Windows server 2008 test environment

bobby_valentino · 5 Jun 2008 at 13:08

I want to install windows 2008 server on a low spec machine just for genereal testing purposes, which AD and exchange etc...running, but was just wondering if theres any tool to emulate a client which connects to the AD on the same machine? I.e. windows 2008 installed as the primary OS on the machine but something either virtual or non virtual which will emulate clients XP/Vista connection to the AD. If theres any simple tool about or any suggestions...would be helpful, thanks!

Five_Star · 5 Jun 2008 at 13:32

I did this the other way round, installed virutal server then installed 2008, created the domain then installed Exchange and connected to the test domain from a laptop.
Server 2008 also ran very slowly through virtual server on my 2.6Ghz octo core machine with 1GB ram for the virtual enviroment so i'd hate to try it on a lower spec machine.

tbz_ck · 6 Jun 2008 at 15:36

Does it run acceptably with more RAM assigned to the 2008 vm?

Five_Star · 6 Jun 2008 at 17:11

tbz_ck said:
Does it run acceptably with more RAM assigned to the 2008 vm?

you know I've been too busy to test this actually, even though its a super simple change! I'll give it a go over the weekend if I have more time.

bobby_valentino · 12 Jun 2008 at 00:09

One thing thats reallly annoying is that exchange 2007 is x64 edition only. As im running a x86 without x64 capabilities, it makes testing really hard. I have heard that a x86 versoin of exchnage is available, but seems really scarse. Does anyone know if these are freely available ot download from microsoft directly??

PaulyJay · 12 Jun 2008 at 08:54

bobby_valentino said:
One thing thats reallly annoying is that exchange 2007 is x64 edition only. As im running a x86 without x64 capabilities, it makes testing really hard. I have heard that a x86 versoin of exchnage is available, but seems really scarse. Does anyone know if these are freely available ot download from microsoft directly??

If you access to MSDN it's on there or if not you can get it here;
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/bb736128.aspx