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SCVMM Library/Templates
Hi,
I am currently installing SCVMM 2008 R2 - I am a little confused by the concept of the library. As far as I can tell the library holds a repository of configuration files but it is unclear where I can store all the various templates that I will use in order to build new servers.
It was recommended in articles that you use the SCVMM itself to hold the library but depending on capacity i'm not so sure this is the perfect solution. I was thinking of creating a share on a NAS and mapping it so that I could keep a larger repository.
What do other people use in order to achieve this?
Regards
I am currently installing SCVMM 2008 R2 - I am a little confused by the concept of the library. As far as I can tell the library holds a repository of configuration files but it is unclear where I can store all the various templates that I will use in order to build new servers.
It was recommended in articles that you use the SCVMM itself to hold the library but depending on capacity i'm not so sure this is the perfect solution. I was thinking of creating a share on a NAS and mapping it so that I could keep a larger repository.
What do other people use in order to achieve this?
Regards
ASKER
Sorry for the delay on the reply,
While I understand your concept of resources I am still unclear on where to store certain files.
I have created the library on a new .vhd file which is attached to the SCVMM server as a second drive. I take it that this is where I can define the templates.
"However templates, hardware profiles and guest OS profiles don't have physical representation in the library share, they are stored in database."
When you mention database what exactly do you mean? Where does this need to reside so SCVMM can use it to create the vhd files.
The reason I am asking is that previously I have created a number of VMs that I use as templates. When I want to use one to create a new server I copy the .vhd file and adjust settings then manually deploy. What I am trying to work out is how SCVMM can do something similar in order to automate this process. Do I need to add another library server with all these customised VMs I wish to call?
Sorry for the confusion.
While I understand your concept of resources I am still unclear on where to store certain files.
I have created the library on a new .vhd file which is attached to the SCVMM server as a second drive. I take it that this is where I can define the templates.
"However templates, hardware profiles and guest OS profiles don't have physical representation in the library share, they are stored in database."
When you mention database what exactly do you mean? Where does this need to reside so SCVMM can use it to create the vhd files.
The reason I am asking is that previously I have created a number of VMs that I use as templates. When I want to use one to create a new server I copy the .vhd file and adjust settings then manually deploy. What I am trying to work out is how SCVMM can do something similar in order to automate this process. Do I need to add another library server with all these customised VMs I wish to call?
Sorry for the confusion.
ASKER
After re-reading the question I am really trying to figure out is where should these template .vhd files reside and how do I set up SCVMM to be able to call these when I want to build from these templates.
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ASKER
Thanks Shahid.
I will play around with it and give it a go. My concern was running out of storage space to store these templates as some of them can be sizeable.
I will play around with it and give it a go. My concern was running out of storage space to store these templates as some of them can be sizeable.
The library can store the various types of resources:
Virtual hard disk files (.vhd, .vmdk), PowerShell script, Sysprep answer files, ISO images, Virtual floppy disk (.vfd, .flp). In additon to those, you can also store entire VMs in the form of templates or offline VMs. You can also store Hardware profiles and guest operating system profiles.
However templates, hardware profiles and guest OS profiles don't have physical representation in the library share, they are stored in database. Meaning if you go look at the share, you won't find anything corresponding to those resources.
To answer you question your templates will reside in the database but the VHD(s) the templates are linked to will be present in the share.
It was recommended in articles that you use the SCVMM itself to hold the library but depending on capacity i'm not so sure this is the perfect solution. I was thinking of creating a share on a NAS and mapping it so that I could keep a larger repository.
So if the share is mapped to the VMM server, wouldn't that mean the VMM server is holding/hosting the library share? If the share is mapped to any other server and then the share is added to the library, I think that would make it sort of a remote share...which is it?