Kick Your Mobile ADS Solution Up a Notch

Createvirtualnetwork.vbs creates the VM0 virtual network and automatically attaches it to the first host adapter it finds. If you have more than one host adapter in MobileP2V, you need to verify that the VM0 virtual network is bound to the same adapter that's running the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) service (in this case, 10.10.10.1).

Step 5: Load Virtual Machine Additions
To improve image deployment performance in Virtual Server 2005 R2, I recommend that you load driver files from Virtual Machine Additions (VMAdditions.iso) into the ADS Deployment Agent Builder service repository. If you do so, the ADS Deployment Agent Builder service incorporates the driver files into any source-computer image, which will reduce the amount of time required to deploy the image during migration.

In Virtual Server 2005 R2, Virtual Machine Additions are distributed on an ISO image file and are packaged in an .msi file for ease of installation. Thus, you can use one of two methods to obtain the three driver files you need. The first method involves copying Virtual Machine Additions.msi from the ISO file, retrieving the driver files from Virtual Machine Additions.msi with a tool that can extract files from an .msi file, and copying the driver files to the C: driver on MobileP2V. The second method involves copying the three driver files from a virtual machine on which Virtual Machine Additions has already been installed.

I'll assume you already have an existing Windows 2003 virtual machine that has Virtual Machine Additions installed, so let's take a look at the latter method:

1. Copy the three necessary driver files— msvmscsi.sys, vmadd_msvmscsi_sys.cat, and vmsrvc.sys—from the virtual machine to the MobileP2V machine's C:\temp directory. On the virtual machine, you'll find these driver files at
   • C:\Program Files\Virtual Machine Additions\msvmscsi.sys
   • C:\Program Files\Virtual Machine Additions\vmadd_msvmscsi_sys.cat
   • C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\ vmsrvc.sys
2. Copy the three driver files in the Mobile-P2V machine's C:\temp directory to its C:\Program Files\Microsoft ADS\nbs\repository\User\PreSystem directory.
3. To configure the ADS Deployment Agent Builder service, copy four files from the ADS and VSMT install points to the C:\Program Files\Microsoft ADS\ nbs\repository\User\PreSystem directory. Those four files are:
   • C:\Program Files\Microsoft ADS\nbs\ repository\Windows\intelide.sys
   • C:\Program Files\Microsoft ADS\nbs\ repository\Windows\pciidex.sys
   • C:\Program Files\Microsoft VSMT\ Samples\vsmt_scsi.inf
   • C:\Program Files\Microsoft VSMT\ Samples\vsmt_ide.inf
4. Restart the ADS Deployment Agent Builder service using the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) ADS snap-in.

The driver files from Virtual Machine Additions are now preloaded and will be used for any future image deployments. You don't need to perform these tasks again for subsequent migrations.

Ready to Migrate
You successfully installed IIS, Virtual Server 2005 R2, and VSMT 1.1 on your mobile ADS solution. In addition, you made some modifications to eliminate some annoying problems and provide better performance during image deployment. Your extended mobile ADS solution is now ready to be put to use. In case you're unfamiliar with VSMT, I'll explain how it works and demonstrate how to use the extended mobile ADS solution to perform a physical machine to virtual machine migration in a future article.