Non-persistent Win 7 VMs in a AD domain. How can we manage them (patches, etc)?

[smirza2]

We're seeting up an environment in which we have an AD domain with multiple Windows 7 systems (~12). Each Windows 7 system is locked down using group policies, and will be running only VMware Player. On VMware Player, we'll have a Windows 7 guest VM which is joined to the AD domain, and a Ubunut VM (no domain).

Doesn't sound so bad. Well the issue is that we're required to use non-persistent disks for the VM.

The obvious issue is applying patches (OS and application) and policies as they come out. Can't happen unless we switch to persistent disk, and back. But from the looks of it, this will have to be done manually on all 12 machines. I'm looking to avoid that.

Anyone implementing this, and find an easy way to manage the Windows VM? or anyone have suggestions (besides the obvious, don't use non-persistent disk).

[LucD]

Shouldn't you looking at Lab Manager for this kind of functionality ?

Or at least at Linked Clones ? See Keshav's post Creating a linked clone from a snapshot point in PowerCLI for a sample script. That way you patch the original and recreate the clones.

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Blog: LucD notes

Twitter: lucd22

[smirza2]

Thanks LucD.

So it sounds like we would need 12 parents VMs with their respective clones (since AD must have unique computers) on our vSphere server (ESXi). We could then update the parents as needed, and the clone would automatically be updated? or would we have to re-create the clone?

Also, how would the user at their desktop access the Linked Clone? Could they use VMPlayer? or would we have to get VMware View?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm new to cloning and vSphere. I've only used ESXi as standalone, and never was required to use non-persistant disks.

[LucD]

For patching, you will have to patch the master, create a new snapshot and recreate the linked clones.

I'm not sure I understand your question about access.

It would be exactly the same as you access the guest now.

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Blog: LucD notes

Twitter: lucd22

[smirza2]

Can I run the clone VM locally on the desktop using VMware Player, instead of off the vCenter Server using VMware View Client?

Reason for this is that we don't have enough processing and memory on the current vSphere server.

[LucD]

I'm afraid not.

And I don't understand why you need the VMware View client to connect to a guest running on an ESX server.

You can connect to the guest in multiple ways: web interface, RDP, vSphere Client...

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Blog: LucD notes

Twitter: lucd22

[smirza2]

LCD,

Thanks for all the assistance. It've been extremely helpful.

We're looking to limit the number of vm's they can acess, and the vmware demo video we saw showed them using View Client to access the guest XP desktops.

[LucD]

Then I suspect you have been looking at a VMware View demo video.

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Blog: LucD notes

Twitter: lucd22