Distributable Virtual Machines
Developing and Deploying at MIT
IT Partners Conference
June 2, 2010
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
Background of VMs at MIT
 IS&T licensed VMware for MIT
December 2007
Thousands of staff & students at MIT started
using VMware Workstation & Fusion
Departments started creating/using VMs
DUSP
IS&T
Sloan
more
Need a better VM for everyone
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
The Old Way – 2-8 hours
Create a VM
Install Windows
Apply Patches, Reboot, more patches,
Reboot, even more patches (repeat)
Install software and configure
Copy VM files to new machines
Hope settings are right
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
Downsides to the Old Way
Time consuming – 2-8 hours to create
Name conflicts
Windows SID collisions Problems adding to
Windows domains
Windows machine name collisions
MAC Address conflicts
Identical user accounts (security risk)
Everyone’s VM is a little bit different
Support Nightmare
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
Goals for Doing things
Differently
Save time and effort
Creating VM
Installing & Configuring Software
Consistency (easier to
support/troubleshoot)
Unique (accounts, SID, UUID & machine
name)
Apply Best Practices including Security
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
Approach for creating
distributable VMs
Lots of different needs identified by multiple
groups
Base Windows VM (SWRT)
Student VM (FSX & OEIT)
Business Applications (Business Help Desk)
Plus DLC VMs
Started several efforts until we discovered we
were all working towards similar goals
Paused and brought the IS&T efforts together
to provide a truly supportable and scalable
Distributable Windows VM
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
What would be better?
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
The Future
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
Distributable Windows VM
Windows 7 - 32 bit
Best Practices Security Policy
Configured for MIT’s WAUS and patched
Generalized (unique SID and other
identifiers)
Targeted Audiences
Base VM for customizing by DLC (IT Partners)
Student VM (students)
Administrative Staff (faculty & staff)
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
Licensing for VM’s OS
Usage up to 4 Windows VM per machine
covered under MSCA
Key Management Server (KMS) with
Windows 7 makes this transparent for users
Has to be on MITnet (VPN counts) at least once
every 180 days
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
Base VM
Designed for Local Technical Experts to
create custom DLC specific VMs
Windows 7 (1 GB RAM, 40 GB HD)
Security Policies
MIT WAUS (updates applied)
VirusScan & VPN installed
Print through Host’s default printer
Microsoft SysPrep to Generalize
VMware (.VMX) Config file generalized
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
Base VM Demo of
generalization
http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/display/istcontrib/In
structions+for+Generalizing+VM+for+deployment
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
Student VM (Base VM +)
Student oriented or licensed software
Student Matlab
OpenOffice
NetBean & Eclipse
Emacs
And much more
Mirroring of Documents Folders
Helps keep user data off VM
Custom Background
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
Student VM Demo
of first launch
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
Administrative Staff (Base VM +)
Faculty/Staff oriented or licensed software
Microsoft Outlook 2007
SAPgui
BrioQuery
Insert more
And much more
Mirroring of Document Folders
Helps keep user data off VM
Custom Background
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines
Questions?
pvm-project@mit.edu
Jim Cain – OEIT – Experimental Learning
Environments Team
jrcain@mit.edu
Jonathan Hunt – IS&T Faculty Student
Experience Team
jmhunt@mit.edu
Blake Skinner – IS&T Software Release Team
bskinner@mit.edu
IT Partners Conference – 6/2/2010 – Distributable Virtual Machines