Introduction

One of the best ways to learn and understand SQL Server and the components that interact with it is by creating a virtual machine that has the version of SQL Server you want to use. I typically use SQL Server virtual machines for my development and administration classes. I want the students to have full autonomy over the machines they are using so that they can try different features and configurations without worrying about affecting the host machines too much. If anything goes awry, they can simply remove the offending VM and recreate it.

This appendix is a simple guide to help you create virtual machines to work with SQL Server and PowerShell. This can be considered a starting point for more complex virtual machine configurations you may want to explore.

If you want to be up and running faster, you can also consider some predefined template environments; you can check out companies such as CloudShare that enables you to build production-like environments in a short time...