Category: Microsoft Hyper-V

When you installing a server using PXE boot, you’ve to use a legacy NIC interface. This is because a normal NIC interface doesn’t support PXE boot. After succesfully installing this server, you would change the legacy NIC interface with a normal NIC interface. The performance is much better because this will use the VMbus to commuicate with the parent partition!

You can follow the steps below to change the legacy NIC interface with a normal NIC interface.

1.) Shutdown the Virtual Machine
2.) Open the Properties of the Virtual Machine
3.) Select the Hardware tab
4.) Select the Network Adapters and click Remove
5.) Click Network Adapter and choose Synthetic network adapter
6.) Apply the changes
7.) Start the Virtual Machine
8.) Open the Network Connections
9.) When you want to rename the NIC interface, you’ll receive the following error:
“Cannot rename this connection. A connection with the name you specified already exists. Specify a different name.”
10.) Open the system properties of your server
11.) Select the Advanced tab and click Environment Variables
12.) Creat a new System Variable
Variable name: Devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
Variable value: 1
13.) Open the Device Manager of your server
14.) Show the hidden devices
15.) As you can see there still is the legacy NIC interface we’ve deleted earlier.
16.) Select that NIC interface and choose Uninstall
17.) Again open the Network Connections and rename it
18.) Don’t forget to give the server a static IP, Subnet, Gateway and DNS 😉

Now your server is using a Synthetic Network Interface (VMbus communication).

Not all servers have a DVD player installed. Sometimes it’s handy to boot from a USB device and install Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 from the USB device.
Use the following steps to create a bootable USB stick and place the Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 content on the device.

Requirements:
– 2GB USB memory stick or more
– Download the Hyper-V server 2008 R2 ISO named GRMHVxFRE1_DVD.iso

Clear the USB stick and create a partition on it by using the following command’s:

1.) Open the command prompt
2.) Diskpart (run diskpart as administrator)
3.) List disk
4.) Select disk USB number
5.) Clean
6.) Create partition primary
7.) Active
8.) Format fs=fat32 quick
9.) Assign
10.) Exit

Mount the ISO  and copy all the content o to the USB device. For mounting the ISO I used Deamon Tools Lite.
Now the bootable USB device with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is ready for use.  Boot your server and select the USB device as the boot medium. You’re now able to install  Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 🙂 Cool!!

Today I had to build an Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 R2 cluster environment with two nodes. One server with Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Server and the Hyper-V role enabled. The other server with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. After configuring the NIC interfaces, teaming, IP addresses and storage the nodes are ready to join the cluster.

The Failover Cluster Validation check faild with status 87 “Failed to prepare storage for testing on node HYPERV01.hyperv.local”. After same troubleshooting I found the following solution! This error results from bit lock creating a partition in the first 100 MB of your primary drive and then not setting a drive letter. Given the command line interface for Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, I had to assign the drive letter by using the command lines.

1.) Open the command prompt CMD.exe
2.) Type diskpart
3.) Type list volume
4.) Type select volume 4 (or 1, 2, 3…)
5.) Type assign

Repeat this step for all the nodes in the cluster. Now your Failover Cluster Validation check will run succesfully!

       

All of you know that there’s a free edition of VMware ESXi which is bootable from a flash memory (USB drive for example!) Microsoft is also working on a bootable version of Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. This means that you can boot from a flash memory without any disks in your server…cool!!

Today I’ve installed a Microsoft Hyper-V Server. The installation of this server you can find in some other post on my blog, it’s almost a next next next installation. After the installation, there are a few options you must configure before you can manage your Hyper-V Server. The next step is to install a management server. I’ve choosen for a Microsoft Windows 2008 Server x64 for the remote management of my Hyper-V Server.

I’ve configured a second virtual hard disk for the Hyper-V Server, so lets make it available for storing my new virtual machines.

1) Open Management Console on the Management Server. (Start, Run, MMC)
2 ) Add/Remove snap-in, Disk Management
3) The following computer: 172.16.1.200
4) Create a new partition
5) Check if the new disk is succesfully created

       

       

Before you’re going to manage the Hyper-V Server, you must install a feature.

1) Open the Server Manager
2 ) Features, Add features
3) Remote Server Administration Tools
4) Role Administration Tools
5) Hyper-V Tools

Now we are going to connect to the Hyper-V Server.1) Open the Hyper-V Manager
2) Right-click on Microsoft Hyper-V Servers
3) Connect to Server
4) Another Computer, 172.16.1.200

 

After connecting to the Hyper-V Server, I’ve get the following error:
“The Msvm_VirtualSystemManagementService object was not found”The solution for this error is installing the following update:
Hyper-V Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition (KB950050)

 

For a list of all the available updates for Hyper-V Server, you can browse the following link.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753637.aspx

       

The next step is to configure the Hyper-V Server Settings.

1) Right-click on your Hyper-V Server
2) Hyper-V Settings
3) Choose a location for Virtual Hard Disks, in my environment the new partition we’ve made E:\VM\VHD
4) Choose a location for Virtual Machines, in my environment the new partition we’ve made E:\VM\VMI’ve copied a Microsoft Windows XP Professional ISO to E:\ISO on the Hyper-V Server. Let’s install a new Virtual Machine

 

1) Right-click on your Hyper-V Server
2) New, Virtual Machine
3) Give the name for the new VM and the location (default E:\VM\VM)
4) Configure the Memory for the new VM
5) Configure the network connection (you can choose between, External, Internal or Private)
6) Give the name for the VHD file and the size of it.
7) Give the installation source. In my case it’s the ISO file I’ve copied to E:\ISO
8) Finisch the wizard and start the new VM

       

       

The new machine is created now. The next post I’ll go further with installing and tuning the new VM.

In this article we are going to install a Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008. First of all, i’ve downloaded the free ISO on the Microsoft Download Center.

Download Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 here

There are a copple of prerequisites for using Hyper-V Server 2008:

– Hyper-V Server 2008 is a 64-bit only technology and requires a 64-bit capable hardware with Intel VT or AMD-V technology enabled.

– Processor : Intel Pentium 4, Xeon, Core 2 DUO processor; AMD Opteron, Athlon 64, Athlon X2, . Hardware Data Execution Protection (DEP) must be available and be enabled. Specifically, you must enable Intel XD bit (execute disable bit) or AMD NX bit (no execute bit).

– Minimum CPU speed : 1 GHz; Recommended: 2 GHz or faster

– RAM : Minimum: 1 GB RAM; Recommended: 2+ GB RAM; Maximum 32 GB

– Required Available disk space: 2GB of available hard disk space (additional disk space needed for each guest operating system)

The installation contains seven steps, then your new Hyper-V Server 2008 is running……almost 😉

       

        

After you changed the password for the Administrator account, the Hyper-V Configuration Tool (hvconfig.cmd) automatically launches. You can use it for:

Change the computer name (requires a reboot)
Change workgroup settings or domain membership settings (requires a reboot)
Change network settings
Add local Administrator accounts
Change Windows Update settings
Download and install Windows updates.
Change Remote Desktop settings
Change Regional and Language settings (through inet.cpl)
Change Date and Time settings (through timedate.cpl)
Log off, restart and shutdown

As you can see, the installation is done within a few steps. Configuration can easally be done with the Hyper-V Configurator.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 is a great choice for customers who want a basic and simplified virtualization solution for consolidating servers as well as for development and test environments. Hyper-V Server 2008 only offers the most basic of virtualization features, making it ideal for:

– Test and Development
– Basic Server Consolidation
– Branch Office Consolidation
– Hosted Desktop Virtualization (VDI)

Customers who require richer and more robust virtualization features, such as Quick Migration, multi-site clustering, large memory support (greater than 32 GB of RAM), and more than four processors on the host server, should use Windows Server 2008.

Windows Server 2008 provides business continuity, disaster recovery, greater scalability for consolidating large workloads, and flexible and cost-effective virtualization rights (one free virtual instance for Standard Edition, four free virtual instances for Enterprise Editions, and unlimited virtual instances for Datacenter Edition with the purchase of a license of Windows Server 2008).

The following table outlines which Hyper-V–enabled product would suit your needs: