It's been a while since I did Java work, and even then I was never responsible for starting a large project from the very start... there were test/staging/production systems already running, etc, etc.

Now I am looking to start a J2EE project from scratch on my trusty workstation, which has never been used for Java development and runs Windows 7 64bit.

First of all, I'll be getting Eclipse. As far as writing the code goes I'm pretty happy. And running it through Eclipse is OK, but what I'd really want is to have a VM running MySQL and TomCat on which I can properly deploy my project and run/debug it 'remotely' from my dev PC. And I guess this should be done using Ant instead of letting Eclipse build the WAR for me, so that I don't end up with a dependence on Eclipse. I'm certain Eclipse can do this, so you hit a button and it runs Ant scripts, deploys and debugs for instance, but very hazy on it.

Are there any good guides on this? I don't want to be taught Java, or even Ant, but rather the 'glue' parts like getting my test VM up and running under Windows, getting a build/test/deploy/run pipeline running through Eclipse, etc. One point, I only plan to use Windows... hosting a Windows VM on my Windwos desktop. And while I can use command-line tools like ant/svn, I'm much more a GUI person who loves IDE integration... I'd rather this didn't end up an argument about Linux or Vi, etc!

I am looking for free, but am a MAPS subscriber, and run Win7 Ultimate in case that makes a difference as far as free VM solutions.