Creating a Test Bed

A test environment (or test bed) can be used for testing, learning, experimenting, and practicing. It includes one or more systems that can be completely isolated, connected to each other, and in some instances given limited connectivity to the live network. A virtual test bed is one or more virtual systems created in a virtual environment such as Microsoft Virtual PC or Windows Virtual PC.

Figure below shows a virtual network hosted on Windows 7. It includes two virtual systems- one running Active Directory as a domain controller and one running Windows 7 as a client in the domain. If you're running Windows 7, this is relatively easy to set up using the exercises in this tutorial.

Windows 7 can run both Microsoft Virtual PC and Windows Virtual PC. Either of these products can be used to create a test bed on your local Windows 7 system. As a reminder, Microsoft Virtual PC is the older product run on Windows XP and Windows Vista. Windows Virtual PC (VPC) is the newer product that can also host Windows XP Mode to run virtualized applications.

Your system should have at least 3 GB of RAM for satisfactory performance. You can use 1 GB (1024 MB) for the virtual server running Windows Server 2008, 1 GB for the virtual desktop running Windows 7, and 1 GB for the host operating system. If necessary, you can use as little as 512 MB for Windows Server 2008 VPC, though the performance will be slow.

More RAM is always better. Running a 64-bit system with 6 GB of RAM, so I have given each of the VPCs 1.5 GB (1536 MB), leaving 3 GB for the host.

In this tutorial, we'll build on those skills to create a virtual network that includes a domain controller and a Windows 7 system.