Checklist: Configure Virtual Machines for Development and Test

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008

Virtual machines can help you recreate computing environments faster and more easily than by using only physical computers. The following table identifies the basic tasks required to configure a development and test environment.

Task Reference

Determine the networking requirements, including network isolation, of your test environment. Create virtual networks to support these requirements.

For information about planning virtual networks, see the Hyper-V™ deployment content at the Windows Server 2008 TechCenter (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=108560). For instructions about creating or modifying a virtual network, see Managing Virtual Networks

Create virtual machines to recreate the computing environment you want to test.

Create Virtual Machines [Longhorn]

Install the appropriate guest operating system on each virtual machine.

Install a Guest Operating System [Longhorn]

As necessary, log on to the virtual machine to interact with the guest operating system.

Connect to a Virtual Machine [Longhorn]

Take snapshots of the virtual machines before and after making changes that you want to verify, or might need to revert.

For instructions about using snapshots, see the Hyper-V operations content at the Microsoft Web site (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=108561).

Additional considerations

  • By default, membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. However, an administrator can use Authorization Manager to modify the authorization policy so that a user or group of users can complete this procedure.

  • You can use virtual machine snapshots to capture the state of a virtual machine while it is running. You can take multiple snapshots of a virtual machine and then revert the virtual machine to any of the previous states by applying a snapshot to the virtual machine. This can make it easier to diagnose the cause of errors by reducing the number of times you need to repeat a task or sequence. Use Hyper-V Manager or Virtual Machine Connection to take snapshots.

Additional references