Re: Using VMWare Workstation for training

le_sloth · ‎02-25-2010

Hi

We currently use VMWare Workstation 6.5 for development and testing purposes. I am trying to find a solution that would meet our needs when training users of our software but am a bit confused as to which of the VMWare products would be the best fit.

Our product is normally deployed across workstations and a server or two (we use SQL Server Express). In training sessions each user needs to be able to have a complete installation on their laptops i.e. both our workstation components and the SQL Server database. They do not however want to have to install SQL Server on each laptop!

I was thinking that if I set up a VM using VMWare workstation, with everything pre-configured (running Windows XP, SQL Server Express etc.) then this would mean that we have complete control over their setup (i.e. they are all running the same configuration).

Questions here:

1) Is it possible to package up the VM onto a USB memory stick and/or make available for download before a training course? Ideally this would require little or no installation by the end-user.

2) Would there be any licensing considerations (e.g. Windows XP licenses) if I was to clone / copy the VM many times? (one copy per attendee)

3) Which of the VMWare products should I use to do this?

There is a mention of this sort of scenario on the Workstation product pages, but it doesn't go into much detail (see the bit "For Teachers and Trainers").

many thanks

Richard

WoodyZ · ‎02-25-2010

Every copy of Windows you make of the target Virtual Machine containing Windows requires a license!

You could use VMware Player to run the Virtual Machine however if you plan to copy a Virtual Machine to a clients Notebook then how do you expect to control it from not being used beyond the training?

You may want to look at VMware ACE.

le_sloth · ‎02-25-2010

Hi

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I had started to look at ACE. I'd certainly want to be able to stop the VM from being used beyond the training, either by physically taking the USB stick back or by some sort of time-limited policy set in ACE.

Unfortunately when I tried deploying my VM as a Pocket ACE package, it failed at the last step with "deploying pocket ace did not complete" :(. Couldn't see why as had plenty of disk space etc.

So for each attendee, I'm looking at:

16Gb USB stick
Windows license
ACE Client license

Anything else I've missed? I suppose the VMware ACE 2.6 Starter Kit would be a good start?

thanks

Richard

le_sloth · ‎03-02-2010

Anyone got any advice / answers to this?

Pretty frustrating really - have emailed VMWare asking similar questions but no response after 2 weeks. Surely this is a pre-sales issue? (I may need to buy ACE licenses). ?:|

StuartV · ‎03-02-2010

If you don't want them to be able to continue using your software after training, giving them a USB drive to connect to their laptop is not going to prevent them from doing so. Even a moderately savvy user could copy the VM image off your USB drive onto their laptop.

If you really want to do that, it sounds to me like you would need to supply your own server for training and let them remote into it. You could build a complete training lab with a bunch of VMs on one ESX (or ESXi - free!) server.... Clone the ESX server as many times as needed to accomodate your maximum number of students. Or, nowadays, you can get laptops with Intel i7 Quad Core Hyper Threaded CPUs, gobs of RAM and SSD drives. You could use VMWare Server (free) and one or more laptops configured that way, instead of building ESXi servers. And then still have the students remote into VMs for the training.

dkelloway · ‎03-04-2010

Here is what I have done to achieve a similar goal of providing a Training Lab on the use of my organization's software product for up to five (5) attendees at a time:

Purchased a system from Shuttle.com, with a 2GHz Intel Quad Core CPU, 16GB of memory and 1TB 7200RPM HDD. (cost $2,200)
Downloaded Ubuntu 64bit Desktop Edition
Purchased a Microsoft MSDN License for Operating Systems
Purchased VMWare Workstation for Linux

Next, I performed the following:

Install Ubuntu 64bit with a minimal footprint and GNome Desktop
Install VMWare Workstation, then configure VMWare Workstation settings appropriately
Install a series of VM Guests with various operating systems, including Windows 2003, Windows XP, RH Linux, etc. that will be referred to as "MASTERS". Note: Install whatever software that is common amongst all users
Make five sets of Clones (Full, not linked) of the MASTERS, appropriately naming each set of clones for a specific user (i.e. "U1-Win2K3", "U1-WinXP", "U1-RH", "U2-Win2K3", "U2-WinXP", "U2-RH", etc.)
To each VM, make the necessary network changes, as well as whatever changes are necessary for the common software applications that were installed to ensure differentiation between VM's. Afterwards I Snapshot each VM, then enable the "Revert to Snapshot" feature.
Within each VM of which a Student (Attendee or User) would require access, I enable the Remote Display feature using a specific port.
To each attendee, I provide a USB which contains the TightVNC Viewer along with a configuration file reflecting the specific IP address and Port that would be required to connect remotely to the VM the attendee will have access.
Each attendee is asked to run the VNC Viewer on their system (no installation of software is necessary) and establish a connection to a VM Guest using the provided configuration file.
Within the VNC Viewer which is now running, I ask each attendee to maximize (Full Screen) the display and from this point forward, each attendee is working within their own respective VM.

In closing, it is with the above hardware and some major tweaking of the operating system within each VM Guest, I have been successful with running 30 VM's at a time, to accommodate six (6) attendees in total to acheive the goals necessary. For others, you could allocate more memory to each VM, however reducing the number of VM Guests capable of being run simultaneously...

Message was edited by: dkelloway to reflect formatting changes

le_sloth · ‎03-04-2010

Hi Stuart

Thanks for the helpful answer. Could you please explain what you mean by "let them remote into it..."?

You said that "a moderately savvy user could copy the VM image off your USB drive onto their laptop" - I agree, which is why I was hoping someone would recommend VMWare ACE as this seems to take care of that issue.

thanks

WoodyZ · ‎03-04-2010

Could you please explain what you mean by "let them remote into it..."?

Look at dkelloway's reply in this thread.

You said that "a moderately savvy user could copy the VM image off your USB drive onto their laptop" - I agree, which is why I was hoping someone would recommend VMWare ACE as this seems to take care of that issue.

In the first reply I said "You may want to look at VMware ACE"

le_sloth · ‎03-04-2010

ah yes, I've re-read dkelloway's reply and the remoting bit makes more sense now (think I was thrown off-course by some of the earlier complexities!)

Sounds like I've got 2 potential solutions here. Now to find someone to put all of this together for me....

thanks everyone

StuartV · ‎03-04-2010

When I said "remote in", I was referring to using Remote Desktop Connection - an application that is included in Windows. If your students are using Windows laptops, they should already have Remote Desktop or be able to install it easily.

I'm not a VMWare expert. I don't even know what ACE is. You'll have to figure out for yourself (or by asking somebody besides me if ACE makes sense to fit into your scenario. All I really intended to say is that using VMWare Workstation images and distributing them to your students on flash drives won't allow you to achieve all your stated goals.

Good luck with it!