Virtual PC Guy's WebLog

Hyper-V Clustering Step-by-Step Guide

We recently published the Hyper-V Clustering Step-by-Step guide here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=CD828712-8D1E-45D1-A290-7EDADF1E4E9C&displaylang=en

Note that this guide is aimed at people who want to "test out" Hyper-V clustering by setting up a small two node cluster.  Hyper-V clustering does support up to 16 node clusters, with a number of advanced configuration options, but this document does not detail how to do these types of configurations.

Cheers,
Ben

It doesn't feel like a hypervisor to me...

When I have talked to people about Hyper-V - I have often come across the sentiment that Hyper-V doesn't feel like a hypervisor based virtualization solution.  You install Windows, enable a role and then have virtual machines - how is this different from the Virtual Server type experience?

So let me step you through this:

1. The first thing you do with your server is to install Windows Server 2008.  At this stage no virtualization is involved - and it is just plain old Windows.
2. Once you have done this you enable the Hyper-V role and reboot the computer. Now things get interesting...
3. Windows starts to boot on the computer, just like it always has, but one of the boot critical drivers (the drivers that get loaded first in the boot process) is now HvBoot.sys which launches the hypervisor - and practically insert it underneath the now booting copy of Windows.
4. Windows continues to boot - relatively unaware of the fact that this has happened.
5. Once Windows is up and running you can create virtual machines using the Hyper-V user interface. 
6. These virtual machines run as partitions on the hypervisor - with the first partition being the operating system you appear to be running.

So what does this mean for the copy of Windows you initially installed on the physical computer?  Well, unlike the virtual machines that you create after installing Hyper-V, this installation of Windows continues to have direct access to the physical hardware and memory in the system.  However, the hypervisor is completely managing its access to CPU resource and system timers. 

For the most part we have worked hard to not have this be exposed in the parent partition - but there are two interesting places where it shows up.  The first is when it comes to accounting for CPU usage (as discussed in this post).  The second is when it comes to looking at CPU capabilities.  When the hypervisor launches it actually starts "lying" about the CPU capabilities to all the partitions (including the parent partition).  It does this so that no software in the guest operating systems try to use CPU functionality that the hypervisor now controls.  The most obvious capability that the hypervisor hides is support for hardware virtualization:

If you look at this screenshot you will see that I am running a virtual machine on Hyper-V - and must, therefore, have hardware virtualization support in my system.  However a copy of securable in the parent partition is reporting that hardware virtualization is not available.  This is because the hypervisor has loaded and is changing the information being reported here.

Cheers,
Ben

Using Virtual Machine Connection (stand alone)

While you are probably used to connecting to a virtual machine from the Hyper-V manager snap-in, it is possible to just run the Virtual Machine Connection directly.  On a computer where you have the Hyper-V management tools installed, go to the Hyper-V directory under Program Files and you will find vmconnect.exe.  Launching this program will display a dialog that allows you to specify the Hyper-V server and virtual machine to connect to.

vmconnect.exe also supports having the Hyper-V server and virtual machine name passed as command line parameters.  This way you can easily make your own shortcuts for controlling specific virtual machines - with a command like this:

"C:\Program Files\Hyper-V\vmconnect.exe" localhost "Test virtual machine"

You can also connect to a virtual machine using its GUID, which is useful if you have multiple virtual machines with the same name, by running:

"C:\Program Files\Hyper-V\vmconnect.exe" localhost -G {insert your GUID here}

One thing that you should be aware of is that while the Hyper-V manager snap-in almost always runs elevated, Virtual Machine Connection does not.  So to avoid authentication issues you will either need to run it "As Administrator" or you will need to add your personal account the the Hyper-V Administrators role under the Authorization Management tool.

Cheers,
Ben

Authentication Errors with Hyper-V Virtual Machine Connection

If you are getting an "Authentication Error" when trying to connect to a virtual machine under Hyper-V,  you can open the Hyper-V Settings (from the main MMC page) and disable the use of default credentials under the User Credentials section.  Once you have made this change the Virtual Machine Connection will start to prompt you for credentials when you try to connect to a virtual machine.

Three things to note:

1. If you are using a smart card to log in to your physical computer (not your virtual machine) you have to disable the use of default credentials.
2. By disabling the use of default credentials you can enter in the credentials of a different user (if you need to).
3. You can select to "remember" your credentials, which means that you will not need to type them in each time.

Cheers,
Ben

Creating a "no hypervisor" boot entry

From time to time I want to run Virtual PC / Virtual Server on my Hyper-V system.  While I can do this with the hypervisor running, the result is that Virtual PC / Virtual Server run quite slowly.  An easy fix for this is to create a second boot entry for my system that starts Windows without starting the hypervisor.  To do this you need to open an administrative command prompt and run:

1. bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Microsoft Windows Server 2008 - no hypervisor"
   
   
   
   This copies your currently active boot entry (assuming that this is the one you want to copy) and gives the new copy an appropriate description.
   
   
2. bcdedit /set {identifier for the new boot entry (copy from the output of a plain 'bcdedit' command)} hypervisorlaunchtype off
   
    

After doing this you can choose whether the hypervisor gets loaded whenever you boot the system.

Cheers,
Ben

Risk under Virtual PC 2007

Released in 1989, this was the first "official" computer version of Risk.  As such it goes a long way to try and replicate the board game in as much detail as possible.  It even goes as far as allowing you to pick whether you are playing with the US rules or the UK rules.  Having said that - I personally find the interface to be a little clunky and have many "non-official" computer risk games that I prefer.  But the game runs well under Virtual PC and is a good "risk fix" if you are jonesing for one:

Now, if you have never played Risk before, I am not going to attempt to explain the game to you - but you can read all about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_(game)

Cheers,
Ben

Hyper-V VM Settings UI Tweaks

A slightly hidden option on the virtual machine settings dialog under Hyper-V is that you can enable or disable the settings summary display on the left pane by right clicking on the left pane and unchecking the option to show summaries:

You can also disable the feature where the settings dialog marks uncommitted changes in bold text.  These options are also available on the Hyper-V Settings dialog and the Virtual Network Manager.

Cheers,
Ben

Virtual Hard Disk Wizard Integration in Hyper-V VM Settings

A neat little touch in the Hyper-V virtual machines settings is the integration of the virtual hard disk wizards:

If you go to the hard disk settings page for a virtual machine you can click on the New button - which will open the new virtual hard disk wizard.  When you have completed the new virtual hard disk wizard it will automatically populate the hard disk settings with the name of the new virtual hard disk you have just created.  If you click on the Edit button it will open the edit virtual hard disk wizard, but it will automatically provide the name and location of the virtual hard disk and take you straight to the Choose Action page.  Finally, if you click on the Inspect button it will bring up the inspect disk dialog - without prompting you for the virtual hard disk name and location.

In my opinion this is very handy, and indeed I find that this is usually where I launch the various disk wizards / dialogs from.

Cheers,
Ben

Copying a Physical Disk to a Virtual Hard Disk with Hyper-V

Under Virtual PC / Virtual Server, if you wanted to copy a physical hard disk to a virtual hard disk you had to make a linked virtual hard disk and convert it.  With Hyper-V we have gotten rid of the concept of linked virtual hard disks, and instead allow you to connect physical hard disks directly to virtual machines.  We have also made it easier to copy contents of a physical hard disk to a virtual hard disk.  When you create a new dynamically expanding or fixed-size virtual hard disk you have the option of specifying the size for a new, blank, virtual hard disk - or selecting a physical hard disk to copy the data from:

It is that simple.  With one click (and a long wait as the data is transferred) you can copy a physical hard disk to a virtual hard disk.

Cheers,
Ben

Attaching Physical Hard Disks to Hyper-V VMs

Hyper-V brings us the ability to attach a physical hard disk directly to a virtual machine.  In order to do this the hard disk in question needs to not be identified as "removable" by Windows.  It also needs to be in an offline state.  This can be configured by using the Disk Management node of the Windows Server 2008 Server Manager, right clicking on the disk in question, and selecting Offline:

Once you have done this you can open the settings for the virtual machine in question, adding a new hard disk, and selecting to use a physical hard disk.

Note that once you have a physical hard disk attached to a virtual machine, it is not possible to take snapshots of the virtual machine.

Cheers,
Ben

When you try to enable, disable, or update Hyper-V technology, the process stops responding

A KB article (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/950792) has just been posted about problems that people are encountering with installation / uninstallation of Hyper-V RC0.  This is caused by and incompatibility with the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Network Configuration Utility.

If you hit this problem - the KB article tells you how to get things working again.  If you are installing Hyper-V on a HP system it is recommended that you uninstall the HP Network Configuration Utility prior to installing Hyper-V.

Cheers,
Ben

Linux Integration Components for Hyper-V RC now Available

Updated integration components for Hyper-V RC are now available for download.  You can find out more about this here: http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2008/04/01/linux-integration-components-for-hyper-v-rc-now-available.aspx

Note that these integration components only provide accelerated storage / network drivers - it does not provide integrated mouse / etc...

Cheers,
Ben

AMD Releases Hyper-V Check Tool

A lot of people have been asking about how to check if their AMD system is capable of running Hyper-V.  Well AMD have just released a tool that enables you to check your system for compatibility.  If you go here you can download the AMD Virtualization™ Technology and Microsoft® Hyper-V™ System Compatibility Check Utility.

Cheers,
Ben

Quick Linking

I am feeling lazy today - but thankfully my colleagues have been working hard :-)

Mike Kolitz has done a great series on installing the Hyper-V RC0 bits - with SysPrep, Unattended Installation, and Offline Servicing.

While John Howard has done a two part post on how to configure Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista for remote Hyper-V administration in a workgroup environment.

Cheers,
Ben

WMI Changes in Hyper-V RC

There have been some changes to the WMI management interfaces in the release candidate of Hyper-V from the previous beta release.  While there have been no changes to the model, a number of the strings used in different places have been "cleaned up" to provide more "human friendly" values.  For instance, in this script I check for a caption value of "Microsoft Virtual Computer System".  The the release candidate build this is now a much simpler "Virtual Machine".

So if you have a script / program that you created with the beta and you are seeing issues with the release candidate - you should check the values that you are comparing against to ensure that they have not changed.

Cheers,
Ben