Update: 26th June 2008. Hyper-V RTM is now available. RC0 is pre-release software. 

 RC0Capture

Hot off the press - we have just made Release Candidate 0 (RC0) for Hyper-V available on the Microsoft Download Centre (Center).  (Be patient as if takes a little while to completely propagate.) There are a huge number of improvements in Hyper-V RC0 over Hyper-V Beta, far too many to enumerate. What you really want to know, though, is where to get it, and what to do with it once you have it. So without further ado....:

If your physical machine is already running Windows Server 2008 RTM x64 Edition, the link below is what you need to update the parent partition. By all means – start your download now, but please don’t apply it to your system until you’ve read the rest of this post.

Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition (KB949219)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DDD94DDA-9D31-4E6D-88A0-1939DE3E9898

And while you’re downloading the above update, if you currently have virtual machines running Windows Server 2008 (x86) on Hyper-V beta, or plan have virtual machines running Windows Server 2008 (x86) on Hyper-V RC0,you’ll need this update too:

Update for Windows Server 2008 (KB949219)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B7464B44-821D-4A7C-9D9C-7D74EC14437C

Some of the things to look out for before applying the update to the parent partition if you have the Hyper-V Beta role enabled:

  • If you have any Windows Server 2008 virtual machines which are pre-RTM builds, these will need fully reinstalling.
  • If you have any virtual machines running on Hyper-V Beta which are in a saved state, make sure they are shut down cleanly now. 
  • If you have any virtual machines running on Hyper-V Beta which have snapshots, these are not compatible with Hyper-V RC0.  Deleting the snapshots will cause the changes to be merged back to the parent VHD, but this does take some time to complete (and due to a bug in Hyper-V beta, the merge does not always kick in). 
  • Make a note of your virtual machine settings (memory, which VHDs are being used, networks settings etc) 
  • Make a note of any networking configuration (eg IP address/DNS etc) you have applied inside the virtual machines as these will require re-applying after updating to Hyper-V RC0 
  • Make a note of which Virtual Network switches have been created.


Ideally, I would recommend you apply the update to the parent partition before updating any virtual machines. However, if you’ve gone ahead and done it the other way around, it’s not big deal. I’m going to assume you start with the parent partition though.

STEP 1.

Apply Windows6.0-KB949219-x64 on the parent partition. A reboot will be required.

STEP 2.

If the Hyper-V Beta role was previously enabled: Delete any virtual machine configurations if there are any; Re-create the Virtual Network switches


STEP 3.

Create new virtual machines using the settings information you wrote down above.

STEP 4.

Note this step applies whether you are using pre-existing VHDs from Hyper-V Beta, or are installing new virtual machines. You must have the Hyper-V RC0 components matching between the parent partition and the virtual machine. (If the component levels do not match, typical symptoms will be that you will not have mouse integration, synthetic networking and storage does not show up in virtual machines.)


a)    If the virtual machine image is Windows Server 2008

  • Apply Windows6.0-KB949219-x86 or Windows6.0-KB949219-x64 depending on the virtual machine architecture, and reboot as requested.

    There are several ways to achieve this. Personally, I recommend creating an ISO or physical CD image containing the updates. You may prefer to configure your virtual machine with a legacy network adapter prior to starting it so that you can download the update directly from inside the virtual machine. You may also prefer to mount the VHD locally on the parent partition and copy the update across.

b)    If the virtual machine image is Windows Server 2003 SP2 (x86/x64), Windows Vista SP1 x86, Windows XP x86 SP3 (SP3 is currently in RC)

  • Start the virtual machine
  • Double click the virtual machine in Hyper-V Manager to open Virtual Machine Connection
  • On the Action Menu, select Insert Integration Services Setup Disk
    • Autoplay should start installing the Integration Services.
    • If autoplay does not start, run setup from the CD/DVD drive in the virtual machine.
  • Reboot as requested.
  • Re-apply any custom networking configuration inside the virtual machine that you wrote down before the update.

    • Finally, some further links for you. I strongly recommend you refer to these as well as my summary instructions above.

    As always, please send your feedback my way. I’d love to hear how you get on.
    Cheers,
    John.