Virtrual Server 2005 on Vista

I've Virtual Server 2005 installed on Vista and am having trouble accessing
the web pages for Virtual Server.

Vista did not have IIS installed before Virtual Server, so the Virtual
Server setup, installed IIS for me (without requiring the Vista DVD I might
add).

Assuming IIS is installed correctly, I get the following message when I
attempt to open Virtual Server at
http://rc-wrkstn-12/VirtualServer/VSWebApp.exe?view=1

"Could not connect to Virtual Server. Please add the Virtual Server
administration website to the Internet Explorer trusted sites list".

Note that I have Virtual Server also installed on XP and it has no problem
with trusted sites.

Because IE7 is managed by domain group policy, the trusted sites list is
grayed out. However, I changed the GPO to include "localhost" (which
doesn't help) and "rc-wrkstn-12" (which also doesn't help).

The one thing that does work is to run IE as an Administrator, but Vista
takes a long time to start IE in this mode.

Any ideas on how to get Virtual Server to run on Vista?

--
Thanks,
Bob

Re: Virtrual Server 2005 on Vista

Hi David and thanks for the reply.

I don't think this would be a firewall problem because I have it shutoff via
domain group policy and Vista acknowledges that it is disabled via
firewall.cpl.

I believe I do have the latest VS as it is "Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1"

Are you saying that you are running "Virtual PC 2007" on Vista and do not
have the problems I am writing about?

I don't think I have a problem with IIS7 because I can access the VS from
outside of Vista (where it resides). i.e. Using IE on a Windows 2003
server, I'm able to open the VS web page on my Vista machine just fine. And
conversely, I can open the VS web page (from my Vista IE) that is running on
my Windows 2003 server just fine too. (Both Vista and Windows 2003 have
"Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1" installed running various virtual machines).
Ironically, it is just Vista that can not open its own Virtual Server; but
everyone else can!

As I originally wrote, "Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1" was installed before IIS
and therefore "Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1" somehow installed IIS on Vista.
I never needed to supply the Vista DVD to install it. You mention something
about needing to install CGI module to execute VSWebApp.exe. I don't know
what you mean by this. Is this some option I would find if I installed IIS
directly rather than the way I did it through "Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1"?
i.e. how do I install the CGI module? How can I tell if it is installed (as
it may already be in place for all I know).

All machines are up to date. i.e. they all have IE7 with all the latest
patches. WSUS server does this automatically for me.

Below are the results of NETSH FIREWALL SHOW CONFIG
(firewall is down at this point).

=============================================
Domain profile configuration (current):
------------------------------------------------------------ -------
Operational mode = Enable
Exception mode = Enable
Multicast/broadcast response mode = Enable
Notification mode = Enable

Service configuration for Domain profile:
Mode Customized Name
------------------------------------------------------------ -------
Enable No File and Printer Sharing
Enable Yes Network Discovery
Enable No Remote Desktop

Allowed programs configuration for Domain profile:
Mode Traffic direction Name / Program
------------------------------------------------------------ -------
Enable Inbound eyeBeam / C:\program files\counterpath\eyebeam
1.5
\eyebeam.exe
Enable Inbound bria / C:\program
files\counterpath\bria\bria.exe
Disable Inbound WinDVD / C:\program
files\intervideo\dvd8\windvd.e
xe
Enable Inbound Symantec Email / C:\Program Files\Common
Files\Sym
antec Shared\ccApp.exe
Enable Inbound Symantec Antivirus / C:\Program Files\Symantec
Ant
iVirus\Rtvscan.exe

Port configuration for Domain profile:
Port Protocol Mode Traffic direction Name
------------------------------------------------------------ -------

ICMP configuration for Domain profile:
Mode Type Description
------------------------------------------------------------ -------
Enable 2 Allow outbound packet too big
Enable 8 Allow inbound echo request

Standard profile configuration:
------------------------------------------------------------ -------
Operational mode = Enable
Exception mode = Enable
Multicast/broadcast response mode = Enable
Notification mode = Enable

Service configuration for Standard profile:
Mode Customized Name
------------------------------------------------------------ -------
Enable No Network Discovery
Enable No Remote Desktop

Allowed programs configuration for Standard profile:
Mode Traffic direction Name / Program
------------------------------------------------------------ -------

Port configuration for Standard profile:
Port Protocol Mode Traffic direction Name
------------------------------------------------------------ -------

ICMP configuration for Standard profile:
Mode Type Description
------------------------------------------------------------ -------
Enable 2 Allow outbound packet too big

Log configuration:
------------------------------------------------------------ -------
File location = C:\Windows\system32\LogFiles\Firewall\pfirewall.log
Max file size = 4096 KB
Dropped packets = Disable
Connections = Disable
=============================================


--
Thanks,
Bob

Re: Virtrual Server 2005 on Vista

Yes, I'm running Virtual PC 2007 on Vista Business and it just works.
But Virtual PC is not the same as Virtual Server.

Virtual Server itself requires port 5900 for functionality (the
details are fully documented in Virtual Server's Security
documentation). IIS is required only to access the VSWebApp.exe CGI,
which is basically a tunnel over port 80 to directly tweak any Virtual
Machine property via a web page. The actual Opening/Viewing of the
Virtual Machine is done over port 5900 -- so if you can only browse
port 80, you can't open/view Virtual Machines.

If you say the problem is that vista cannot access Virtual Server
itself, then that is probably a networking issue for Vista. I have
heard of people claiming issues of that sort, though I've never
encountered such behavior.


//David
http://w3-4u.blogspot.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang
//








On Dec 19, 1:24 pm, "Bob" <86c6c2e6-2146512...@news.postalias> wrote:
> Hi David and thanks for the reply.
>
> I don't think this would be a firewall problem because I have it shutoff via
> domain group policy and Vista acknowledges that it is disabled via
> firewall.cpl.
>
> I believe I do have the latest VS as it is "Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1"
>
> Are you saying that you are running "Virtual PC 2007" on Vista and do not
> have the problems I am writing about?
>
> I don't think I have a problem with IIS7 because I can access the VS from
> outside of Vista (where it resides). i.e. Using IE on a Windows 2003
> server, I'm able to open the VS web page on my Vista machine just fine. And
> conversely, I can open the VS web page (from my Vista IE) that is running on
> my Windows 2003 server just fine too. (Both Vista and Windows 2003 have
> "Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1" installed running various virtual machines).
> Ironically, it is just Vista that can not open its own Virtual Server; but
> everyone else can!
>
> As I originally wrote, "Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1" was installed before IIS
> and therefore "Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1" somehow installed IIS on Vista.
> I never needed to supply the Vista DVD to install it. You mention something
> about needing to install CGI module to execute VSWebApp.exe. I don't know
> what you mean by this. Is this some option I would find if I installed IIS
> directly rather than the way I did it through "Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1"?
> i.e. how do I install the CGI module? How can I tell if it is installed (as
> it may already be in place for all I know).
>
> All machines are up to date. i.e. they all have IE7 with all the latest
> patches. WSUS server does this automatically for me.
>
> Below are the results of NETSH FIREWALL SHOW CONFIG
> (firewall is down at this point).
>
> =============================================
> Domain profile configuration (current):
> ------------------------------------------------------------ -------
> Operational mode = Enable
> Exception mode = Enable
> Multicast/broadcast response mode = Enable
> Notification mode = Enable
>
> Service configuration for Domain profile:
> Mode Customized Name
> ------------------------------------------------------------ -------
> Enable No File and Printer Sharing
> Enable Yes Network Discovery
> Enable No Remote Desktop
>
> Allowed programs configuration for Domain profile:
> Mode Traffic direction Name / Program
> ------------------------------------------------------------ -------
> Enable Inbound eyeBeam / C:\program files\counterpath\eyebeam
> 1.5
> \eyebeam.exe
> Enable Inbound bria / C:\program
> files\counterpath\bria\bria.exe
> Disable Inbound WinDVD / C:\program
> files\intervideo\dvd8\windvd.e
> xe
> Enable Inbound Symantec Email / C:\Program Files\Common
> Files\Sym
> antec Shared\ccApp.exe
> Enable Inbound Symantec Antivirus / C:\Program Files\Symantec
> Ant
> iVirus\Rtvscan.exe
>
> Port configuration for Domain profile:
> Port Protocol Mode Traffic direction Name
> ------------------------------------------------------------ -------
>
> ICMP configuration for Domain profile:
> Mode Type Description
> ------------------------------------------------------------ -------
> Enable 2 Allow outbound packet too big
> Enable 8 Allow inbound echo request
>
> Standard profile configuration:
> ------------------------------------------------------------ -------
> Operational mode = Enable
> Exception mode = Enable
> Multicast/broadcast response mode = Enable
> Notification mode = Enable
>
> Service configuration for Standard profile:
> Mode Customized Name
> ------------------------------------------------------------ -------
> Enable No Network Discovery
> Enable No Remote Desktop
>
> Allowed programs configuration for Standard profile:
> Mode Traffic direction Name / Program
> ------------------------------------------------------------ -------
>
> Port configuration for Standard profile:
> Port Protocol Mode Traffic direction Name
> ------------------------------------------------------------ -------
>
> ICMP configuration for Standard profile:
> Mode Type Description
> ------------------------------------------------------------ -------
> Enable 2 Allow outbound packet too big
>
> Log configuration:
> ------------------------------------------------------------ -------
> File location = C:\Windows\system32\LogFiles\Firewall\pfirewall.log
> Max file size = 4096 KB
> Dropped packets = Disable
> Connections = Disable
> =============================================
>
> --
> Thanks,
> Bob

Re: Virtrual Server 2005 on Vista

I suppose it is documented that VS requires port 5900 (which I believe is
not available in a non-server version of IIS like that installed on Vista or
XP). However, VS does say it is supported on XP and Vista, albeit in
non-production use. And, as I mentioned before, XP can open the VS webpage
when installed on XP - and Vista too can open its own VS webpage (but it
requires IE to be started using the "Run As Administrator" to do so).

For these reasons, I suspect that VS may like to see port 5900, but it isn't
a mandatory requirement.

I did ask this question on the VS forum, but I didn't get too far. You have
provided much more insight into this issue, so I appreciate your help on
this!

Maybe I'll give Virtual PC 2007 a try. I forgot why I didn't like it. It
probably has something to do with features that VS provides that Virtual PC
does not. Too bad Microsoft can't blend the two together.

Thanks for your help on this!

--
Thanks,
Bob

Re: Virtrual Server 2005 on Vista

Actually, port 5900 is available on all Windows OS with TCP
networking.

Let me clear up the port requirements. TCP port 5900 is required for
the client control (whether it is the ActiveX control delivered via a
web brower or the built-in VMRC EXE) to *view* a Virtual Machine.
Since a Virtual machine can obviously start up and run without being
viewable, port 5900 is only a requirement to view a running Virtual
Machine. i.e. if you have RDP enabled on the guest OS, you won't need
port 5900 open on the Virtual Server host OS at all. You can remotely
start up the Virtual Machine using VSWebApp.exe over HTTP (default
port 80) and then use Remote Desktop to the Guest OS running Windows
2000 and later.

Perhaps IE needs to run as administrator to install/run that ActiveX
control which is launched to view a Virtual Machine over TCP port
5900. Otherwise, one can use Firefox as the client as well (I've done
this before and everything works other than the ActiveX control to
view the Virtual machine)..

Virtual Server and Virtual PC are meant for separate types of users.
Personally, I hardly fault Microsoft for this decision -- if it
blended them together, people would complain about software "bloat".
If it split them into distinct products, people complain about the
split of features. I think segmentation is a sound business idea. If
you ask a customer, they always want everything and pay nothing.
Someone has to make the business compromise in the middle.

In the case of virtualization, I look forward to Hypervisor.


//David
http://w3-4u.blogspot.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang
//








On Dec 20, 1:20=A0am, "Bob" <86c6c2e6-2146512...@news.postalias> wrote:
> I suppose it is documented that VS requires port 5900 (which I believe is
> not available in a non-server version of IIS like that installed on Vista =
or
> XP). =A0However, VS does say it is supported on XP and Vista, albeit in
> non-production use. =A0And, as I mentioned before, XP can open the VS webp=
age
> when installed on XP - and Vista too can open its own VS webpage (but it
> requires IE to be started using the "Run As Administrator" to do so).
>
> For these reasons, I suspect that VS may like to see port 5900, but it isn=
't
> a mandatory requirement.
>
> I did ask this question on the VS forum, but I didn't get too far. =A0You =
have
> provided much more insight into this issue, so I appreciate your help on
> this!
>
> Maybe I'll give Virtual PC 2007 a try. =A0I forgot why I didn't like it. =
=A0It
> probably has something to do with features that VS provides that Virtual P=
C
> does not. =A0Too bad Microsoft can't blend the two together.
>
> Thanks for your help on this!
>
> --
> Thanks,
> Bob