Choosing Virtual Machine Candidates
Applies To: System Center Essentials 2010
A virtual machine emulates a complete hardware system from processor to network card, in a self-contained, isolated software environment. It enables the simultaneous operation of otherwise incompatible operating systems. Using System Center Essentials 2010 to virtualize your environment can help maximize limited IT resources by consolidating underused physical servers and more rapidly provisioning new virtual machines. They can be used as application servers or other similar tasks. The following section discusses the various ways in which you can create a virtual machine in Essentials 2010.
Creating Virtual Machines
Important
Before you can create a virtual machine, you have to designate at least one server as a host for virtual machines. For more information about designating a host server, see How to Designate a Host for Virtualization Management in Essentials.
Using virtualization management in Essentials 2010, you can create virtual machines from the following:
Physical computers—physical computer to virtual machine (P2V) conversion
A physical computer must already be managed by Essentials 2010 to select it for conversion to a virtual machine. In addition, the physical computer must have one of the following operating systems installed:
Windows 7 (x86 and x64)
Windows Web Server 2008 R2
Windows Web Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition (x64)
Windows Server 2008 Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter Edition (x86 and x64)
Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and above (x86 and x64)
Windows Small Business Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 Web Edition
Windows Server 2003 Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter Edition with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and above (x86 and x64)
Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 3 (SP3) and above (x86 and x64)
Virtual hard disks—virtual machine to virtual machine (V2V) conversion
You can import Microsoft virtual hard disks (.vhd files) and VMware virtual hard disks (.vmx files). These files must be located in the Essentials 2010 Library folder in order to be imported. If you are converting a VMware virtual machine to a Hyper-V server or Virtual Server virtual machine, uninstall VMware Tools on the guest operating system of the VMware virtual machine before you begin the conversion.
Virtual machine templates
The table shows the default virtual machine templates that are included with Essentials 2010. You cannot delete the default templates; however, you can edit the default template names and descriptions.
Server with a heavy workload
Server with a moderate workload
Server with a minimal workload
Name
2 CPU – 4 GB RAM – 60 GB VHD
1 CPU – 2 GB RAM – 16 GB VHD
1 CPU – 1 GB RAM – 16 GB VHD
Processors
2
1
1
Memory
4 GB
2 GB
1 GB
Hard Disk
60 GB
16 GB
16 GB
Network
Show locations
Show locations
Show locations
CD/DVD Drive
None
None
None
BIOS Boot Order
CD, IDE Hard Disk, network boot
CD, IDE Hard Disk, network boot
CD, IDE Hard Disk, network boot
For more information and step-by-step instructions about how to create virtual machines, see the "Virtualizing Your Server Environment" section in the System Center Essentials 2010 Operations Guide in the System Center Essentials 2010 Technical Library (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=180739).
See Also
Tasks
How to Designate a Host for Virtualization Management in Essentials
How to View or Change Virtual Machine Properties in Essentials
How to Manage the Library Folder in Essentials
How to Configure a Virtual Machine for Management in Essentials