Automating first time login process in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 virtual machine

Posted by George Durzi on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by George Durzi
Published on 2012-03-25T15:29:27Z Indexed on 2012/03/25 17:32 UTC
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I have a set of Windows 2008 Server R2 SP1 Enterprise Edition virtual machines running in Hyper-V. The host server has 64GB of RAM and two SSD drives (one drive for the host OS, and the second one for the VMs).

The virtual machines are as follows:

  • Domain Controller: 4GB RAM
  • Exchange Server: 4GB RAM
  • Terminal Services: 50GB RAM

We use this setup for a travelling training class where users remote desktop to one of the VMs - let's call it the Terminal Services or "TS" VM - where tools such as Visual Studio are installed. The students go through some labs on the TS VMs in Visual Studio.

Overall, this setup works great. However, when users are collectively logging in for the first time, the VM really struggles to keep up while all the user profiles are created. It can take some users up to 10 minutes to login. The number varies from 30 to 40 students.

A workaround to this would be to manually remote desktop to the TS virtual machine using all the accounts to ensure that the local profile is created in advance.

I'm looking for a way to automate the first time login process on the TS virtual machine. I am envisioning iterating through the accounts in a certain Active Directory OU, and then somehow initiating a remote desktop session to the TS VM to log them in for the first time.

Are there ways to do this?

Thanks

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