How do I install Windows Home Server in VMware Workstation?

You’ve used servers in the office on a day-to-day basis. Now, it’s time to start using a server at home. With Windows Home Server, you can easily back up, access, share, and store all your family’s digital media, but what if you can’t afford the equipment or do not have the resources? Don’t fret; Steven S. Warren shows you how to configure Windows Home Server in VMware Workstation.

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A server in every home is what the Microsofties are spouting about with Windows Home Server. Is it cool? I think so. But what if you don’t want to buy a Windows Home Server or allocate an old machine to load the Windows Home Server software? I figured out a way to load it in the virtual world. I have a Windows Home Server, and it backs up all my computers and files and resides in a virtual machine (VM) in VMware Workstation. I LOVED writing this tutorial. Let me show you how to do this.

Before we begin, you will need several downloads. If you do not already own VMware Workstation, you can download an evaluation copy at www.VMware.com. You will also need the Windows Home Server software, which is also available for a trial period. Furthermore, it is much easier to load a virtual operating system by creating an ISO image (see “Using WinISO to Build a Virtual Machine Installation Directory“) as opposed to running it directly from the DVD. The Windows Home Server (WHS) installation takes a good bit to load, so sit back and enjoy the ride.

Our first step is to configure our virtual machine by opening VMware Workstation from the Start (orb) menu. Once VMware Workstation is open, choose File | New Virtual Machine (Figure A).

Figure A

Next, choose Custom Install and choose Workstation 6 as the VM platform of choice, as shown in Figure B and Figure C.

Figure B

Figure C

Since Windows Home Server (Figure D) is not an option as a supported guest OS in VMware, choose Windows Vista and its location on your network (Figure E).

Figure D

Figure E

Now you can choose the number of processors you want to run. If you have a Duo core CPU, you can use two processors for your VM, which greatly increases the performance (Figure F).

Figure F

On the next window, set the memory to 512, as shown in Figure G, or your OS load will not be successful.

Figure G

On the Network Type Window, you can choose several types of networking. For the purposes of this example, choose Use Bridged Networking and for the I/O Adapter, choose BusLogic, as shown in Figure H.

 Figure H

You are now ready to create your virtual disk, as shown in Figure I.

 Figure I

On your Specify Disk Capacity, choose a disk size of 80GB. During the Windows Home Server installation, the disk is automatically partitioned. I spent a while trying to figure this out (Figure J). If you do not have a minimum of 80GB, the install will fail.

Figure J

Note: You can add more drives with larger amounts of disk space if you are going to use this scenario to really back up all your computers on your network. I purchased a terabyte backup drive for $200.00, and I added a 350 GB virtual disk to my Windows Home Server virtual machine.

You can now name your disk file, as shown in Figure K, and click Finish. Congratulations, as Figure L shows, you have now created the skeleton to load Windows Home Server.

Figure K

Figure L

Let’s move onto the next post, “How Do I Install Windows Home Server in VMware Workstation Part II?”