Getting Started with the SharePoint Demo Hyper-V Virtual Machine
The 2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine, (also known, at least by me, as the SharePoint 2010 Evaluation VM) is my favorite way to play around with SharePoint development. If you have a computer running Windows Server 2008 R2, you can get up and going quickly with the VM. The VM has everything you need in it to get going with SharePoint development – an operational installation of SharePoint Server 2010, Office 2010, Visual Studio 2010, SharePoint Designer 2010, SQL Server 2008 R2, Silverlight, and much more. This means that you can be writing code within minutes of installation of the VM. After downloading the VM, it takes less than half an hour to get up and going. In this post, I introduce a two-part video that walks through the process of getting the SharePoint Eval VM up and running.
Download: 2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine
The Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 instances used in these virtual machines are distributed without activation or a valid product key. You will receive activation notifications a few days after your first use, and expiration notifications after 120 days.
The Virtual Machines contained in this package are un-activated 180 day evaluations. They will require activation, or re-arming, after a 10 day period after which they will shut down after 2 hours of continuous operation. You can reset the activation clock a limited number of times (4 or less is what the setup guide indicates). Some time ago, I wrote a blog post, How to Install and Activate the IW Demo/Evaluation Hyper-V Machine, which walks through the process of connecting the VM to the internet and activating it, after which the VM will operate properly for 180 days.
I am going to be posting a few screen-casts in the near future about SharePoint, BCS, and some other fun topics. To make it as easy as possible for you to follow along in those screen-casts, I’ve recorded a 2-part screen-cast that walks through the process of getting the SharePoint Demo VM up and going. Those other screen-casts will take up where these screen-casts leave off.
Here is the first of the two parts:
Here is the second of the two parts:
In the next screen-cast, I’ll show you how to install the AdventureWorks demo database, and create an external content type (ECT) using a table in that database.
Mauricio Grimberg said,
August 4, 2011 @ 11:50 am
Packed data CRC failed in 2010-7a\Virtual Hard Disks\2010-7a.vhd
Eric White said,
August 4, 2011 @ 4:11 pm
Hi Mauricio, when did you get that error? When you were unpacking the rar files, or when starting the VM?
Thx Eric! said,
October 3, 2011 @ 4:57 am
The link to the old Demo VM no longer works. Microsoft appears to have replaced it with a newer (3-server) release: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27417
Eric White said,
October 3, 2011 @ 6:00 am
Thanks, I’ve updated the link! Also, the new VM already has the AdventureWorks database installed. However, the video that shows how to install it still has value, as it walks through creating an ECT using the Customers table from the AW database.
Michael Morisoli said,
November 3, 2011 @ 5:16 pm
I have downloaded, assembled and imported the VM for 2010-a (With SP1) just fine. The problem I am running into is there is no content to demo with.
The Intranet.contoso.com site is only a single team site. If I try to browse to any of the other sites like finweb.contoso.com or itweb.contoso.com it asks me to make a Template Selection to select the type of site, Team Site, Blank Site, etc…
There must be some type of script to setup some content and hopefully a walkthrough on how tips and shortcuts to demo this thing.
Any input or help is appreciated.
Thanks, Mike
Kim Hall said,
July 3, 2012 @ 2:37 pm
I am having problems importing the virtual machines. Have you run into anything like that?