16 Virtual Box with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 VHD

 

Download link for Windows Server 2008 R2 VHD

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=16572

Extra the VHD file.

 

Start up VirtualBox and Click the New to create the New VM.

Fill in the name and select the Windows Version.

Select the VHD file where we just extract.

When you first start the error, you may get the error message as below if your Host PC is using SATA.

Username: administrator, password: Pass@word1 (Administrator account)

The above diagnostic procedure wont fix the issue as MSFT VHD image is created base on the IDE Hard disk. We will need to change the Virtual Box setting.

Delete the SATA Controller shows in the setting.

Add the new disk and select the VHD image.

Now you can start playing with the Windows Server 2008 R2 within the Virtual box.

Active the Windows

Without Activation the windows, we can use this for 10 days. After active it, we will have 180 days for evaluation.

After first VM is created and I want to create the another VM to build the 2nd Win2008 for my lab environment.

When I follow all the step as above, I run in to the UUID error. That’s because the Virtual box has create the UUID from the same vhd even I already copy it to the different directory and rename it.

Per Virtual box manual http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch08.html#vboxmanage-clonevdi, we need to useVBoxManage clonehd to create the new vm.

After some testing, it seems we have to clone the original (registered VM) and use its UUID from command line

VBoxManage clonehd "947631ef-be5e-450a-b093-f57fc91ef298" "E:\SG12\SG12.vhd" --format VHD

As Alternative, there is non document for testing only command

VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid

Above command can change the source vhd uuid and can be used to created the new vm with original ( non registered image)