How to install Virtual Server 2005 R2 on Windows Vista RC1 x64
My mission this evening was to get Virtual Server 2005 R2 x64 to install on Windows Vista RC1 x64 build 5600. Lets just say that I hoped for the best and just ran the setup. After the installation completed with no errors I tried to update to Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta 2 which adds support for hardware-based virtualisation on my Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The installation succeeded but Virtual Server 2005's Administration site wouldn't load.
Thanks to this blog entry by Grant Holiday, I managed to install it. To summary do the following:
- Make sure that Internet Information Services 7.0 is properly configured and that all the required modules (e.g. CGI handler) are in fact loaded and configured. A simple way of doing that is from the command prompt using a rather long command:
start /w pkgmgr /l:log.etw /iu:IIS-WebServerRole;IIS-WebServer;IIS-CommonHttpFeatures;IIS-StaticContent;IIS-DefaultDocument;IIS-DirectoryBrowsing;IIS-HttpErrors;IIS-HttpRedirect;IIS-ApplicationDevelopment;IIS-ASPNET;IIS-NetFxExtensibility;IIS-ASP;IIS-CGI;IIS-ISAPIExtensions;IIS-ISAPIFilter;IIS-ServerSideIncludes;IIS-HealthAndDiagnostics;IIS-HttpLogging;IIS-LoggingLibraries;IIS-RequestMonitor;IIS-HttpTracing;IIS-CustomLogging;IIS-ODBCLogging;IIS-Security;IIS-BasicAuthentication;IIS-WindowsAuthentication;IIS-DigestAuthentication;IIS-ClientCertificateMappingAuthentication;IIS-IISCertificateMappingAuthentication;IIS-URLAuthorization;IIS-RequestFiltering;IIS-IPSecurity;IIS-Performance;IIS-HttpCompressionStatic;IIS-HttpCompressionDynamic;IIS-WebServerManagementTools;IIS-ManagementConsole;IIS-ManagementScriptingTools;IIS-ManagementService;IIS-IIS6ManagementCompatibility;IIS-Metabase;IIS-WMICompatibility;IIS-LegacyScripts;IIS-LegacySnapIn;IIS-FTPPublishingService;IIS-FTPServer;IIS-FTPManagement;WAS-WindowsActivationService;WAS-ProcessModel;WAS-NetFxEnvironment;WAS-ConfigurationAPI
- Install Virtual Server 2005 R2 x64.
- Stop the Virtual Server service from Services.
- Instal Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta 2 x64. Note that you will be prompted to install two signed drivers - go ahead, the install nicely.
The key here is making sure that IIS7 is configured as otherwise you'll be dead in the water. So far Virtual Server 2005 R2 x64 seems to run quite nicely under Vista RC1 x64.