Creating and Deploying Virtual Machines Overview

Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) provides a number of methods for creating and deploying virtual machines, and for applying standard configuration settings to those virtual machines. These methods include:

• Create and deploy a stand-alone virtual machine—You can manually create a stand-alone virtual machine as follows:
  
  
  • Create and deploy a virtual machine from a blank virtual hard disk—After creating the virtual machine using this method you can install an operating system from an .iso image, CD or DVD, or from a network boot if a Pre-Boot Execution Environment (PXE) server is available. For instructions, see How to Create and Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Blank Virtual Hard Disk.
    
    
  • Create and deploy a virtual machine from an existing virtual hard disk—Using this method you can create a virtual machine from an existing virtual hard disk stored in the VMM library. We recommend that you use a virtual hard disk that has been generalized using Sysprep, otherwise the new virtual machine will have the same identity as the source machine. For instructions, see How to Create and Deploy a Virtual Machine from an Existing Virtual Hard Disk.
    
    
  • Create and deploy a virtual machine from an existing virtual machine—Using this method you can clone an existing virtual machine in the VMM library to create a new one. We recommend that you clone virtual machine that has been generalized using Sysprep, so that the virtual machines do not have the same identity.
    
    
• Create and deploy a virtual machine using a virtual-to-virtual (V2V) conversion—Use this method to copy an existing Citrix XenServer or VMware virtual machine and create a Hyper-V virtual machine. For more information, see How to Convert Citrix XenServer Virtual Machines to Hyper-V, and How to Convert VMware Virtual Machines to Hyper-V.
  
  
• Create and deploy a virtual machine using a physical-to-virtual machine (P2V) conversion—Use this method to convert an existing physical computer into a virtual machine. P2V conversions are done on a best effort basis. For more information, see How to Deploy a Virtual Machine by Converting a Physical Computer (P2V).
  
  
• Create and deploy a virtual machine using a virtual machine template—Use this method to create virtual machines with consistent configuration settings taken from a template. Virtual machine templates are preconfigured XML objects stored in the VMM library. Templates can be used to control and restrict the virtual machine configurations available for selection by self-service users. Templates have a number of properties associated with them, including a guest operating system profile, a hardware profile, and one or more VHDs which can be used to create a new virtual machine. To create virtual machine templates, you first create the required profiles, and then create templates based on those profiles. Templates can be created from an existing template, from a virtual hard disk stored in the library, or from an existing virtual machine deployed on a host.
  
  
  • For information on creating profiles, see Creating Profiles and Templates in VMM.
    
    
  • For information on creating templates, see How to Create a Virtual Machine Template.
    
    
  • For information on creating a virtual machine based on a template, see How to Create and Deploy a Virtual Machine from a Template.
    
    
• Create and deploy virtual machines in a service deployment—VMM 2012 introduced the concept of a service, which is a logical grouping of virtual machines that are configured and deployed together, and managed as a single entity. Services can be single-tier or multi-tier. A single-tier service consists of a single virtual machine that provides additional configuration settings to those provided by a virtual machine template. A multi-tiered service contains multiple virtual machines. For example a multi-tier service might consist of a SQL server tier, a Server App-V tier, and a Web App tier. You define a service by configuring a service template, which includes information about virtual machines that are deployed in the service. You can create a new service templates, or create a service template based on an existing virtual machine template. For more information, see the following resources:
  
  
  • For general information about deploying services, see Creating and Deploying Services in VMM.
    
    
  • For instructions on creating service templates, see How to Create a Service Template in VMM.
    
    
  • For instructions on deploying virtual machines as part of a service template, see How to Add a Tier to a Service Template.
    
    
• Rapid provisioning of virtual machines   In VMM, you can rapidly provision virtual machines by using storage area network (SAN) copy technology such as snapshot and clone. Rapid provisioning is available for stand-alone virtual machines and for virtual machines that are deployed as a service. For more information, see Rapid Provisioning of Virtual Machines Using SAN Copy Overview.