For the Azine techies:

Is there any type of solution for the following propose setup in the VDI/Hyper-V world?

1. Create a parent VM - size of VHD is (~10GB of a base Windows 7 install)

2. Create a child VM that runs off the parent VM vhd. By running off of the parent VM, it is using the base installation and any delta changes that this child VM may make (installation of Office 2013). However, this child VM's VHD size is about 2GB (the 10GB is the parent VM).

3. Create another child VM that runs off the base parent VM vhd. Install of Office 2010. Again, the child VM vhd size is about 2GB.


Now, the real fun part of this is...with this type of setup where the child VMs are sharing the Parent VM vhd...in theory, updating Microsoft patches and service packs only have to be done on the Parent VM.

Hyper-V has a "differencing disks" mode but that only makes clones of the parent disk and it can never change, otherwise all the subsequent child VMs created from it will error out.

Is there any type of solution to the propose setup that I laid out?

I know...not the best forum to ask this but I thought I try it here as well as the other techie forums out there. Azine has surprised me in the past with some of the techies on here

 

I don't think you can use one vhd on two live vms at the sametime...

 

The only thing that comes close what I'm talking about is setting up hosted virtual desktops.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/m.../ff458349.aspx

 

You may want to look into a 3rd party data deduplication technology. It's included in Server 2012 but MS does not recommend using their data dedup to run live VMs. Backup VMs, sure!

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l.../hh831700.aspx
http://www.wongchonkit.com/2012/04/w...plication.html