ll be gravy. What you DO get: DHCP server, DNS server, file server, active directory, read-only domain controller, cluster services, load balancing, and services for Unix. That’s right, services for Unix is there too.

Application Publishing – I covered application publishing in Longhorn previously, and it’s what I am most excited about, to be honest. Pick an application, fire up the wizard, make an RDP file and send away to clients (even older XP terminals) – it’s that easy. While this will take the bread out of a lot of app vendors hands, it also allows for a wealth of innovation and I simply can’t wait to see what happens here.

Remote Desktop Connection 6.0 – In the same vein, and under the Terminal Server umbrella, the Remote Desktop Connection client gets an update that adds some much-needed and oft-asked-for features. Namely: PnP redirection for media players and digicams, multiple monitor support (I’m talking to you, Bill), desktop theming, and single sign-on. Whew. I’ll have to get into this one later.

Sharepoint V3 – It’s bigger, badder, and better code for Sharepoint. Better integration with Office 2007, faster load times, more features (of course), and item-level access control. Not to mention RSS by default – that’s was the deal-closer for me. Nor more need for infinite emails sent via alerts – just use RSS! Much like Apple, Microsoft has become a fan of RSS and it’s good news all around.

IIS 7 – You’re laughing. I see you snickering. Yes IIS is used externally, and its market share is growing right now, funnily enough. In IIS 7.0 you get reduced attack surface through feature modules. This is marketing-speak that means you can disable IIS services you don’t need. You get easy replication using web configuration files. And lastly you get better admin tools. Well slightly better anyway. This isn’t Plesk, Ensim or CPanel, but it’ll have to do ’til those guys get around to supporting Longhorn.

That about sums up the good things I’ve seen and tested to date on my virtual machines (VMWare Server, Virtual Server R2 and Parallels). Feel free to chime in about what tickles your fancy or rattles your chains, I’m all ears.

In detail, this hack patches many pieces of Windows XP in order to allow the same Terminal Services functionality that you find in Microsoft Windows Terminal Server, but without the licensing costs. The stability of the hack has not been verified, but the virtual machine used has been running for over a week now with 20 conenctions to it and has yet to fail once.

In order to perform the hack you will need one external file, some guts, and a backup. The backup is extremely important. I highly recommend that you test the procedure using virtualisation technoloy like Parallels, Virtual Server (free), or VMWare Server (also free). You have no excuse to procede without a backup – consider yourselves warned.

Let’s begin.

The file needed for the hack is actually a combination of some registry tweaks and DLL/EXE patches made by “antiwpa”. antiwpa is known for dealing with another Windows XP issue that we won’t get into here – I’m sure you can guess what it is easily.

No that you have the file, and backup, we’ll extract it and start the install process. It’s quite simple – you double-click on the application, it starts a command line window, you press a key and the patch commences. Eventually the command line portion will end and you will get a Windows warning regarding system files having been replaced – we’ll cancel the restore “feature”, and let Microsoft know that we are running untested code by pressing the “yes” button on the next window.

A second patcher launches with full GUI this time. We click on the “patch” button and we are finished. Easy huh?

Moving on… If you try to connect to the XP machine now, you will notice that the maximum number of connections has been reached. This is easy enough to fix, but it’s readily apparent where we need to go. Click on Start, then Run, and type in:

gpedit.msc

Once the Group Policy Editor has opened, navigate to “Computer Configuration”, “Administrative Templates”, then “Terminal Services”.

In the “Terminal Services” tree, you’ll see a policy named “Limit number of connections”. Double-click on this policy. Set the policy to enabled, and adjust the maximum connections to suit your need. I recommend trying “2″ to start off with.

Now reboot your machine, and attempt to connect the amount of times you have specified. If you need mre connections, navigate back to the policy editor and set the maximum amount higher.

Once you have completed your testing, back the machine up once more for good measure. If you don’t have disk imaging software, I’d recommend using the open source g4u – otherwise commercial applications such as Symantec Ghost will work.

Moving on, if you feel the need to manage the users (log them off, control sessions) like on a real Terminal Server, you can grab a copy of the “tsadmin.exe” file from a Windows Server 2003 machine’s “SYSTEM32″ folder and copy to the Windows XP machine’s SYSTEM32 folder. Running TSAdmin is as easy as clicking on Start, Run, then typing tsadmin, but you might also want to make a shortcut to the file for good measure.

Installation is a snap. It’s pretty much next, next, next through the Windows client installation. You enter your key, and are allowed to make a CDROM image for later use with the VM. Use you have finished, you boot the VM using the CD image and start the process (which can take some time). Parallels Compressor Server does it’s magic, and you reboot. HUZZAH! Faster VM just like that.

Conclusion – you may run a free virtualization platform – but how fast is it? For $179, Parallels Compressor Server is a steal.

No disclaimers needed – I am in no way affiliated with the software, I’m just that impressed.