I'm planning on building 3x windows 10 VMs which will be 'identical' ie will have the same user logins and same hardware passed through.  Is there a quick way to deploy and maintain? I.e.

 

- build one machine (software, config etc) and then make 2 identical copies for the other VMs

- if I update the master e.g. install a new program, have an easy way to copy the changes to the other VMs?

 

Is there a way to run one 'real' VM, and for the ofher VMs to be just copies?

I did the following for Windows 7 VM:

 

 

Setup first VM got it working then copied the image file to a new directory on my cache drive.  Then setup new VM and set boot device to the copy of the image file.  Booted up the VM copy and changed the name of the Windows instance so I could boot up the original and not get errors in Windows about another computer on my network with the same name.

 

 

I would imaging it would work for Windows 10 as well but I don't have 10 so cannot confirm. 

I did the following for Windows 7 VM:

 

 

Setup first VM got it working then copied the image file to a new directory on my cache drive.  Then setup new VM and set boot device to the copy of the image file.  Booted up the VM copy and changed the name of the Windows instance so I could boot up the original and not get errors in Windows about another computer on my network with the same name.

 

 

I would imaging it would work for Windows 10 as well but I don't have 10 so cannot confirm.

 

Thanks - I thought something like that would be possible.

Basically the network and identification related stuff might need to be updated. Would not be good to have the same ip/mac address on multiple machines. Also the Computer name should be changed. You might even run into problems if the vm is the host or member of a workgroup, as each vm will want to be the host, or no one will be able to claim host on it. There are other probable hickups if the vm isn't in a vanilla state and has some network related stuff installed.

 

Beside that, obviously if you pass usb or other devices through, you will have to update the devices if you run multiple vm "clones" at once.

 

If you install from and to a ssd, or pool of ssds, installation will be a lot quicker then from optical media, and still a lot quicker then through a usb installation medium. So at a count of 3 total vms, i'd just install them in parallel and probably be done quicker then to change all the identification stuff later on.

 

I always had the feeling that windows was running smoother if it stayed on the hardware it was initially installed on, no matter if that hardware was of virtual nature or not.

 

If you install from and to a ssd, or pool of ssds, installation will be a lot quicker then from optical media, and still a lot quicker then through a usb installation medium. So at a count of 3 total vms, i'd just install them in parallel and probably be done quicker then to change all the identification stuff later on.

 

 

I think you'll be right - it's not like I'm deploying 100s of machines, so it shouldn't take too long.

Basically the network and identification related stuff might need to be updated. Would not be good to have the same ip/mac address on multiple machines. Also the Computer name should be changed.

The mac address will be taken care of when you setup the new VM in unRAID and the IP changes would be the same whether setup from scratch or copied if using DHCP or Mac address reservations static would take the same amount of time as well.  And as I said you need to change the computer name.  The only thing I would be worried about being a problem is reactivation.  That hasn't been necessary on Windows 7 as long as I keep them as identical as possible - same CPU count, same memory and same devices.  Also installing Windows 7 from scratch takes 36 hours to setup if you include all of the updates to get it current.  With Win 10 it should be minimal but would still require extra time that wouldn't be necessary if you just copied the image.  For me setting up the VM takes just minutes so even with different devices I can setup a copy of a VM very shortly - just have to activate Windows again - which is the real problem if you don't have many to spare.

I do use an update server, or local install scripts to compensate for Microsoft trying to make Win 7 unusable. Also possible to update the install Media itself to a degree.

 

The generous trial/test time always was long enough for my needs so far as well. That would be different if I would use it in a business, where I probably would have enough Keys anyway.

 

Updating still is the biggest hassle.

I do use an update server, or local install scripts to compensate for Microsoft trying to make Win 7 unusable. Also possible to update the install Media itself to a degree.

 

The generous trial/test time always was long enough for my needs so far as well. That would be different if I would use it in a business, where I probably would have enough Keys anyway.

 

Updating still is the biggest hassle.

I have done the slip streaming into an iso myself for drivers but can't say I've tried it for updates.  I'll have to see how to do that.  I figured it was Microsoft that was causing the problem with Windows 7 updates but I'm glad someone else can confirm that for me.

Well, it is not like microsoft does not give out updates anymore for windows 7, but they surely do not want you to stay or be happy with it. Windows XP got more Service Packs(atleast 3 official ones), and I am quite sure hundreds! of updates on windows 7 after SP1 would justify giving out a new SP. Also it is normal these days that updates fail on windows 7.

 

However, a clean directly updated install would be more performant, so you could not display how nice windows 10 is in comparison that way.

The program featured on this site is extremely helpful when deploying VM's.

http://download.wsusoffline.net/

You run it on any windows box (even XP) and it will download the updates from microsoft for multiple versions of windows (7,8,10, server 2008, server 2012, server 2016) to a local folder, and gives you an executable to run on the target box to automatically install those updates.

 

Cuts down on time and bandwidth tremendously when you are working with multiple fresh installs.