How to duplicate a virtual PC with SharePoint, K2 and a domain controller
Does anyone know of an easy way to duplicate and rename a virtual PC (maybe MS VPC, VMWare, or Virtual Box) running SharePoint, K2 and acting as a domain controller? I am looking for a way to create an image that can be quickly and easily copied and run by multiple parties on the same network at the same time without name conflicts. As far as I can see it is either that or go through the build on each machine.
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I would suggest doing this. Renaming an installed SharePoint machine is bound to hurt you vaguely and unexpectedly. Installation path - using scripts:
- create a copy of the virtual machine with the OS
- rename machine + run sysprep
- script install SQL
- script install MOSS
- script configure MOSS (replaces config wizard + lots of manual tweaks)
All of this can be done unattended.
I used the following as a shortcut to install short-lived development machines. Just make sure that the SharePoint Customization Wizard starts after renaming and there should be no issues.
- create a copy of a virtual machine having: OS + SQL + MOSS (no wiz config)
- rename car
- script configure MOSS
This has the advantage that your development machines are installed identically. Takes about 10 minutes to create a new one. It doesn't have sysprep, but they have been renamed, so you can run them all on your network. Sysprep not working has never caused me grief, but I would not do it for production environments. Running the MOSS script configuration will ensure that it will run in the renamed environment (and all MOSS farms are configured exactly the same, same ports, SSP setup, etc, Yay!)
For MOSS configuration scripts see htt p: //stsadm.blogspot.com/2008/03/sample-install-script.html There are also samples for SQL.
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SharePoint doesn't like to see the server renamed from under its feet (so to speak). See also SQL Server (which I assume you have installed on the VM for installation). Not sure if DC has been renamed, there are probably problems there ...
That being said, there are some instructions I read for renaming both SharePoint machines and SQL Server machines so you can find somewhere.
On the other hand, I've tried this several times and have always rebuilt the server from scratch for SharePoint, as it can be subtly mangled in ways that don't always seem straightforward (the admin interface and shared services seem particularly easy to get confused about). I found that these days I can quickly install a MOSS installation of Vanilla ...
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Sharepoint writes the server name to the configuration tables in SQL Server. Therefore, if you change the server name, everything stops working.
What you can do is install the OS only. Then make a copy every time you need a new car. Run sysprep
to give the car a new name. Then install SQL Server and MOSS.
This isn't exactly what you want, but it should save you time.
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I did it and it wasn't too bad.
Rename the SharePoint server first and then rename the Windows server.
This post has a good checklist.
Remember to remove the NIC node from the virtual machine settings file, otherwise you will run into names due to duplicate MAC addresses. Here's how to do it .
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I believe the above solutions are really good. But I would suggest an alternative ...
If it is a development virtual machine, I would suggest that you do the following
- Don't rename the server
- Change the IP address on a different network.
- Change the MAC address to avoid packet collisions.
- Since you are using it as a development VPC, edit the lmhosts file of the computer, edit the entry to point to the new IP address.
You might want to skip step 2 and be on the same network. But changing the hosts file will still come back to you. For example the server name was "myserver" and it said 192.168.1.100 which was the local ip (has a host file entry) and then if you copy the server give it ip 192.168.1.150 and edit the hosts file and point myserver to 192.168 .1.150, the system will still work flawlessly. There will be some domain name collisions in the machine's event log, but this will not affect your design.
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