VMware: My favorite Windows 2008R2 template configuration

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Virtual Hardware (VMX) template configuration:

Hardware: Value:
Memory 2 GB
CPU’s 1
Video card Auto-detect video settings
VMCI device None
SCSI Controller 0 LSI Logic SAS, bus sharing: none
Hard disk 1 40 GB, Thin (after deploy always Thick)
CD/DVD Drive 1 Client Device
Floppy Drive 1 Removed
Network Adapter 1 VMXNET3, network: VM Network with DHCP (for joining domain)
General Options OS: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)
VMware Tools Advanced: Check and upgrade Tools during power cycling
Virtual Machine Version 7

 

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 template configuration:

– Install always the latest VMware Tools (in my case: ESXi 4.1 build 260247)

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– Change the CD/DVD Drive 1 from drive letter D:\ to X:\

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– Install VMware display driver: VMware SVGA 3D (Microsoft Corporation – WDDM)

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Driver located: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\wddm_video\

– Windows Updates: Install all available Windows Updates

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– Enable Remote Desktop Protocol: Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop (less secure)

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– Performance Options: selected: Adjust for best performance

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– Startup and Recovery: Change the default value from 30 seconds to 5 for faster rebooting. Write debugging information: Small memory dump (256 KB)

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– Disable UAC: Never notify when: Programs try to install software or make changes to my computer + I make changes to Windows settings

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– Disable Windows Firewall: Domain networks: Off , Home or work(private networks: Off, Public networks: Off (service must be enabled and started.. don’t change this)

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– Notification bar: Always show all icons and notifications on the taskbar

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– Customize Start Menu: Number of recent programs to display: 1 + Number of recent items to display in Jump List: 1 , and uncheck some options like “help” and “highlight newly installed programs”.

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– Internet Explorer: Turn Internet Explorer Enhanced Security off for Administrators. Leave it On for users.

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– Internet options: Use black + Check: Delete browsing history on exit

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– Account: Select for local Administrator account: Password never expires

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– Desktop: Show icons on the Administrators desktop

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– Folder options: Check Allows show icons, never thumbnails + Allows show menus + Display the full path in the title bar. Uncheck: Hide extensions for known file types

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– Remote Desktop: Disable restrict user single remote RDP session

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Location: MMC: Local Group Policy: Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Connections\Restrict Remote Desktop Services users to a single Remote Desktop Services session

Customization Specifications Manager:

 

– Use virtual machine name. This because I use sometimes scripts to deploy multiple VM’s with PowerCLI 

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– Join automatic the Windows domain

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– Always generate a new SID before you join a domain even it’s Windows 2008

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Enjoy your new template and deployment activities!!

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31 thoughts on “VMware: My favorite Windows 2008R2 template configuration

  1. Yesterday Christian Mohn (@h0bbel) says on Twitter: “Now turn that into GPO’s!”

    Good one, .. the reason I didn’t do that is because I need some servers wich I configure in DMZ or standalone. If I don’t configure this in the template I still need to configure this manualy

  2. Fair point on the standalone boxes – but if you configure it all at GPO level then no matter what kind of machine you join ( virtual or physical ) it’ll be set up right 🙂 How much template maintenance do you have to do ?

  3. Interesting. But, lots of works upfront could save u a lot efforts later.
    BTW, how about configure the time synch. for Windows system as part of the template?

  4. Default the server will sync with the domaincontroller(s), if standalone/non domain the server will sync with time.windows.com (default) because I’ve set the location settings in the specifications template (in my case: Amsterdam)

  5. Many of the options you configured (start menu, folder options, etc) are stored in user profile (Administrator in your case) and won’t apply to the users that will connect to the server later (because their profile will be created from the default profile). You have to replace the default user profile with your customized profile.

  6. Most in-secure configuration ever award! disable FW, disable UAC, disable IE ESC, Any version of RDP… Might as well use FAT32 as well.

  7. I don’t get the option to disable the firewall. A lot of System Administrators disabled the Firewall because they think it costs to much time.

    If you want to know what kind of traffic the server handles you can do the next thing.

    In our environment i configured a group policy that enabled the firewall settings (public, private etc) and configured two rules. one job that allows all incoming traffic and one rule that allows all outgoing traffic. In the rule i setup a log file with a maximum of 30 mb and a retention of 3 logsfiles. With any trouble you can see what happends en who was connected to the server.

    Further on, all the settings what you mentioned we have it also in our template W2K8R2 so good job 😀

  8. Use the Paravirtualized SCSI adapter instead of the LSI Logic. It gives better performance.

    How?

    – Shutdown VM
    – Add a new SCSI disk on 1:0. It will add a 2nd adapter automatically.
    – Change the second adapter to Paravirtualized (Change type)
    – Boot the VM (now it will install the drivers for the PV adapter)
    – Shut down VM
    – Remove the second disk and the 1st adapter. VMware will automatically hook the first disk up to the new adapter.
    – Start up VM to make sure it boots.

  9. I think the parav.SCSI is now fixed, in that it is not only for high io workloads. However the benefits of parav.SCSI are not that great if you check my website. I use to sing to all that would listen about the benefits but after doing some extensive testing I think for a microsoft server it is best to leave as vmware default of LSI Logic SAS.

    Now if only I can work out the correct way to use the tail license (180 Days) as a template that is activated on deploy from template… very frustrating.

    Aparently this is the way to do it, having tried everything else.

    —-http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2550978—-

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  12. I’ve installed the licensed VM-Ware ESXi 4.1 and, most of the time, it’s working perfectly. Randomly, however, I lose connectivity to the virtual machine having SAP Application installed on it. During this timeout period, the application struck
    at client end.

    General Server Details:

    HP DL380-G5 Proliant
    RAID level: 0 + 5

    Separate VLAN for management

    This, to me, indicates that the issue isn’t with networking outside of the ESX host, but rather within the virtual machine or the virtual switch. I’ve moved the VM to
    another ESXi host but the problem persists.

    Another curious sign is the ping latency from the Local Traffic Manager out to a VM node (same ESXi host):

    PING 172.16.xxx.xxx (172.16.xxx.xxx) 56(84) bytes of data.
    64 bytes from 172.16.xxx.xxx: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=7.25 ms
    64 bytes from 172.16.xxx.xxx: icmp_seq=2 ttl=128 time=9.26 ms
    64 bytes from 172.16.xxx.xxx: icmp_seq=3 ttl=128 time=10.2 ms
    64 bytes from 172.16.xxx.xxx: icmp_seq=4 ttl=128 time=10.2 ms
    64 bytes from 172.16.xxx.xxx: icmp_seq=5 ttl=128 time=9.12 ms
    64 bytes from 172.16.xxx.xxx: icmp_seq=6 ttl=128 time=10.3 ms

    — 172.16.xxx.xxx ping statistics —
    6 packets transmitted, 6 received, 0% packet loss, time 5035ms

    rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 7.252/9.421/10.319/1.091 ms

    @AndrewPWR:

    1. Nothing logged to any of the /var/log files that would be of any help.

    2. Performance graphs don’t indicate that I’m hitting any sort of ceiling.

    3. Outages last for 1 – 2 minutes, then traffic resumes on its own.

    After trying different methodologies, configuration, using different network latency test tool. In Last with the help of Mr. Marc (Sr. Infrastructure Specialist) @ SDN Singapore we have found that the bug is in VMXNET 3 driver, all the reports and statics has been forwarded to VM support center and after 1 week they have resolved this bug via releasing a driver patch, details are mentioned below.
    Name: ESXi410-201404001
    Ver: 4.1.0 Patch 11
    Release 2015-04-20
    Build: 1682698

    I will try my level best in future to identify these types of bugs, which will help us and other to run there all live applications flawless.
    Trying to Upgrade and Migrate on Latest Versions as well.

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