Create a Reference Virtual Machine

This  article covers both the Guided and Advanced Reference Virtual Machine Build Wizard workflows in the SmartDeploy Application.

Note: The Guided workflow is available in SmartDeploy release 3.0.2050 and newer.  

Before you start

We recommend that you read the Best Practices to Create Your Reference Virtual Machines article before you continue.

Guided

Create a Reference Virtual Machine by Using the SmartDeploy Console

1. In the Reference Machines page of the SmartDeploy Web Console, click Actions, and then click Create.
   
   
    
2. On the Welcome screen, click Next.
   
3. Choose Guided (Recommended) from the Virtual Machine Creation page then click Next.
   
   Note: If your SmartDeploy Console host system does not already have Hyper-V installed, you will get prompted with the below message regarding installing Hyper-V. Click Yes and the SmartDeploy Console host system will install Hyper-V and reboot the system. The build wizard should resume after Hyper-V is installed and the system has rebooted. 
   
4. Provide a virtual machine name and location to save the virtual machine. Then click Next.
   
5. On the Operating System page, select Download Windows installation media or provide a location for an Installation disc image (.iso) or an Installation disc. Then click Next.
   
6. On the Operating System Details page, make the desired selections for Version, Edition, Language, and Architecture. Then click Next.
   
7. The build wizard will then begin the process of creating the Virtual Machine. You'll see some progress bars in the wizard that show processes like downloading the Windows Installation file, preparing the unattend ISO, and creating the virtual machine. There are no actions that need to take place during these steps. 
   

8. Once this process completes, the pop up disappears, and your Hyper-V reference VM will automatically start up and start installing windows. You'll want to select Set up for work or school. Then click Next. Click on sign-in options, then click Next. Enter an offline account name and password, and go through the usual security questions. Next, sign in to your VM. Install all the windows updates and any standard core applications that apply to all your target machines.
   Note: Don't install antivirus, or security software on your reference machines, because that can mess up the imaging process later on. You can always install these, and other apps, using application packs.
   

   
   

9. Once you have installed Windows Updates, and made any other desired customizations to your reference VM, shutdown the guest OS from the start menu. 
   Note: Please refer to the Best Practices to Create Your Reference Virtual Machines document when customizing your reference VM.
   

10. Review the Important Next Steps bullet points on the Build Wizard and, when you are ready, click OK. The Capture Wizard should launch. You can follow this guide to Capture an Image from a Virtual Disk File. 
    
    

    The below video demonstrates the guided reference VM workflow. 

Advanced

Note: This section of the article covers the Advanced Build Wizard, which creates and imports a bare-metal virtual machine (VM). Hyper-V, as shown in this video, can be created manually or you can use the Guided reference VM build wizard to create a Hyper-V virtual machine. ESX VMs must be manually created without SmartDeploy. 

The recommended approach is to always create your reference machine as a virtual machine using your chosen hypervisor, rather than using a physical machine or physical-to-virtual (P2V) conversion. This ensures the captured image is hardware-independent and avoids issues related to hardware-specific drivers and configurations.

If you already have a VM or if you are familiar with the virtualization application that you're using and you want to create a VM by using the virtualization application console, you can skip this article. In either case, we recommend that you read the Best Practices to Create Your Reference Virtual Machines article before you continue.

1. n the Reference Machines page of the SmartDeploy Web Console, click Actions, and then click Create.
   
   
    
2. On the Welcome screen, click Next.
   
3. Choose Advanced from the Virtual Machine Creation page then click Next.
   
4. Select your preferred virtualization software and the guest operating system that you plan to install, and then click Next.
   
   
    
5. Assign a name to the new VM, chose a location to save it, and then click Next.
   
   Note: The default location is C:\SmartDeploy\Reference Machines\. 
   While SmartDeploy automatically stores reference machines in this location for organizational purposes, you can store virtual machines anywhere on your local SmartDeploy host. It's not required to save your VM in that location. If disk space is a potential issue, you may save the VM to a different drive.
   
   
    
6. Click Browse to select the Windows installation ISO file, or select the drive that contains the Windows installation disc, and then click Next.
   
   
    
7. After the Build Wizard finishes, switch to your virtualization software.
   
   
    
8. After selecting Finish, SmartDeploy creates a configuration file, and the chosen virtualization platform should launch. The virtualization platform should be configured to use the Windows 11 media you chose during the build wizard. 
9. You will then need to Power on the virtual machine.
   Note: in this example we are using VMWare Workstation
   
10. After the virtual machine powers on, you should be prompted to Press any key to boot from CD or DVD..., from there, the setup is going to be just like installing Windows on a physical machine. The only difference is it's going to be on a VM. Since Smart Deploy captures from VMs.
11. After you have installed Windows on the virtual machine, it will ask you to Name your device. You can select Skip for now as the reference VM name will be replaced when you deploy your image to your target endpoints with SmartDeploy.
    

12. You'll want to select Set up for work or school. Then click Next. Click on sign-in options, then click Next. Enter an offline account name and password, and go through the usual security questions. Next, sign in to your VM. Install all the windows updates and any standard core applications that apply to all your target machines.
    Note: Don't install antivirus, or security software on your reference machines, because that can mess up the imaging process later on. You can always install these, and other apps, using application packs.
    

    
    

13. Once you have installed Windows Updates, and made any other desired customizations to your reference VM, shutdown the guest OS from the start menu. 
    Note: Please refer to the Best Practices to Create Your Reference Virtual Machines document when customizing your reference VM.
    
14. You are now ready to capture the image from your reference virtual machine. You can follow this guide to Capture an Image from a Virtual Disk File. Alternatively, you can Capture an Image from a Running Virtual Machine (Warm Capture). 
     

In the below video, we demo the process to create a reference Virtual Machine in VMware Workstation but the process would be similar for Oracle Virtual Box or Hyper-V

Next: Capture an Image