Virtualization Machine (VM) Factory – Getting Started with your own factory

Here is a checklist on how to get your own factory running … for some it will be easy (Extended Rangers), moderately easy (External Rangers) and for the rest a “once-off” time intensive adventure. The difference in simplicity exists mainly because of licensing and inability to share all the bits, however, we are running an investigation that will enable us to deliver a “simple” and “quick” solution to all users.

The details can be found in the document “Visual Studio ALM Rangers VM Factory” which is hiding in https://vsarvmfactory.codeplex.com/releases/view/41464#DownloadId=109601 and "how to's" in https://vsarvmfactory.codeplex.com/releases/view/46352.

To cut a long blog post short, let’s look at the steps ( indicates where a cup of hot and strong coffee may be a good idea):

#		Extended Visual Studio ALM Ranger (MSFT)	Extended Visual Studio ALM Ranger (MSFT)	Public Domain
1		Ensure you have a Hyper-V server, with roughly 100GB free disk space and 2GB RAM to run an instance of the factory in a virtual machine.	Ditto	Ditto
2		Copy the Starter factory from \\willys-cave\VMFactoryExports\Starter factory to your machine and unzip.	Download the Starter factory from CONNECT to your machine and unzip.	Create a new virtual machine and setup MDT. You can refer to the documentation and how-to videos as mentioned previously for the details.
3		Setup your factory as per this blog: Creating your own factory	Ditto	As above
4		Sync from one of the known and trusted Ranger factories. Contact us for details.	When available, sync from one of the known and trusted external Ranger factories. Alternatively see “public domain” step on the right.	Download the latest DeploymentShare package from https://vsarvmfactory.codeplex.com/. Refer to the README within the Zip and proceed as per instructions.
5		Test the VM factory as per documentation on https://vsarvmfactory.codeplex.com/ or preferably as per topic “Testing the Virtual Machine Factory (VM Factory)” in the Lab Management Guidance document. Good reference: How easy is it to use it?	Ditto	Ditto
6		Enjoy the automated and consistent installation and configuration of the configured and supported task sequence (images).	Ditto	Ditto
7		Customize existing or create your own task sequences to get optimal value.	Ditto	Ditto

Simple … :)

Finally, if you want to use the factory peruse How easy is it to use it?