We were in Galisbay, Saint Martin training last week. (I know, it’s tough, but somebody has to do it!) Our host was Computech, a certified Microsoft partner who has build a substantial IT and development practice here over the last 12 years. They are investing in CRM 2011 as an XRM development platform in a big way, in addition to the amazing facility they built which is modeled after the Microsoft Technology Center concept, in Galisbay, Saint Martin.
One of the principals, Alain Roper, decided that he would use the new 64 bit Hyper-V functions of Windows 8 on his laptop for the training VMs, rather than going through the dual boot route with Windows 7 and Server 2008R2. While we ran into a few bumps along the way, he was able to successfully import the training VMs needed for the three courses we are teaching. (80294 Customization and Configuration in CRM 2011, 80444 Processes in CRM 2011 and 80295 Extending CRM 2011)
For CRM and other MCTs, this will be a huge improvement to the dual boot configurations we needed to set up to rung the training VMs on our laptops!
In any case, the first issue was pretty simple but affects all MCT VM setup. When you set up the Virtual Network in step 2 of the Hyper-V Classroom Setup Guides, the Windows 8 Hyper-V interface has changed to refer to the internal function as a Virtual Switch Manager instead of Virtual Network Manager. Other than that, the instructions are the same.
The other error occurs during the import of the VMs for the Applications and Customization course VMs, when there is a bad reference in both config.xml files to a directory that does not exist for both CRM2011APP-NYC-DC1 and CRM2011APP-NYC-CL1. After you run the VM-Pre-Import script in step 6, stop and modify the config files.
Existing Config DC1 file from folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft Learning\CRM2011\Drives\CRM2011APP-NYC-CL1\:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16" standalone="yes"?>
<configuration>
<SnapShotDataRoot type="string"></SnapShotDataRoot>
<ExternalDataRoot type="string"></ExternalDataRoot>
<vhd>
<source type="string">C:\Export – for testing\CRM2011APP-NYC-CL1\Virtual Hard Disks\Base10C-W7-HV.vhd</source>
<target type="string"></target>
</vhd>
<vhd>
<source type="string">C:\Export – for testing\CRM2011APP-NYC-CL1\Virtual Hard Disks\Win7-CL1.vhd</source>
<target type="string"></target>
</vhd>
<vhd>
<source type="string">C:\Program Files\Microsoft Learning\CRM2011\Drives\CRM2011APP-NYC-CL1\Virtual Hard Disks\CRM2011APP-NYC-CL1.vhd</source>
<target type="string"></target>
</vhd>
<VmStateCopied type="bool">true</VmStateCopied>
</configuration>
Change the two highlighted parts in both config.xml files to be “Program Files” instead of “Export – for testing” if you have this problem.
Many thanks to Alain Roper of Computech for his ingenuity and his firm’s wonderful hospitality! Here is a photo from my room. What a great place to work…
Stephen V. Noe, Solutions Architect & Trainer
