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Distributable Virtual Machines

Distributable Virtual Machines. IT Partners Conference June 2, 2010. Developing and Deploying at MIT. Background of VMs at MIT. IS&T licensed VMware for MIT December 2007 Thousands of staff & students at MIT started using VMware Workstation & Fusion Departments started creating/using VMs

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Distributable Virtual Machines

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  1. Distributable Virtual Machines IT Partners Conference June 2, 2010 Developing and Deploying at MIT

  2. Background of VMs at MIT • IS&T licensed VMware for MIT • December 2007 • Thousands of staff & students at MIT started using VMware Workstation & Fusion • Departments started creating/using VMs • DUSP • IS&T • Sloan • more • Need a better VM for everyone

  3. The Old Way – 2-8 hours • Create a VM • Install Windows • Apply Patches, Reboot, more patches, Reboot,even more patches (repeat) • Install software and configure • Copy VM files to new machines • Hope settings are right

  4. Downsides to the Old Way • Time consuming – 2-8 hours to create • Name conflicts • Windows SID collisions Problems adding to Windows domains • Windows machine name collisions • MAC Address conflicts • Identical user accounts (security risk) • Everyone’s VM is a little bit different • Support Nightmare

  5. Goals for Doing things Differently • Save time and effort • Creating VM • Installing & Configuring Software • Consistency (easier to support/troubleshoot) • Unique (accounts, SID, UUID & machine name) • Apply Best Practices including Security

  6. Approach for creating distributable VMs • Lots of different needs identified by multiple groups • Base Windows VM (SWRT) • Student VM (FSX & OEIT) • Business Applications (Business Help Desk) • Plus DLC VMs • Started several efforts until we discovered we were all working towards similar goals • Paused and brought the IS&T efforts together to provide a truly supportable and scalable Distributable Windows VM

  7. What would be better? Information Services & Technology

  8. The Future

  9. Distributable Windows VM • Windows 7 - 32 bit • Best Practices Security Policy • Configured for MIT’s WAUS and patched • Generalized (unique SID and other identifiers) • Targeted Audiences • Base VM for customizing by DLC (IT Partners) • Student VM (students) • Administrative Staff (faculty & staff)

  10. Licensing for VM’s OS • Usage up to 4 Windows VM per machine covered under MSCA • Key Management Server (KMS) with Windows 7 makes this transparent for users • Has to be on MITnet (VPN counts) at least once every 180 days

  11. Base VM • Designed for Local Technical Experts to create custom DLC specific VMs • Windows 7 (1 GB RAM, 40 GB HD) • Security Policies • MIT WAUS (updates applied) • VirusScan & VPN installed • Print through Host’s default printer • Microsoft SysPrep to Generalize • VMware (.VMX) Config file generalized

  12. Base VM Demo of generalization http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/display/istcontrib/Instructions+for+Generalizing+VM+for+deployment

  13. Student VM (Base VM +) • Student oriented or licensed software • Student Matlab • OpenOffice • NetBean & Eclipse • Emacs • And much more • Mirroring of Documents Folders • Helps keep user data off VM • Custom Background

  14. Student VM Demoof first launch

  15. Administrative Staff (Base VM +) • Faculty/Staff oriented or licensed software • Microsoft Outlook 2007 • SAPgui • BrioQuery • Insert more • And much more • Mirroring of Document Folders • Helps keep user data off VM • Custom Background

  16. Questions? • pvm-project@mit.edu • Jim Cain – OEIT – Experimental Learning Environments Team • jrcain@mit.edu • Jonathan Hunt – IS&T Faculty Student Experience Team • jmhunt@mit.edu • Blake Skinner – IS&T Software Release Team • bskinner@mit.edu

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