VSTS VPC Image (or The Quick and Easy Way To Get VSTS Beta 2 Up and Running)
Rob Caron gave me a copy of the VSTS VPC image at Tech Ed. I believe you will be able to download this image as well at some point in the near future. This was the same image that people were using for demos and what-not, so I've decided to use it as well.
The VPC comes with the following installed on it:
- Server 2003 Standard
- Team System Beta2
- 2.0 Framework
- SQL Server CTP
- Office 2003 Standard
- Live Communicator Server 2003 - I wasn't expecting this.
I pop the disk into my DVD drive, and it autoruns and asks me to agree to the End User License. I take my time and read the license (NOT), click Accept, and Click Next. This opens the readme file.
Per the readme file, here are the minimum system requirements for running this VPC image:
- PC with 2.0 gigahertz or faster processor
- 1.5 GB RAM minimum
- 10 GB available hard disk space
- Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher video
- DVD-ROM drive
- Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 SP1 software
I match all of those but the RAM requirement. I only have 1GB in my laptop. But I feel confident. I've been using this laptop for all by other VSTS Betas, so I'm used to it being a little slow.
Following the readme instructions, I double-click on the VSTSBeta2BaseImage.part01.exe file, to get off the self-extraction. This opens the EinRAR Self Extracting Archive app, and asks you where you would like to extract to, and then unpacks the following two files:
- VSTSBeta2.vhd (8.67GB)
- VSTSBeta2.vmc (11K)
The installation took about 15 minutes to complete. The green installation bar will get all the way across the screen long before the installation is actually finished.
Time to hook up the VPC now. I started up Microsoft Virtual PC. I click the "New" button, and it starts the New Virtual Machine Wizard. I click Next. I select "Add An Existing Virtual Machine" and click Next. I click Browse, and select the VSTSBeta2.vmc that was installed earlier. I click Finish.
Voila! My VPC is installed and ready to go. Now to try and see if I can squeak enough memory out of my laptop to make it run. I reboot my laptop, and then go into services and shutdown everything I can think of, especially virus scanning, spyware scanning, and other programs taking up a lot of memory. I go into the settings for the VPC we just set up, and change the memory for it to be 640MB and then try and start the VPC.
It works! Agreed, it’s a little slow, and I only have about 100MB of free memory to handle my laptop, but it works! I'm able to get logged into the VPC, where I promptly steal the background image for use on my laptop (it’s the same image you saw at all the Tech Ed Demos). The VPC is slow to boot, but once it gets up and running, the performance is not that bad. Obviously it would be better with more memory, but it is good enough for me to take it for a spin.
Now, if anyone would like to hook me up with a new machine with more memory, say a Tablet PC with 2GB of RAM for example, or heck, just a good desktop, I'd be glad to evaluate such a setup for you… :D
So now I am ready to go and begin delving into Beta 2. Here we go!
Finally:
Omar Villarreal has some things you should know about the VSTS VPC DVD. Good stuff to know.
This link lead me to a post at Graceworld about what you can and can't use the SQL Server 2005 June CTP with. Basically, it will not work as the backend for Team Foundation Beta 2, but you can connect to it with VSTS Beta 2 to use it for development purposes.