Today, we're going to install Windows Server 2016 in a virtual machine using
the Virtualization Station of a QNAP TS-451.
Since the QNAP is up and running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with such low power consumption,
my intent is to set up a Windows VM so I can log into it using Remote Desktop, at any time
from any computer in the house.
I'd also like to be able to share files between the VM and the host QNAP, so I'll be setting
up a network folder within the VM as well.
So what could you do with a VM that runs 24/7?
Well, you could use it as a mail or web server, you could use it as a torrent server, or even an application
server for legacy Windows programs.
With the ability of Virtualization Station to take snapshots of your VM, you can also
use it as a sandbox where you could perhaps install trial or test applications.
The QNAP, by default, comes with 1 GB of memory, but as I've shown in one of my previous videos,
I've expanded that to 16 GB.
QNAP's minimum requirements for using Virtualization Station is 2 GB, and the officially supported
amount of RAM is 8 GB, but it will actually accept 16.
The first thing I'll do is log into QNAP's QTS operating system.
To illustrate the changes I've made to the hardware, I'll visit the Control Panel, and open System Status.
You can see that I've installed 16 GB of memory in my QNAP.
At the time of publishing this video, I've been able to use all 16 gigs by assigning
portions of that pool to multiple VMs.
Of course, should QNAP ever enforce the maximum of 8 GB, there is the risk that things will
stop working. So if you want to stay on the safe side, you might want to stick with 8 GB.
Returning to the Control Panel, I'll go to the Networking and Virtual Switch section
to show you how I have my network set up.
I use static IP addresses on my network, so I have static IPs of .120 and .121 assigned to my ports.
Remember, the QNAP has two LAN ports, so one port needs to be assigned to be used by the
virtual machines using a virtual switch, while the other port will be used by the host QNAP.
I've previously published a video showing you how to aggregate the two ports, but if
you plan to use a VM, you're going to need to undo the link aggregation.
As you can see in the Overview, the QNAP uses .120 as the gateway, so I'll use .121 as my virtual switch.
What you'll need to do is hit the Advanced switch at the bottom here
to unhide the Virtual Switch selection.
Once you're in, and close out the welcome screens,
you can click Add, where you can configure the switch.
I'll select Advanced Mode to select Adapter 2, which is .121
and then assign the switch to a static IP - the same IP I'm using for the port.
Remember, this is the IP address for the switch, not the VM itself.
We'll assign the IP address for the VM later.
After clicking Next, then Next again to keep the defaults, and then Apply, QNAP will then
proceed to create the Virtual Switch using Adapter 2.
Clicking Overview shows you how the networking is now set up.
In File Station, you'll see that I've already created a folder called VM, and in that folder,
I've downloaded an ISO image of Windows Server 2016.
You can download this from MSDN if you have a subscription, or the imagine.microsoft.com
website where you can even receive a valid student license if you're a student and you
attend a university that's on their approved list.
I've already installed Virtualization Station 3, but if you haven't done so, you can download
it and install it from the App Center.
This is a free app from QNAP, and the only pre-requisite is to have 2 GB of memory on the TS-451.
I'll go ahead and launch the Virtualization Station -
let me move the window up a bit -
where you can see there are no VMs currently installed.
Here's another option for obtaining a perfectly valid Windows license.
Microsoft provides VMs to evaluate Edge or Internet Explorer on various Windows operating
systems, but keep in mind that these are 90 day trials.
At any rate, I have a valid license of Windows Server 2016 so I'll set it up for that.
Let's click on Create VM.
Now let's give it a name: Windows Server 2016.
As you type the name - for example, I'll start with the W of Windows - it will pre-populate
the OS Type and the Version of Windows in their respective fields.
Once I type the word "Server", the Version defaults to Server 2016.
I do have to use both cores in the Intel Celeron J1800 processor that powers the QNAP.
You can then give it a description if you want.
I'll assign 4 GB of memory by entering 4096, which is a quarter of my installed physical memory.
The CD image is the installer ISO image itself, so let's click on this icon , go to the VM
folder, and grab the ISO file.
The HDD section specifies the file where the VM itself will be stored.
For each virtual machine that you create, QNAP will create a new sub-folder under the
folder that you choose here.
For example, if I choose the VM folder, it will create a sub-folder called "Windows Server 2016"
which holds the eventual VM file.
Now I need to assign some disk space to this VM.
This will have a fairly heavy footprint since I plan to use a large number of apps as well as
a large database.
I'll assign it a terabyte of disk space by entering a thousand.
If you want to go lean, with few apps and little data, you could probably get away with
about 50 GB.
Clicking OK will create an entry for the new virtual machine.
Let's start the VM viewer by clicking on its icon, which launches in another browser window.
Let me maximize it, and then click the Start button in the middle of the screen to launch
the VM itself.
Since we selected the installer ISO image as the CD drive, it will boot from that image
and start the Windows installer.
I should mention right now that the Virtualization Station doesn't support Vivaldi, which is
my browser of choice, so I'm using Internet Explorer to log into my QNAP.
Make sure the language and keyboard settings are correct, then click Next, and hit the
Install button.
Enter your Product Key here if you have a license of Windows Server, then click Next.
Since I want to be able to remote into the VM, I'll want to use the Desktop Experience version
of the Server, where I have full access to the graphical user interface.
Click Next.
Accept the terms and conditions,
then here, since I'm not upgrading from a previous Windows
version, I'll click Custom - which enables a full, clean install of Windows Server.
As I defined earlier, I have a terabyte of space to allocate, so I'll hit the New link to create
a new partition and allocate the entire amount.
Now click Next.
So this is where you'll wanna take a coffee break.
Maybe make chicken nuggets in the toaster oven.
After all the files have been copied and installed, and after a couple automatic reboots performed
by the installer, we arrive at the password screen.
Give your administrator account a secure password and click Finish.
This takes us to the login screen.
You'll need to open the tab on the left side and choose Ctrl-Alt-Delete, which will send
those keystrokes to the VM.
Enter your password and after a non-trivial amount of time, we'll finally be in.
I'll click Yes here to allow network discovery, and exit the Server Manager.
I'm feeling a bit claustrophobic here so I'll change the resolution of the screen to 1080p.
Next, let's right-click the network icon and open the network and sharing center, where
I'll click on my Ethernet connection.
When clicking Details, you'll see I've been assigned an IP address of .30 by the DHCP server.
I want to change this to a static IP address so I can have a predictable IP address to
connect to using Remote Desktop.
So I'll go into Properties, go into my TCP/IP settings, and set my static address to
.254, gateway of .1, and for the purposes of this video, I'll set DNS to Google's 8.8.8.8
and 8.8.4.4.
There's one more thing I need to do before I'll be able to remote into the VM.
I need to allow a remote connection to be made, which is in the Advanced System properties.
As a shortcut, I'll just start Windows Settings, and search for "remote desktop" -
select "Allow remote access to your computer" - which will take me directly to the Advance System dialog
box that I want.
Here, I'll choose the second radio box, which allows remote connections.
You have the option to set the permissions of the users who can access this VM, which
you may want to do if you have multiple users on your network.
For this video, I'll leave it as it is since the Administrator already has access.
Now let's test the connection.
I already have remote desktop connection launched on my local Windows machine, and I'll enter
the .254 address.
Click Connect, then enter the password that you set earlier for Windows Server, and hit
OK, then Yes - which brings us to a nice, full-screen view into the virtual machine.
At this point, I can connect to any shared folder on my network.
To demonstrate, I'll try to access the VM folder on the QNAP machine.
I'll just use the QNAP admin user and password -
and voila, I'm in.
You can create a mapped drive if you want, by right-clicking on the folder - I'll map
this to the Z drive, for example.
Minimizing remote desktop, you can see the QNAP VM viewer has been logged out, as well
it should - you don't want two users in the same session.
Minimizing that, you can see the entry for the VM in the Virtualization Station, and its
CPU and memory usage in realtime.
As for performance, don't expect miracles - remember, this is a dual-core Celeron processor
AND you're running Windows Server 2016 on it in an emulated environment.
By default, QNAP uses an emulated interface for storage and network - but I've found that
by using the Virtio drivers, you do get a performance boost.
It's a bit tricky to set up - I may make a video of that in the future if I get enough interest.
Let me know if that's something you'd like to see in the comments below.
I hope you enjoyed - Thanks for watching!