Introduction to Microsoft

Dynamics® AX 2009 - Virtual PC

Setup Guide

Course Number: 80020A

Released: 8/2008
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Released: 8/2008
 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009 - Virtual PC Setup Guide iii

Introducing Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 ............................................................. 1

Host Machine Requirements .............................................................................. 1
Setup Overview .................................................................................................. 2
Activation Overview .......................................................................................... 2
Step 1: Obtaining Product Keys for Activation .................................................. 3
Step 2: Activating the Virtual Machines ............................................................ 3
Step 3: Installing Activated Virtual Machines on Student Computers ............... 5
Starting a Virtual Machine ................................................................................. 6
Closing a Virtual Machine ................................................................................. 6
 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009 - Virtual PC Setup Guide 1

Introducing Microsoft Virtual PC 2004

This hands-on lab is designed using Microsoft Virtual PC 2004. Virtual PC is a
technology that allows a single computer to act as a host for one or more virtual
machines. The virtual machines each run in a separate window on your host
computer.
The Microsoft® Windows® software that is installed into the virtual machines is
unmodified, full version software which operates exactly the same as it does
when it is installed on a physical computer.
The following definitions will help you with the remainder of this document.
 Virtual PC: An application from Microsoft that allows you to install and
run other operating systems. Virtual PC is not included with this hands-on
lab, but it can be acquired from your MSDN® subscription or purchased
retail.
 Host computer: This is the physical computer on to which an operating
system and the Virtual PC application have been installed.
 Host operating system: This refers to the operating system that is running
on the physical computer.
 Virtual machine: The virtual machine is the computer that is running inside
of Virtual PC. In this document Virtual PC refers to the application running
on the host and virtual machine refers to the guest computer that is running
in the application.
 Guest operating system: This is the operating system that is running inside
of the virtual machine.

Note: To issue the CTRL+ALT+DEL keyboard combination inside a virtual

machine, use <RIGHT>ALT+DEL instead.

Host Machine Requirements

The hardware of the host computer must be on the Microsoft® Windows®
hardware compatibility list. You can view this list by going to
http://www.microsoft.com/hwdq/hcl/.
The student computer requires the following hardware and software
configuration.

Note about Virtual Machine Performance

The virtual machines are configured to use 1 GB of RAM for the server image.
If you have 2 GB of RAM on the host machine, you may want to increase the
amount of ram available to the virtual machine. Running the virtual machine
with less memory may cause performance issues that will disrupt the class.
These include slow performance and memory overruns in the IIS memory pool
within the application.
2 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009 - Virtual PC Setup Guide

Hardware
The following hardware is the minimum required for the student computer:
 Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
 PCI 2.1 bus
 2 GB of RAM
 60-gigabyte (GB) hard disk
 512-kilobyte (KB) L2 cache
 DVD player
 8-MB video adapter
 Super VGA (SVGA) monitor (17 inch)
 Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
 Projection display device that supports SVGA 800x600, 256-colors

Software
The following software is required for the student computer:
 A default installation of Microsoft Windows XP Professional.
 The latest Windows XP Service Pack and all the current security updates
must be installed.
 A default installation of Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 with that latest service
packs installed.

Setup Overview
Each host computer for the student will contain 1 virtual machine. The virtual
machine is based on standard Microsoft Learning base virtual hard disks (VHD)
files. Due to size limitation the base images have been incorporated into a
single VHD file.
The following virtual machines are used:
 AX2009 -R, running Windows Server 2003 (based on AX2009 -R.vhd)

Activation Overview
The Windows operating systems installed in the virtual machines are not
activated. You must activate Windows in each virtual machine, before you can
setup the virtual machines on the student computers.
To activate and set up the virtual machines on the student computers requires
three steps:
1. Obtain a product key that you will use to activate the virtual machines.
 Note: You will only have to do this one time. You can use this product
key to activate virtual machines in any other course that requires
activation.
 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009 - Virtual PC Setup Guide 3

2. Activate each of the virtual machines.

 Note: You will only have to activate each virtual machine in a course
one time. You can use the activated virtual machines to set up all the
student computers every time you deliver the course.
3. Install the activated virtual machines on the student computers.
The steps are explained in more detail below.

Step 1: Obtaining Product Keys for Activation

To receive product keys that you will use to activate the virtual machines,
contact Microsoft Learning.
 Send an e-mail to mslpkd@microsoft.com.
The e-mail must contain your program ID (MCT, CPLS, or Certified Partner
number).
 Within 24 hours, you will receive a response e-mail to the e-mail address
that is stored with your program record, indicating the steps you must follow
to obtain your product keys.

Note: You will only need one product key for each operating system (Windows
XP Professional, Windows Server 2003, or Small Business Server 2003). You
can use the product keys to activate virtual machines in any other course that
requires activation.

Step 2: Activating the Virtual Machines

You need to activate each virtual machine with the product key that you
obtained in the previous step.
Once you have activated the virtual machines, you can set up those activated
virtual machines on each of the student computers every time you deliver the
course.
To activate the virtual machines, you need to perform the following steps:
 Extract the virtual machines.
 Register and configure the virtual machines, so that changes can be saved.
 Start each virtual machine, use your product key to activate the virtual
machine by using the telephone, and then shut down the virtual machine.
 Configure the virtual machines again, so that students cannot save changes.
These steps are explained in more detail below.

Extracting the Virtual Machines

1. Browse to the folder on your instructor DVD that contains the compressed
Virtual PC virtual machines.
2. Double-click the AX2009 -R.exe file.
3. Click Accept the End-User License Agreement (EULA).
4. Ensure that C:\Microsoft Dynamics\AX2009 is listed in the Destination
folder text box, and then click Install.
4 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009 - Virtual PC Setup Guide

5. When the WinRar® Self-Extractor has fully extracted the file it will
automatically register the image in the Virtual PC Console and boot the
image.
Note: If the Next Volume is Required window appears, place DVD 2 into
the DVD drive and click the OK button.

Extracting the virtual machines may take a several minutes.

Activating the Virtual Machines

1. When the Welcome to Windows dialog box appears, press
<RIGHT>ALT+DEL (instead of CONTROL+ALT+DEL).
2. In the Log On to Windows dialog box, complete the following information:
 User name: Administrator
 Password: Pa$$w0rd
 Click OK to log on to the virtual machine.
 After logon, a message box appears explaining that you must activate
this copy of Windows with Microsoft.
3. In the Windows Product Activation message box, click Yes to confirm
that you want to activate Windows now.
4. On the Let's activate Windows page, select Yes, I want to telephone a
customer service representative to activate Windows, and then click
Next.
 Note: You cannot activate the virtual machine over the Internet. The
current TCP/IP configuration of the network adapter in the virtual
machines makes it impossible to connect to the Internet. Also, the virtual
machine may not have all available security updates installed.
5. On the Activate Windows by phone page, click Change Product key.

Important: You must change the product key to the one you received from
Microsoft Learning. You cannot activate Windows with the currently
configured product key that Microsoft Learning used to create the virtual
machine. That product key does not allow activation.

6. On the Change product key page, in the New key text boxes, type the
product key that you received from Microsoft Learning for this operating
system, and then click Update.
7. On the Activate Windows by phone page, in the Step 1 drop-down list
box, select your location.
8. Dial the telephone number that is displayed in Step 2.
9. Follow the telephone instructions to activate Windows. This will take a few
minutes.
 After you have completed the activation process. You are logged on to
Windows.
10. On the Start menu, click Shut Down.
11. In the Shut Down Windows dialog, complete the following information:
 What do you want the computer to do: Shut down
 Comment (if displayed): Activated Windows and then click OK to shut
down Windows.
 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009 - Virtual PC Setup Guide 5

 Windows shuts down, and the virtual machine window closes.

Configuring the Virtual Machines to Enable Undo Disks

Note: This may cause a performance decrease depending upon your hardware
configuration. Using the Undo Disk feature can be used to go back to a
previous instance of the image before changes had been made.
1. In the Virtual PC Console window, select AX2009 -R and then click Settings.
2. In the Settings for AX2009 -R dialog box, change the following settings:
 Undo Disks setting: Enabled (select the Enable undo disks option)
 Close setting: Automatically close without a message and: Turn off
and delete changes
3. Click OK to close the Settings dialog box.

Important: Make sure that you store the (activated) virtual hard disk files
(*.vhd) plus the settings file (*.vmc) from the C:\Microsoft
Dynamics\AX2009 folder, so that they can be used later.
Each time the course is delivered, you can install the same activated virtual
machines on the student computers.

Step 3: Installing Activated Virtual Machines on Student Computers

The following steps need to be performed on each student computer.

Installing the Activated Virtual Machines

Note: The steps below require the files from the virtual machines that you
activated earlier. Do not extract the virtual machine from the instructor DVD
(AX2009.exe, for example), because it has not been activated.

1. On the student computers, copy the following files to the

C:\Microsoft Dynamics\AX2009 folder:
 AX2009 -R.vmc (settings file for the AX 40 Server virtual machine)
 AX2009 -R.vhd (virtual hard disk file, activated earlier)
2. Double-click each AX2009 -R.vmc file to Register the image file in the
Virtual PC console. This will automatically register the image in the console
boot the virtual image.
3. Verify that you can logon to the image and then shut down the image.
Using the instructions in the Closing a Virtual Machine section below.
4. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each of the remaining *.vmc files.
6 Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009 - Virtual PC Setup Guide

Starting a Virtual Machine

1. On the student computer, on the Start menu, point to All Programs, and
then click Microsoft Virtual PC.
 If the Virtual PC Console window does not appear, then right-click the
Virtual PC icon in the notification area (system tray), and click Show
Virtual PC Console.
2. In the Virtual PC Console window, select the virtual machine that you
would like to open, and then click Start.
 Note: Depending on your time zone, the fist time you start each of the
virtual machines, you may receive an error message that the parent
virtual hard disk appears to have been modified. You can ignore this
message.
3. The virtual machine will start up in a new window.

Closing a Virtual Machine

1. On the student computer, in the virtual machine window, on the Action
menu, click Close.
2. The virtual machine window will close. All changes to the virtual hard disk
are discarded.