I was asked to explore the idea of setting up virtual PC’s for students use to allow them to “fiddle” with the software side of a computer without disrupting the school’s network. Strangely enough I was already somewhat exploring this issue. I decided to use VMware server as it allowed for greater control over the use and administration of the Virtual Machines compared to VMware player.
I setup an Active Directory group containing the students that would require the access to the Virtual Machines. I then assigned this group the following permissions on the Virtual Machines using the VMware Server console:
- Virtual Machine ->
- Interaction ->
- Power On
- Power Off
- Reset
- Answer Question
- State ->
- Revert To Snapshot
- Interaction ->
The Interaction permissions are fairly self explanetry and the Revert To Snapshot permission allows the student to revert to a clean/working OS using the snapshot I created after I completed building the Virtual Machine.
I then created another Active Directory group containing the teachers that would be teaching the classes and assigned the same roles. I decided that teachers would not require any higher level of permissions than students as I have done all the neccesary work creating the Virtual Machines.
More to come once I have fully implemeted the above…
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