Howto create a New Virtual Machine

Creating a new virtual machine is very easy but if you only create once in a blue moon, you will definitely forget the process. In my case, I need to create a new virtual machine for development one or two virtual machines in a year.

How will I resolve this problem? Simple answer, create a procedure. In IT world, manuals and procedures are admins best friend.

Here's a step-by-step procedure on how to create a New Virtual Machine. Please don't hesitate to post your comment at the end of this article.

Login to vSphere Client, if you're in Cluster (two or more physical servers), select where to create a virtual machine. The idea behind cluster is to load balance your physical servers (hosts), if one server is down, the other server will be able to take the load.

There are some ways to create a new virtual machine. You can select the Server (or IP Address), right click and create a New Virtual Machine. The other approach is select the server, click on Virtual Machine tab, then right click, then select a New Virtual Machine.


Click the Next button to continue.

In Name and Location. This is where you put the name of the new virtual machine, and in Inventory Location, select DataCenter, click Next to continue.

In Storage, select the destination storage for the new virtual machine files. I am using the EqualLogic with a total 4.7TB, this where I'm going to put my files for the new virtual machine. I select EqualLogic, and click Next to continue.

In Guest Operating System. This is where you select the operating system to load. In this example, I select Windows, version Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64bit). As of this date, this is the latest version of windows server operating system.

In Network. How many NICs do you want to connect? I select 1, the server will be use for development and testing of softwares. Check the Connect at Power On. Click Next to continue.

In Create a Disk. This is where you specify the virtual disk size and provisioning policy. For my development server, I create a virtual disk size of 100GB. Click Next to continue, and click Finish.

This complete the creation of a new Virtual Machine. By default, the new virtual machine is powered off, and the CD/DVD is not connected. You need to check to connect the CD/DVD for you to install the windows operating system.

That's all.

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