9.5. Parallels
VMware Fusion is only one of a number of virtualization tools available for Mac OS X. Parallels is another, and is also a type 2 hypervisor, running as an Application inside of OS X. Parallels is available at http://www.parallels.com. As with Fusion, you will want to obtain a volume license for Parallels Desktop prior to leveraging the mass deployment options we illustrate through the remainder of this section. To get started, first download the Parallels dmg from the Parallels web site.
9.5.1. Parallels on a Monolithic Image
Installing Parallels on an image that will be deployed monolithically is fairly straightforward. Open the dmg file that you obtained from Parallels and you will see the standard installation screen. Double-click on the package, as seen in Figure 9-14 to start the installation.
Figure 9.14. The standard installation screen
The package will then check the Parallels site for updates and verify that the computer meets the minimum requirements. Provided there are no updates and that the computer does indeed meet those minimums, you will next see the Introduction screen of the package. Click on Continue to see the Read Me. Once you've read the Read Me, click on Continue again. You will now see the license agreement, read it and click on the Continue button again. At the pop-up menu, assuming you agree to the Parallels software agreement, click on the Agree button and you will be placed at the Feedback screen. Here, read the contents and click on Continue again, optionally selecting whether you want to be a part of the Parallels Customer Experience Program.
At the Installation Type screen, choose Change Install Location..., if you would like to change the path that Parallels will install onto. Otherwise, click on Install as seen in Figure 9-15 and then enter the username and password to authenticate the Parallels installer.
Figure 9.15. Click on Install then type username and password to authenticate Parallels Installer
When the installation has completed, click Close. You can now browse to the /Applications/Parallels directory to see the Parallels Desktop application bundle and open it. The first time you open Parallels Desktop it will ask you to Activate the product (enter the serial number). Since you don't want freshly imaged systems to show the Welcome to Parallels Desktop splash screen, uncheck the Show at Startup box, and then click on Start using Parallels Desktop. You will have deployed Parallels to your monolithic image set.
Next, setup the default location that virtual machines will be located. Later, when we move into automated deployment this will become a key component of ensuring the .pvm bundle that makes up a virtual machine is located in the desired location. To do so, open Parallels Desktop and click on the Parallels Desktop menu, selecting Preferences. Next, click on the General preference line item and then enter the default location (/VMs) and then click on the OK button, as seen in Figure 9-16.
Figure 9.16. Enter the default location /VMs then click OK
9.5.2. Virtual Machine Deployment
Within Parallels you can easily invoke the Virtual Machine Assistant, used to create new virtual machine instances. To do so, open Parallels Desktop and then click Virtual Machine... from the File menu. At the Introduction screen of the assistant, click on the Continue button. At the Operating System Detection screen, choose how you want Parallels Desktop or optionally click on Skip Detection to be prompted to manually choose your installation options such as choosing CD and DVD stand alone "iso" files shown in Figure 9-17.
Figure 9.17. Manually choosing your installation options
Based on the media in the drive the Virtual Machine Assistant will provide you with an Operating System Type and Version screen so you can confirm the operating system to deploy. Next, you will see the Virtual Machine Type screen, where you can select to customize your virtual machine environment. For the purposes of this example, go ahead and click on Express Windows and then click on the Continue button shown in Figure 9-18.
Figure 9.18. After clicking on Express Windows, click on the Continue button
At the Express Windows Installation screen shown in Figure 9-19, enter the name, company name, Windows XP serial number, and optionally select whether to install 64-bit. You can then click on the Advanced button to increase the available RAM for the virtual machine to over 1GB and you can even provision more than one processor if you so wish. If you will be running more than an application or two, or if the applications are fairly resource intensive, then it's recommended to go ahead and allocate more resources to the virtual machine. Otherwise, simply click on Continue to move on to the next step.
Figure 9.19. The Express Windows Installation screen
At the Name and Location screen, as seen in Figure 9-20, provide a name for the virtual machine. Also select whether you will enable file sharing (which will share your Mac home folder to your Windows installation) and user profile sharing (which will share your Desktop and other items between Mac OS X and Windows). Additionally, under the More Options portion of the screen, choose whether to create a desktop icon for the virtual machine, whether to allow other users of the host to access the virtual machine, and finally a custom location for the virtual machine. If you do not choose a custom location, the virtual machine will default to the ~ /Documents/Parallels/ directory. If you are using FileVault then you may want to move the location outside of your encrypted home folder. Likewise, this VM may be utilized by multiple users, so you may want to specify the option to save your virtual machines in the /Users/Shared public directory.
Figure 9.20. Provide a name for the virtual machine
Once you click on the Create button you will be in a standard Microsoft Windows installation screen. Complete the Windows installation and then, once you are finished change directories inside the resultant .pvm file that makes up your Parallels Virtual Machine. When you are inside the file from terminal—in much the same way that you did in VMware earlier—you will be able to view the contents of the config.pvs file.
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The config.pvs file is the settings file for each virtual machine. As with VMware the virtual machine that you see through the Finder is in fact a bundle, with a number of files inside of it. Parallels have a fair number of settings in the .pvs file, organized by keys. There are multiple UUID keys and a number nested within the Network Adapter key that will need to be changed if you were to mass deploy your virtual machine, although it doesn't have to be that complicated, as we will illustrate in the upcoming section.
9.5.3. Automating the Parallels Installation
Parallels provides a solution to mass deploy their software. In order to leverage the Parallels best practice, to push out Parallels Desktop using a package, go to http://download.parallels.com/desktop/tools/pd-autodeploy.zip and download the Autodeploy package. The Autodeploy package will copy the application and virtual machine files for you and regenerate the unique identification information, similar to how you did manually for VMware Fusion earlier in the section "Preparing the Virtual Machine for Mass Deployment."
Once you have downloaded the package, right-click on it and select Show Package Contents, as you did earlier with VMware Fusion. From here, browse to the Parallels folder and find the License.txt file, as can be seen in Figure 9-21. By altering this file, you will provide the Parallels Desktop Autodeploy.pkg file with the serial number to use in an installation.
Figure 9.21. Browse to the Parallels folder
You will then need to place the Parallels Desktop.dmg file that contains the original package into the Parallels folder as well, which will complete the automated installation of Parallels.
As you are considering automating the deployment of the Parallels software, it is worth noting that there are two property lists that control the application's global behavior across various virtual machines. These are com.parallels.Parallels Desktop.plist and com.parallels.desktop.console.plist, both in the ~/Library/Preferences directory. (These are included with an installation, whether it is the Autodeploy or the standard installer.) The com.parallels.Parallels Desktop.plist file controls screen settings, update preferences, application toolbars, and the Virtual Machine Assistant. The com.parallels.desktop.console.plist controls last used directories. You can now push out the Autodeploy package in order to automate the installation of the Parallels application.
9.5.4. Automated Virtual Machine Deployment
While we covered pushing out the application itself in the previous section we have not yet looked into how to push out virtual machines. To do so, you would first normalize the Windows installation, as we did with VMware Fusion virtual machines and describe in the section "Preparing the Virtual Machine for Mass Deployment" later in this chapter. Once normalized, again control-click on the Parallels Desktop Autodeploy.pkg file and select Show Package Contents. Next, copy the virtual machine bundle from the current location into the Parallels folder of the package, where you previously edited the License.txt file, as can be seen in Figure 9-22.
Figure 9.22. The Parallels folder of the package
Upon installation of the Parallels Desktop Autodeploy.pkg package, the .pvm file will now be copied into the users ~/Documents/Parallels directory by default. You can now leverage your mass deployment solution (DeployStudio) or your package management solution (Apple Remote Desktop) and the MAC address and all unique identifiers will be recreated without using any complicated scripting.
However, if you are leveraging a solution such as FileVault and you would like to alter the location of the virtual machine upon installation of the package, you will have needed to alter the Default Folder for Virtual Machine Settings when using the New Virtual Machine Assistant, as previously described. Alternatively, by changing the path for a virtual machine in the virtual machines preferences, you will also be telling the automated installer to place it into that location.
Finally, if you are deploying virtual machines after the initial deployment then you will want to register them with Parallels, potentially as a post-flight scripting task to your package. Parallels Desktop has a fairly comprehensive set of command-line tools that can be used to automate a number of tasks, including the registration and deregistration of virtual machines (which would use the register and unregister commands, respectively). See the Parallels Desktop Command Line Reference Guide for more on the Parallels command-line interface at http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v4/docs/en/Parallels_Command_Line_Reference_Guide.pdf.