How to Template XP

[BDMcGrewVM]

Moring all! Since my installation is so small, I'm told that it doesn't really warrant the expense and hardware requirments of a VDI/View setup... Could be true, I only need to host 5 to 10 users, not a big setup, not a heavy load.

So, it's been recommened that I just put of a few copies of XP on the ESXi server and let everyone RDP to it. My clients are using Wyse V10L, Linux RDP and Mac RDP.

So, I'd like to be pointed in the direction of building a golden master of the XP installa nd then how to template it so I can easily roll it out for each new workstation. It seems that this information is a bit scare on the net???

Using ESXi v3.5 on an IBM x3400 with 2x2.6GHz, 24GB RAM and 4x500GB SATA drives...

Thanks,

-brian

[nick_couchman]

Well, if you truly want template capability, you'll have to go with vCenter as that is the ESX/ESXi add-on that let's you create and deploy templates. However, you can accomplish this on your own with a bit more work...

First, you want to set up your template machine exactly how you want it - install all the applications, etc. Then use Sysprep to prepare the image for deployment. After running sysprep and shutting down the machine, copy or move the disk files to a different location - these are your template disk files. Then, when you go to create a new machine, copy those disk files over to the new VM directory and add them to the VM configuration, removing the ones created with the new VM.

I'm sure someone out there has a script written that accomplishes much of this - check this forum, the ESX forum, and the Guest O/S forum and see if there's anything hanging around for this sort of scenario.