I had mentioned in a previous post that I would be setting up a Windows 2000 server using OVM and here is a quick update.
First of all you are probably wondering “Why Windows 2000? Isn’t it obsolete?”. Good point, but we have some clients who use an older version of Oracle’s Communication Billing and Revenue Management software and it requires Windows 2000 for some of its functionality.
My biggest challenge was getting the ISO for Windows 2000 to work. This was not an OVM problem but related to the fact that I was using a Windows 2000 installation disk for Microsoft Partners. There was a tweak that was needed in one of the configuration files before W2K would boot correctly. After Googling around I found that answer and was able to proceed.
When I have a boot CD/DVD that I want OVM to reference when creating a new server I have several choices. I can mount the DVD/CD on the OVM server (mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom) and reference it. Unfortunately that doesn’t always work as I hoped so I prefer to do this instead.
I used the Linux dd command to copy the image to an ISO file on the OVM server, import it using the OVM Console and reference it there. That means I don’t have to keep a copy of the CD/DVD in the drive allowing me to spend more time in my chair!
Here’s a quick look at the import process. It is sort of a misnomer because you are really “registering” the ISO file so that OVM will “accept” it. The reason is that OVM assumes anyone could create an ISO file and submit it for use. OVM requires the “administrator” to approve and accept that ISO before it can be used to boot a new Virtual Machine.
This screen shot shows the screen where you specify that you want to import the ISO file so it can be used by the OVM Server. You can see in this screen the ISO’s that have already been imported.
And this one shows the screen where you can specify the specific ISO file to select. If you have saved the ISO file in the directory named /OVS/iso_pool the application will automatically locate it and show it as a selection under the ISO LABEL drop-down. In my case I created a subdirectory of /OVS/iso_pool/unix and /OVS/iso_pool/windows and placed the ISO’s for each type of operating system in them. The GROUP dropdown will reference UNIX or WINDOWS when locating any new ISO’s.
When creating a new Virtual Machine you have a choice to select an ISO image that will be used to boot the new VM. The screen for that selection shows the available (and approved) ISO images that have been imported.
