I am starting down a path with Sharepoint (MOSS 2007), so I found a nice MOSS virtual machine download, its only a 30 day trial, but that'll do for the moment. It's nice that it comes all installed etc, just to get a flavour. The virtual machine is also a domain controller - not sure whether there is any specific reason that relates to a MOSS installation! The image also contains SQL 2005 SP1, Office 2007 Pro, Sharepoint Designer and some other bits...check the above link for more details.
Back to the Gotcha, well, there are two. After installing Virtual Server 2005, I promptly opened the admin page, ready to attach my newly extracted 10GB image when I was greeted with this message...
Could not connect to Virtual Server. Access Denied. Please contact Virtual Server administrator to set the required permissions to manage Virtual Server. You can specify an alternate Virtual Server below.
After a little googling around, a few dead ends I discovered that is could be that I need to have Windows Authentication and nothing else enabled in IIS.
It needs to be turned on in Window Features, which can be found in Programs and Features.
Done...back to IIS, into the Virtual Director, Authentication...
Perfect...back to the admin screen, Virtual Machines, Add, type in the path to the .vmc file and bingo. Nearly! Those of us in the UK will struggle with the password...the @ sign is on the number 2!
This Virtual Machine stuff rocks! Still waiting for the Sharepoint book of all Sharepoint books (!) to arrive before things really get cooking, but hopefully have something done over the weekend.