Mike's Blog, or how I learned to love the virtual machine...

Linux Integration Components Now Posted!

mikester — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:52:00 GMT

While I'm recovering from the Virtualization Launch Event here in Bellevue yesterday (you can view the keynote sessions and all the breakouts here), there's even more Hyper-V news to share. My colleague Patrick O'Rourke had posted previously on this, but I'm proud to announce -

The final version of the Linux Integration Components for Hyper-V have been released!

Driver support for synthetic devices: The Linux integration components include support for both the synthetic network controller and synthetic storage controller that have been developed specifically for Hyper-V. These components take advantage of the new high-speed bus, VMBus, which was developed for Hyper-V.
Hypercall adapter: The Hypercall adapter is a thin layer of software that translates the Xen-specific virtualization function calls from a Xen-enabled Linux kernel to Microsoft Hyper-V hypercalls. This results in improved performance for the Linux virtual machine.
Fastpath Boot Support: Boot devices now take advantage of the storage VSC to provide enhanced performance.

Integrated Mouse support will be coming soon.

The final versions in 12 languages (with localized read me's) have been posted to the Connect site here. The registration is free.

Hyper-V RTM and WinPE Synthetic Devices

mikester — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:39:00 GMT

Now that we've reached the RTM milestone with Hyper-V (and why I'm actually on vacation), here's the updated script for how to add the Hyper-V synthetic drivers to WinPE (original post here)

%echo off

set MSUSOURCE=D:\synth\rtm\amd64

set PESOURCE=D:\winpe_x64_synthetic

mkdir %temp%\IC

c:\windows\system32\expand.exe -F:* %MSUSOURCE%\Windows6.0-KB951634-x64.msu %temp%\ic

mkdir %temp%\IC\binaries

c:\windows\system32\expand.exe -F:* %temp%\ic\Windows6.0-KB951634-x64.CAB %temp%\ic\binaries

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_wnetvsc.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18016_none_b337f91d87dbf1d0\wnetvsc.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_ws3cap.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18016_none_f2e1ba67fcb48f61\ws3cap.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_wstorflt.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18016_none_1cadbbeed0ad55a3\wstorflt.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_wstorvsc.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18016_none_836399a4204c4863\wstorvsc.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_wvmbus.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18016_none_959a72f36267838a\wvmbus.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_wvmbushid.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18016_none_4ccff81064c7c78f\wvmbushid.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_wvmbusvideo.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18016_none_af52382097951fd7\wvmbusvideo.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_wvmic.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18016_none_5dfb8c2804cc9e9a\wvmic.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

Microsoft TechEd ITPro Sessions

mikester — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:50:00 GMT

I'm involved in 4 sessions at Microsoft TechEd ITPro next week in Orlando - stop by and listen in!

VIR366: Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Security and the Windows Hypervisor: 6/10, 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM, Room N230

VIR367: Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V: Security and Best Practices: 6/10, 4:45 PM - 6:00 PM, Room S330C

VIR365: High Availability and Virtualization: 6/11, 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM, Room N230

VIR358: Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Architecture, Scenarios, and Networking: 6/12, 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM, Room S310E

Using the Hyper-V Integration Components in WinPE

mikester — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:15:00 GMT

The new architecture of synthetic devices with Hyper-V poses some unique challenges for system administrators. Specifically, how can a system administrator perform maintenance on a Hyper-V host from WinPE? Without the integration components, users are required to move their VHD's around to the IDE controller, which limits the amount of VHD's that can be used at any given point in time. Additionally, legacy network adapters might need to be added to the VM to provide network access.

However, by adding the integration components to a WinPE image, those are no longer concerns.

For those of you not familiar with WinPE, here's a brief overview:

Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) is a minimal operating system designed to prepare a computer for Windows installation. It can be used to start a computer with no operating system (a bare-metal system), to partition and to format hard drives, and to copy disk images or to initiate Windows Setup from a network share. Windows PE is available as a stand-alone product to customers with the proper licensing agreement. It is an integrated component of many Windows Setup and recovery technologies, including Setup for Windows Vista and Windows Deployment Services (WDS).

Windows PE 2.1 is the latest release based on the Microsoft® Windows Vista® operating system.

Before we start - what I'm about to detail is not supported by Microsoft.
These directions are being provided on an AS-IS basis.

Now, on to the steps:

1. Download and install the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK). This allows you to create a custom WinPE image. The AIK can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94bb6e34-d890-4932-81a5-5b50c657de08&DisplayLang=en

2. We need to extract two files from the c:\windows\system32\vmguest.iso file, which is part of Hyper-V RC1 (available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7EDAA89F-9F64-488D-93C0-858D2D8799DF). There are a couple of tools that allow the mounting of an ISO image:

a. WinImage (http://www.winimage.com/)

b. WinISO (http://www.winiso.com/)

c. UltraISO (http://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/)

You can also mount the ISO image in a VM and extract the files as well.

We’re looking for two files. Copy the file that is appropriate for your architecture:

· 32 Bit: \support\x86\Windows6.0-KB951633-x86.msu

· 64 Bit: \support\amd64\Windows6.0-KB951633-x64.msu

3. Create a directory on the same system you installed the AIK, and store the file(s) above there.

4. Open up the Windows PE User’s Guide. This was installed as part of the Windows AIK, and can be found (by default) by browsing to Start -> All Programs -> Windows OPK -> Documentation -> Windows PE User’s Guide.

5. Follow steps 1-4 under Customizing WinPE -> Windows PE Walkthroughs -> Walkthrough: Create a Custom WinPE Image.

6. After step 4 (Optional: Add Additional Customizations), run the following script from your Windows PE Tools Command Prompt. Create a new batch file with the script below. Make sure that the MSUSOURCE is set to the directory where the files you copied in step 2 and 3 are, and that PESOURCE is set to the directory you created in Step 5.

%echo off

set MSUSOURCE=D:\synth\rc1\amd64

set PESOURCE=D:\winpe_x64_synthetic

mkdir %temp%\IC

c:\windows\system32\expand.exe -F:* %MSUSOURCE%\Windows6.0-KB951633-x64.msu %temp%\ic

mkdir %temp%\IC\binaries

c:\windows\system32\expand.exe -F:* %temp%\ic\Windows6.0-KB951633-x64.CAB %temp%\ic\binaries

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_wnetvsc.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18010_none_b331f76187e159c6\wnetvsc.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_ws3cap.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18010_none_f2dbb8abfcb9f757\ws3cap.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_wstorflt.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18010_none_1ca7ba32d0b2bd99\wstorflt.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_wstorvsc.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18010_none_835d97e82051b059\wstorvsc.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_wvmbus.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18010_none_95947137626ceb80\wvmbus.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_wvmbushid.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18010_none_4cc9f65464cd2f85\wvmbushid.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_wvmbusvideo.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18010_none_af4c3664979a87cd\wvmbusvideo.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

"C:\Program Files\Windows OPK\Tools\PETools\peimg.exe" /inf=%temp%\IC\binaries\amd64_wvmic.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.0.6001.18010_none_5df58a6c04d20690\wvmic.inf %PESOURCE%\mount\Windows

Once the batch file completes, refer back to the Windows PE Users Guide, and finish following the steps from Step 5 onward.

After you create the ISO, attach it to a VM and power it on. You should have full access to all synthetic devices.

-Mike