D3 in a virtual machine - Mac / Parallels / Windows 7

[Kevin Powick]

This is just an FYI note about my experience getting D3 7.5.7 running in a Windows 7 (Home Premium) virtual machine.  The virtualization software is Parallels Desktop (7.0.x), running on my Mac (OSX 10.6.8).

## Base Configuration ##

There's really nothing special to know about getting the base configuration working.  Once you have the Windows VM running in Parallels, you do your D3 install just as you would on a physical box.  Officially, D3 7.x is not supported on Windows 7, but it seems to be working fine for me for development purposes.

## Mapped Drives to Shared Host OS Folders ##

Attempting to use the Windows mapped drives that Parallels creates for Mac folders that you've shared with your VM just doesn't work.  I spent a LOT of time trying the OSFI HOSTS entries for drive letters (e.g. C, X, etc.) with variations on syntax, permissions, etc.  Even shell commands like "!DIR x:\" don't work.  Instead, reference the shared Mac folder with the UNC path and an appropriate OSFI "host" from D3's HOSTS file (e.g. NT, DOS, DOST, NT_BIN, BIN, etc.)  Example:

  LIST NT://PSF/SharedFolder/

Note that "PSF" means "Parallels Shared Folder" and is the "server" in the UNC path.  It is required.

A q-pointer uses the same format.  Example:

01 Q

02

03 NT://PSF/SharedFolder/

That's all there is to it.  Originally, I had written much more on my trials and tribulations of getting D3 to recognize the shared Mac folders, but I figured more people would be interested in just a straight answer instead of the details of my suffering.

Maybe someone can add to this with an example for vmWare.  It's probably much the same.

--

Kevin Powick

[Tony Gravagno]

From: Kevin Powick

> ## Mapped Drives to Shared Host OS Folders ##
> Attempting to use the Windows mapped drives that
> Parallels creates for Mac folders that you've shared
> with your VM just doesn't work.
>

> Maybe someone can add to this with an example for
> vmWare. It's probably much the same.

Good info.

I wrote up notes on that last year in the TL forum. In short,
"!net use" from D3/coldstart because it won't use mappings
created outside. I think this is a permissions issue but no one
has been able to tell me why and no one from TL corrected my
forum posting, so the Why remains a mystery.
http://bit.ly/xnMZvd
Analysis with SysInterals/Microsoft FileMonitor might reveal the
core issue but I'm not motivated to take the enquiry that far.

To my recollection VMware doesn't have any special considerations
whatsoever. There are bugs and nuances here and there in that
software itself but not related to operating MV systems. I have 8
database products running at the same time in a single
low-profile VMware guest (and I exchange data through them using
OS directory mapping techniques). It's just plug n play like any
other hardware-based system.

HTH
T

[Kevin Powick]

On Thursday, 19 January 2012 16:55:23 UTC-5, Tony Gravagno wrote:

I wrote up notes on that last year in the TL forum.  In short,
"!net use" from D3/coldstart because it won't use mappings
created outside.

I believe I tried that as well without success.

 I think this is a permissions issue

I suspected as much too, and went as far as creating an admin level user account for the D3VME service to run as.  No luck.

 

Analysis with SysInterals/Microsoft FileMonitor might reveal the
core issue but I'm not motivated to take the enquiry that far.

Yeah.  Once I got it working without a hack, I quickly moved on to more pressing matters.  The UNC solution is actually better, as such paths are likely to remain more stable (available) than a mapped drive.

 

To my recollection VMware doesn't have any special considerations

Good to know.  I used VMware on Mac (VMware Fusion 3.x) for quite a while, but switched to Parallels last year when they released version 7.  It had slightly better integration and performance characteristics.  VMWare has since released version 4.x of Fusion, but I've read that it has not been well received in Mac circles.

--

Kevin Powick

[Tony Gravagno]

 

---

From: Kevin Powick

On Thursday, 19 January 2012 16:55:23 UTC-5, Tony Gravagno wrote:

I wrote up notes on that last year in the TL forum.  In short,
"!net use" from D3/coldstart because it won't use mappings
created outside.

I believe I tried that as well without success. 

 

That's disturbing. I thought I had a universal solution there. Flakyness like that makes it impossible for people like us in the middle tier to provide quality solutions with the platform.  We need to be able to code to well documented rules and expect it to work.

 I think this is a permissions issue

I suspected as much too, and went as far as creating an admin level user account for the D3VME service to run as.  No luck.

 

Analysis with SysInterals/Microsoft FileMonitor might reveal the
core issue but I'm not motivated to take the enquiry that far.

Yeah.  Once I got it working without a hack, I quickly moved on to more pressing matters.  The UNC solution is actually better, as such paths are likely to remain more stable (available) than a mapped drive.

 

I was concerned about various permissions associated with UNC paths as well, but may need to revisit that.

 

It would be nice if  these age-old mysteries could be solved once and for all.  I posted that note to the TL forum after years of people (including myself) guessing at what might make that stuff tick.