2014

Hyper-v Configuration
Guide

Darshana Jayathilake
http://darshana.wordpress.com
Table of Contents
Server Virtualization ..................................................................................................................................... 2
Hyper-V ......................................................................................................................................................... 2
Hyper-V Licensing.......................................................................................................................................... 2
Install and Configure Hyper-V ....................................................................................................................... 3
Hyper-v prerequisites ............................................................................................................................... 3
Lab 01-Install and configure Hyper-V ....................................................................................................... 4
Lab 02-Create virtual network/s ............................................................................................................. 17
Available settings on virtual network manager ...................................................................................... 19
Virtual Machines on Hyper-V ...................................................................................................................... 20
Lab 03-Creat virtual machine and install the operating system ............................................................. 21
Lab 04-Edit hardware configuration of virtual machine ......................................................................... 27
Available Virtual processor settings on Hyper-V .................................................................................... 28
Hyper-v Virtual Machine snapshot ............................................................................................................. 29
What is a snapshot .................................................................................................................................. 29
Hyper-v Disk Types .................................................................................................................................. 33
Lab 04-Add VHD to virtual machine........................................................................................................ 34
Lab 05-Add differencing disk to the VM ................................................................................................. 38
Server Virtualization
Server virtualization is host/installed several virtual machines on a one/more physical server using
specially designed software which is called as Hypervisor.

Hyper-V
Hyper-v is a native Hypervisor which is designed by Microsoft for virtualization. We can run several
operating systems such as Windows, Linux on top of a Hyper-V platform. Hyper-v 3.0 is the current
version of the Hypervisor. Also Hyper-v is one of the server roles in Windows 2008 64bit, Windows
2008R2 and Windows 2012/R2.

Hyper-V Licensing
Hyper-v isa free software on Microsoft product portfolio, but user have to purchase running virtual
machines in the Hyper-v server (Microsoft Operating systems and other commercial operating systems).
When the user purchasing Widows server operating systems, he will get some free Windows server
operating system licenses with it. Table 1.0 summarizes the Hyper-v licensing with MS windows
2008/2008R2/2012

Operating System No of free virtual machines

MS Windows 2008/2008R2 Standard 2
MS Windows 2008/2008R2 Enterprise 4
MS Windows 2008/2008R2 Datacenter Unlimited*1
MS Windows 2012/2012R2 Standard 2
MS windows 2012/2012R2 Datacenter Unlimited*2
1.0 Hyper-v licensing
Install and Configure Hyper-V

Hyper-v prerequisites

An x64-based processor. Hyper-V is available in MS Windows 2012 R2 Standard/Datacenter or Hyper-v

Server 2012 R2 Editions.

Hardware-assisted virtualization. This is available in processors that include a virtualization option

specifically, Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT) or AMD Virtualization (AMD-V).

Hardware-enforced Data Execution Prevention (DEP) must be available and be enabled. Specifically, you
must enable the Intel XD bit (execute disable bit) or AMD NX bit (no execute bit).

*Using Intel processor identifier utility we can easily find the availability of the above mentioned
features.

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/highlights/processors/toolspiu
Lab 01-Install and configure Hyper-V
Task Steps
Enable Power up server
VT/AMD-V or Go to the bios by pressing the relevant key such as F9/F10
XD/NX bit on Enable required features
the server

Install Set the boot option on the server (Boot from the DVD)
operating
system on the Insert Windows 2012R2 DVD to the DVD ROM
server
Click on next button
Click on Install now button

Select Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Evaluation (Server With a GUI)

*In a windows server core edition there is no windows explorer (No GUI) running,
but it takes minimal resource for operate. To configure and maintain the server
core edition we can use DOC commands, PowerShell commands or we can connect
to the server core edition using GUI enabled server or Windows client (RSAT).
Microsoft recommends to run Hyper-V on the server core edition, but in this lab
setup up we are installing the OS with GUI. There will be a separate lesson for
configuring server core edition. Also, please note that we can change server core
addition to GUI edition and vice versa with Server 2012/2012R2.

Select I accept the license terms check box and click on next
Select custom: Install windows only
Create a partition for the operating system. (Minimum 32GB)

Now installing windows to the operating system to the server

Set a password Set up a password as admin@1234 and click on Finish
 Login to the computer using Administrator credentials

Rename the Right click on my computer and select properties and change the host name
computer

*Computer rename also can be done through PowerShell and netdom command.
Ex
Powershell

Rename-Computer NewName SRV01

Netdom command
 NetDom RenameComputer %computername% /NewName:srv01

Enable Hyper-V Open server manager

Click on Manage
Select Add roles and Features and click on next

Select Role-based or feature-based installation

Select the server name and click on next
Click on Next

Click on next

Click on next
*Virtual network switches creation will be explained in a separate chapter

Click on next

From this window user can customize the default location of the virtual hard disks
and configuration files. After this configuration all
Select Restart the destination server automatically if required and click on install
Lab 02-Create virtual network/s
Task Steps
Create virtual
Switch Open server manager>Open tools>Select Hyper-V Manager

Select the server name from the Hyper - V manager>Select Virtual switch manager
from actions panel

Select New virtual switch>Select External>Click on create virtual switch

Give the name for the virtual switch name VMNETWORK and click on Apply &
OK
Available settings on virtual network manager

Setting Description
External Creates a connection to a physical network
adapter so that virtual machines can access a
physical network.

The Allow management operating system

to share this network adapter setting
controls whether you can use this physical
network adapter to access to the management
operating system, which is operating system
that runs the Hyper-V role. You can use this
option to isolate the management operating
system for communications between virtual
machines and other computers on a physical
network. However, this also means that you
cannot connect to the management operating
system remotely through this physical
network adapter if this option is cleared.

Internal Provides communications between the

management operating system and virtual
machines.
Private Provides communications between virtual
machines only.
VLANID Administrator can define the specific VLAN ID on
this option.
Enable single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) SR-IOV enables network traffic to bypass the
software switch layer of the Hyper-V
virtualization stack. Because the VF is assigned to
a child partition, the network traffic flows directly
between the VF and child partition. As a result,
the I/O overhead in the software emulation layer
is diminished and achieves network performance
that is nearly the same performance as in
nonvirtualized environments.
Virtual Machines on Hyper-V

Using Hyper-V as a platform we can create multiple virtual machines on a single physical hardware
components (Server/Servers). Hyper-v supports different operating systems which are listed as bellows.

Windows XP

Windows Vista

Windows 7

Windows 8

Windows 8.1

Windows Server 2003, 2003R2

Windows server 2008, 2008R2

Windows server 2012, 2012 R2

CentOS 5.5-5.9

CentOS 6.0-6.4

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5, 5.8, 5.9, 6.0, 6.3, 6.5

Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10, 11

Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10, 13.04, 13.10

Oracle Linux with Red Hat Compatible kernel

Lab 03-Creat virtual machine and install the operating system
Task Steps
Create a Open Server Manager>Select Tools>Open Hyper-V Manager>Select your
virtual server
machine

Right click on your server>Select New>Select Virtual Machine

If you click no Finish, you will get a new virtual machine with 1 Virtual Processor,
512MB Memory, 127GB Dynamic HDD and one network interface. To create a
custom configured virtual, Click on Next button.

We can specify the VM name and path

Select Generation 1 and click on Next

Assign start up memory as 1024 and click on Next

Select Virtual network name and click on Next

Specify the name for virtual hard disks and assign a capacity. And click on Next

*There is a separate lab for virtual hard disks.

To install the operating system, user can use physical DVD/CD media, ISO image or
Network based installation (WDS, SCCM)

Click on Finish
To power up the virtual machine, users can right click on the virtual machine and
click on Start or click on click on Start button on right hand side.

The user can click on Connect button or option and get the virtual machine in a
separate window
Lab 04-Edit hardware configuration of virtual machine
Task Steps
Add/Remove Open Hyper-V manager>right click on the virtual machine, which we want to change
virtual the settings>Select Settings
processors
from the
virtual
machine

Select Processor from the left side (Available features will be described) and change
the number of virtual processors on the virtual machine
Available Virtual processor settings on Hyper-V
Setting Description
No of virtual Using this setting we can assign a no of cores for the virtual machine. Maximum no
processors will be equal to the maximum number of cores on a physical server. (Ex 24 cores, 16
cores)
Virtual How much of processing power will be reserved for this virtual machine.
Machine Ex
Reserve

In this example, I have allocated one virtual process and virtual machine reserve
50%. This means the physical server will reserve half of one core in physical server
will be always allocated for this virtual machine.

Virtual As a default setting this will be listed as 100.This is the maximum amount of
Machine Limit processing power that VM can be used. 100 means this virtual machine can use the
100% of the allocated processor resources (1 core)
Relative This setting is used for prioritizing the virtual machine processing. In case of
weight processor demanding with two or more virtual machines, we can configure
prioritizing for the virtual machines.
Hyper-v Virtual Machine snapshot

What is a snapshot
Hyper-v snapshot taking process is a capture data, hardware configuration and state of the running
virtual machine. Snapshots are mostly used in a test and development environments and snapshots are
stored in a .avhd files. Also snapshot/s are cause to reduce the performance of the vm.

Lab 04-Manage snapshot

Task Steps
Create a Open Hyper-V manager > Select Hyper-v host > Right click on the virtual machine >
snapshot Select CheckPoint
From the snapshot/checkpoint pane we can see the available
checkpoints/snapshots for the virtual machine.

Right click on the checkpoint name > Select Rename

Do some changes on virtual machine(create a folder)

Apply snapshot-Right click on the check point > Select Apply

Select Apply

Virtual machine has revert to the previous state

Hyper-v Disk Types

VHD & VHDX is the hard disk formats of the Microsoft virtual machines. If the user wants to have more
than 2TB size disk file, he should use VHDX file. Otherwise he can continue with the VHD file. Also there
are four disk types are available in the Hyper-v

Dynamic Disks

When we are creating dynamic disk, we can mention the maximum capacity. But the actual size will be
depend on how much data is being stored on that particular volume.

As an example if we create 200GB dynamic disk but data is using only 50GB of space, which will only
consume 50GB from your physical HDD.

Fixed Disks

In fixed disks, space will be allocated the disk space from physical disks at creation time. This is the
recommended disk type for the production use.

Differencing Disk

Differencing disks are based on a one parent disk and all the changes are writing to the separate VHD.
This is very useful for testing and lab environments. Users can use share the same VHD with os for
multiple virtual machines. Also this is not recommend for the production environment.
Lab 04-Add VHD to virtual machine
Add Right click on the virtual machine> select Settings>Select IDE Controller
dynamic/fixed >select Hard Drive>click on Add
disk to the
virtual machine

*We can select ISCI controller also.If we are adding IDE drive, vm should
be in a poweroff mode

Click on New
Click on Next

SelectVHD orVHDX disk format. This will depend on the disk capacity
Select the disk type Dynamically expanding or Fixed size

Browse the location for VHD/X and name it

Assign maximum capacity for VHD/X

Click on Finish
Lab 05-Add differencing disk to the VM
Select Differencing disk>click on Next

Assign a path for Diff disk and name it

Select the parent disk> Click on Next

Click on Finish
Export & Import Virtual machines

Hyper-V vm export and import facility helps us to move virtual machine from one hyper-v host to
another hyper-v host. Also some times this vms are usefull as a backup.User can export vm/s to external
media such as usb drive or network location

Lab06-How to export and import vm

Task Steps
Open Hyper-v manager and right click on the VM and select Export
Browse location for export the vm

User can see the status of Exporting process

Hyper-v Replication

Hyper-v replication allows us to replicate virtual machine data to the Hyper-v host in a same site or DR
site without having any shared storage. With server 2012 R2 we can configure the replication frequency
as well.

Lab07-Replicate virtual machine to Hyper-v host

Task Steps
Replication Open Hyper-V Manager on both source and destination Hyper-v host > Select
virtual machine Hyper-v host > Hyper-V Settings
to Hyper-v
Host
Select Enable this computer as a replica server check box > Select User
Kerberos(HTTP):check box > Select Allow replication from any authenticated
server

From source Hyper-V host > right click on vm > select Enable Replication
Click on Next

Browse and select destination host from active directory

Select Compress the data that is transmitted over the network > click on Next

Click on Next(from this location, we can exclude the vnd from replication also)
Select the frequency for vm replication

Select Maintain only the latest recovery point > Click on Next
Select Send initial copy over the network > Select Start replication
immediately

Click on Finish
Check he re Right click on the vm > Select Replication

Select Replication Health

Failover virtual Shut down the virtual machine > Right click on the virtual machine > Select
machine Planned Failover

Select Start the replica virtual machine after failover > Click Failover. Virtual
machine in the destination will be started after triggering this process.
Reverse Open Hyper-v manager connect destination host > Right click on the VM > Select
replication Replication > Select Reverse Repliction
from
destination

Click on Next
Select the server > Click on Next

Run the same wizard as vm replication

More and Advanced configurations on
next guide!!

Please send your feedbacks to darshanasam1234@hotmail.com