Matthijs's blog

Capture a disk and create a VHD from it: Disk2VHD

matthts — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:02:01 GMT

Talking about cool utilities, Mark and Bruce have created a disk capturing tool which will create a VHD from the capture.

Do you have a running machine you would like to put into a VM? This tool may just be enough.

Check it out here.

Microsoft and Red Hat Complete Cooperative Technical Support

matthts — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:40:21 GMT

This is nothing more than a link to a great post from Mike Neil on our progress with Redhat. There is now cooperative support from both companies when running select applications on either virtualization product, being Hyper-V or KVM.

Also a very important piece of the post is the fact that the Microsoft contribution of the Integration Components source code has made it to the Linux kernel tree. This means any Linux distribution can compile these and leverage the components for optimal performance running on Hyper-V!

Using Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 for VDI

matthts — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:41:27 GMT

When configuring a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure using Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2, you need the Remote Desktop Virtualization Host role service. Enabling that on a Windows Server 2008 R2 system with the Full UI is rather straightforward.

But I could not quickly find what to enable on Hyper-V Server. As we clearly state on the Hyper-V Server home page, Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is ideally suited for VDI. But how can you enable the Remote Desktop Virtualization Host?

It turned out to be quite simple once you know what to look for (isn’t that common).

When you search for the available features on Hyper-V Server you can use DISM. For example “dism /online /Get-Features /Format:table”. This may give the following output:

Now I did not find the Remote Desktop Virtualization Host feature in this list :-). Through PowerShell however, I found out it to be the VmHostAgent feature.

I had the Server Manager cmdlets installed on the Hyper-V Server host. This gives a much more readable output of features. This is what I used in PowerShell:

Import-Module ServerManager

Get-WindowsFeature

Now you can see the Remote Desktop Virtualization Host feature with a Name of RDS-Virtualization.

Enabling the feature is now simple.

DISM

dism /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:VmHostAgent

! Make sure you type VmHostAgent with correct casing !

PowerShell

Add-WindowsFeature –Name RDS-Virtualization

‘Missing’ network adapters in Hyper-V Server 2008 R2

matthts — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 17:46:19 GMT

When you choose option 8 in sconfig you may notice that sconfig lists fewer network adapters than there are actually physically available. It is also possible that sconfig shows no network adapters at all.

Although it may not be obvious, there is a simple reason behind this. Sconfig only shows ‘active network interfaces’ by running the following WMI query:

"SELECT * FROM Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration where IPenabled=TRUE"

This query returns active network adapters or more accurately network adapters with an IP configuration. When network adapters have no physical connection, neither APIPA, static IP or DHCP configured IP will exist and so sconfig shows no information for those adapters.

The solution to this, if you want to list the adapters or configure IP on any of them, is to use NetShell (netsh).

How many VM’s in a Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 cluster?

matthts — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:15:42 GMT

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 fully supports clustering. With the addition of enterprise features it has become the ideal virtualization host amongst all Microsoft platform offerings; Windows Server 2008 R2 (Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter), Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2.

A virtualization host supports a maximum of 384 VM’s. However this is not the case when the host is a cluster node. When using clusters, we support a maximum of 64 VM’s per cluster node. So stretching that to a cluster of 16 nodes, we support a maximum of 16 times 64 VM’s on the cluster. That is a total of 1024 VM’s in a cluster. From a clustering design point of view it makes more sense to have 1 or even two passive nodes (one for failure, one for maintenance).

This maximum is true for all virtualization hosts being either Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 or the Windows Server 2008 R2 editions.

Hyper-V Resource Kit

matthts — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:08:39 GMT

This is not an announcement on the availability of the Hyper-V Resource Kit; it has been available for two months now.

But I finally got the time to read the whole book. I was one of the reviewers of the book but as a reviewer you don’t get all chapters for review.

If you want to know more about Hyper-V and better understand its features and functionality I highly recommend this book. Look here for an outline of the chapters.

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is RTM

matthts — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:00:33 GMT

Na Windows Server 2008 R2 en Windows 7 volgt nu ook de gratis server virtualisatie host in de R2 release.

Nieuw ten opzichte van de RC release is de boot-from-flash mogelijkheid die hardware-leveranciers kunnen gebruiken om een geïntegreerde server-virtualisatie host te bieden.

Zie verder hier voor alle details.

Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM

matthts — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:06:00 GMT

Yesterday, July 22nd, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 were declared Released To Manufacturing (RTM).

You can read more about the Windows 7 announcement at the Windows7 blog here. And more about the Windows Server 2008 R2 announcement here.

Regarding the virtualization capabilities in Windows Server 2008 R2, the virtualization team has created a great outline here.

RC2 release of Linux IC’s

matthts — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:01:54 GMT

The RC2 release of the Linux IC’s for Hyper-V have been released. With this release, support for the following guest operating systems has been added:

· Red Hat Enterprise Linux (5.2, x86/x64)

· Red Hat Enterprise Linux (5.3, x86/x64)

· SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (x86/x64)

Having support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, one of the leaders in server-based Linux deployments, is significant. We’ve been working with Red Hat on the certification process to ensure support for Red Hat on Hyper-V.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 is the latest version of the award-winning distribution, which includes advances in Green Computing and increased performance for interop with .NET applications.

The integration components support the following virtualization platforms:

· Windows Server® 2008 Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter (x64 only)

· Microsoft® Hyper-V Server 2008

· Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V RC (Build 7100) Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter (x64 only)

· Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 RC (Build 7100)

Having a single set of integration components supporting both releases of Hyper-V provides an easier administration and management experience for Hyper-V admins.

Customers can obtain the Linux IC’s via access to the Microsoft Connect program: https://connect.microsoft.com/SelfNomination.aspx?ProgramID=1863&pageType=1&SiteID=495

Microsoft Contributes Linux Drivers to Linux Community

matthts — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:01:23 GMT

REDMOND, Wash., July 20, 2009 — Today, in a break from the ordinary, Microsoft released 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community. The code, which includes three Linux device drivers, has been submitted to the Linux kernel community for inclusion in the Linux tree. The drivers will be available to the Linux community and customers alike, and will enhance the performance of the Linux operating system when virtualized on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V or Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.

…….

For the remainder use link below.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/Jul09/07-20LinuxQA.mspx

Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta

matthts — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:15:00 GMT

Windows Server 2008 R2 is now publically available. Among the new features and many improvements is Hyper-V v2.

Hyper-V v2 supports new features like Live Migration, storage hot-add/remove, Second Level Address Translation, TCP Offloading, VMQ (device queuing), Jumbo frames and processor core parking.

It does however not support the ability to import Virtual Machines from Virtual Server. Therefore I am working on an updated release of the VMC2HV tool with support for Hyper-V v2.

There are other changes and improvements which I will outline once it comes close to release. A screen shot is provided below to give an impression of the new UI.

Windows Hyper-V Server 2008 is RTM

matthts — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:25:14 GMT

Hyper-V Server 2008 is RTM. You can download it as of October 1st.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 provides a simplified, reliable, and optimized virtualization solution, enabling improved server utilization and reduced costs. Since Hyper-V Server is a dedicated stand-alone product, which contains only the Windows Hypervisor, Windows Server driver model and virtualization components, it provides a small footprint and minimal overhead. It easily plugs into customers’ existing IT environments, leveraging their existing patching, provisioning, management, support tools, processes, and skills.

You can find all info on Hyper-V Server here.

VMC to Hyper-V Import Tool Available

matthts — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 00:48:00 GMT

VMC to Hyper-V Import Tool

Now that we have launched the Microsoft Virtualization strategy this Monday, I wanted to release my tool so people could start using it to import their old Virtual Machine configurations. So first of all, what is the VMC to Hyper-V Import Tool and what was it intended for?

The tool

VMC to Hyper-V Import Tool, VMC2HV for short, imports the configuration from a Virtual Machine Configuration (VMC) file. Both Virtual PC and Virtual Server use VMC files to store the hardware and other properties of a VM. It reads the VMC file and maps all relevant properties to those for a Hyper-V VM. For those properties that did not exist, it provides additional options. Those properties that no longer exist are ignored.

VMC2HV was developed to ease the transition from Virtual Server to Hyper-V. As I explained in an earlier post, I was quite annoyed by the fact that I had to enter all hardware properties manually if I wanted to use the VHD files from the Virtual Server VM with the hardware settings as they were in the original VM. It really took a lot of time to get my VS VM’s under Hyper-V. So I did not want to do that again and decided to develop a tool that would import the properties for me (development of the tool took quite more time but it was fun…).

Scope

The scope of the tool was initially to import Virtual Server VMC files. But some people also wanted to be able to import Virtual PC VMC files. So I did some additional testing with Virtual PC 2007 VMC files. It was not extensive but I did modify the code in several places to accommodate the differences between Virtual PC and Virtual Server. I did not specifically test Virtual PC 2004 VMC files. I imported several and it worked but I didn’t test those VMC files since the product has been superseded long ago. Basically the same is true for Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1. I only tested VMC files under the latest release of Virtual Server 2005.

Out of scope

The tool imports a VM configuration. This means it does nothing inside the VM like removing Virtual Machine Additions or installing Integration Components. I just want to make that clear to manage the expectations. Although uninstalling the Additions, installing the Integration Components and the process involved requires some work it is much less than reading the VMC file and searching and copying the hardware properties over to Hyper-V. If you want automatic removal of Additions and installation of Integration Components, use System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008.

Comparison with SCVMM

VMC2HV was never developed to replace the SCVMM functionality, as VMRCplus was never developed for the same reason. SCVMM is an enterprise class product which you should use to import, create and manage virtual machines. SCVMM can import the VMC file as well and provides some additional management functionality. VMC2HV basically does the same but was intended for people who do not (yet) have SCVMM. For example all people using Hyper-V on laptops or a couple of servers. Using SCVMM just for importing VMC files would be a bit too much of a step.

Features

So what does the tool offer? In a list of features:

· Import of VMC files of both VS2005 and VPC2007

· Creation of VM on local Hyper-V host

· Creation of VM on remote Hyper-V host

· Validation of virtual disk and ISO files in local scenario

· Editing of virtual drive image paths (vhd, vfd, iso)

· Swapping of the first SCSI disk with the first IDE disk

· Specification of static MAC addresses

· Specification of either legacy (emulated) or enhanced network adapter

· Specification of # of virtual processors and resource control

· Specification of management settings

· Specification of COM ports

· Specification of device boot order

· Specification of alternate Virtual Machine path

· Built-in help in CHM file

· Support for both x86 and x64 Vista and Server 2008

As you can see, VMC2HV not only imports the configuration but lets you adjust almost any setting before creating the VM in Hyper-V. Several shortcut keys have been added to help speed the process if you only want to do an import-and-create of many VMC files.

Requirements

You can import VMC files from any file location. Then you can create the VM either locally or remotely. In the remote scenario, both the client where VMC2HV runs and the remote Hyper-V host must be in the same domain. Or alternatively, both client and remote Hyper-V host can exist in a workgroup but you need to use mirrored administrator accounts (both same administrator, same password). Other configurations simply do not work.

The tool prevents importing VMC files which contain either saved state information or Undo disks. VM’s must be shut down and Undo disks must be committed or discarded.

Support

I hope it just works for you but I know there are always circumstances I did or could not test. If you run into issues with a VMC file, send me the file and I may look at it to see what causes problems. If the VMC file is from an old Virtual PC version, I prefer you open the VMC file in Virtual PC 2007 SP1 and save the configuration from there. It will be reformatted in Virtual PC 2007 layout and likely to solve any import issues. If you cannot, I can look into the specific issue. The same applies to old Virtual Server VMC file versions. If import fails when using the latest VMC files, send a copy to me.

Before submitting any issues, please press F1 and see if your question is addressed in the help file. As the license agreement states, I may not support an issue at all or may not have the time. I will support on a best-effort basis.

Download

You can find both the x86 and x64 files here.

VMC to Hyper-V import tool - update

matthts — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:31:00 GMT

It has been a while since my last post on the tool. It is still being tested within a limited group. However I get many requests for the tool but cannot handle any more. Thanks for all who wanted to volunteer.

The tool will be called ‘VMC to Hyper-V import tool’, in short ‘VMC to Hyper-V’. This suggest it supports any VMC which is my goal but not yet true. The initial goal was to support import of Virtual Server VMC files as Hyper-V is a server product. But I intend to do some testing with VPC2007 VMC files as well.

The name also contains ‘import’ instead of ‘migrate’. With importing you can repeat the step as often as you like and nothing in the original VMC file gets changed. With migrate there is usually some form of conversion and sometimes it is a no-way-back process. I think import better reflects the nature of the tool.

There are a couple of small things on the todo list but they may not get into the first release. Things like Guest OS verification with regards to logical processor support or startup and shutdown behavior of the VM. I wonder if people often used the startup/shutdown behavior setting of the VM. If you do, let me know and I may try to add support for those settings.

I plan to release the tool in September.

VMC to Hyper-V migration tool

matthts — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:19:00 GMT

Yet another update just before my vacation.

I have finalized the tool so it is feature complete, according to my specifications. Below is a screen shot of what it looks like today.

The tool now basically covers everything there is you can specify in a Hyper-V vm. Looking at a Virtual Server or Virtual PC configuration file, all settings which can apply to a Hyper-V vm are imported and can be modified in the UI.
Of course, BIOS settings like NumLock and boot order are Hyper-V specific but I added those for completeness. You can choose to have the SCSI boot disk swapped with the forst IDE disk. This is handy for those who have used SCSI with Virtual Server.

The tool is now being tested within a closed group at Microsoft. After I return from vacation, I plan to release this as soon as possible.