Determining your Hyper-V version

<rant>

Figuring out versions is often way too hard. Why can't I simply see the version in Add or Remove Programs or in the feature overview? Why do I have to mess around with build numbers? Isn't this 2008!

</rant>

The other day, I had to figure out which Hyper-V and SCVMM version a server was running. Luckily, I found this and this article.

I PowerShelled the Hyper-V part, so you can use it easily in your scripts (and if you execute the WMIC command from PowerShell, it will not work owing to parsing differences between cmd and PowerShell). Here is my Get-HyperVVersion.ps1, but you can also execute it directly -

$file=get-command c:\windows\system32\vmms.exe
switch ($file.fileversioninfo.productversion.split(".")[-1]) {
    17101 { "Beta" }
    18004 { "RC0" }
    18010 { "RC1" }
    18016 { "RTM" }
}

Note how Get-Command can 'reveal' the versioninfo of a executable/DLL.

Hyper-V SuperSite Article

Paul Thurrott has written/updated his Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V article. Amongst other things, it seems like Hyper-V performance is very good. Read it for yourself - worth a read!

Hyper-V RTM'ed

yesterday. So now I'll start updating my test system to see if these errors are gone:

• Keyboard does not always work after a boot. A shutdown/start normally fixes the problem
• Network is sometimes messed completely up if you switch the network the guest is connected to
• "Type clipboard text" only works if you guest runs US English keyboard layout. It seems to generate/emulate keyboard stokes so slash are written as dashes (on a Danish keyboard)
• Virtual Machine Connection crashes

Get the 64-bit update here. Remember to get rid of all save states and snapshots before upgrading! Get the full release notes here.

Hyper-V RC0 WS08 Guest OS and multiprocessor support

When you install WS08 as a Guest OS then the WS08 media includes the earlier version of Hyper-V Integration Services, so network and other hardware devices will not work. If you launch the Integration Services CD it will tell you to go to Windows Update to upgrade the Integration Components (Catch 22 I guess).

The workaround is to 'Insert Integration Services Setup Disk' start Device Manager (devmgmt.msc) find the failing device, select 'Update Driver Software' and 'Browse my computer for driver software' - the path is then e.g. D:\support\amd64.

Second, I noticed the following limitations in multiprocessor support in Hyper-V (In the Release Notes)

For the guest operating system, install one of the following:

• Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V, with a maximum of 4 virtual processors. No other release of Windows Server 2008 is supported with this release of Hyper-V.
• The Windows Server 2003 operating system, with a maximum of 1 virtual processor for 64-bit and 2 virtual processors for 32-bit.

If this is also true for the RTM version (Haven't checked yet) then this product is less useful than expected for 32 bit deployment of WS03 and practically useless for 64 bit deployments of WS03 (Even though Exchange 2007 SP1 supports Windows Server 2008, many companies won't have approval/testing for this product and/or their system management, backup etc. products ready for WS08).

x64 Clients on Hyper-V

This is almost too easy. Just create a client - you do not have to specify 32 or 64 bit anywhere. Select a 64-bit installation image and on you go.

Here's a screenshot, the white PowerShell window is from the host, the rest from the virtual server.

 

Nice!

Importing Virtual Server guests into Hyper-V

As said, I was going to figure out why the import failed. I started off looking at the permissions of C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V. It turns out that a security identifier called Virtual Machines has full control. Naturally, I jumped to my c:\guest\psk10 folder at tried to add the security identifier. But the dialog box cannot find it and as it is not a local group on my server, it must be a new built-in security identifier - one that the brand-new WS08 GUI does not recognize!

Luckily, PowerShell exists, so it is quite easy to get rid of all that GUI translation stuff and get to the real deal -

I bet S-1-5-83-0 is Virtual Machines and a to confirm it, I went searching on MSDN -

• WELL_KNOWN_SID_TYPE Enumeration - nope
• Well-known SIDs - nope
• Well-known security identifiers in Windows operating systems - nope

So I have to prove my point myself -

> $acl=get-acl C:\Guests\psk10
> $acl.SetSecurityDescriptorSddlForm( ($acl.sddl + "(A;;FA;;;S-1-5-83-0)(A;OICIIO;0x101f01ff;;;S-1-5-83-0)") )
> set-acl C:\Guests\psk10 -AclObject $acl
>

Voila, its there -

Microsoft, get you documentation up-to-date!

After this, I tried the import. Looking in the eventlog, I found "Failed to find virtual machine import files under location 'C:\Guests\psk10\'." I wonder: Have I misunderstood "Import" and is Import simply an operation that adds an existing Hyper-V Virtual Machine? Is there not easy way to migrate Virtual Server guests? Maybe, I have to look at SCVMM.

I tried to find some information about this, but did not succeed. In my search, I found another interesting item - the team blog at http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/

A first look at Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V

After downloading the Windows Server 2008 RTM, yesterday, I upgraded my RC1 system to RTM. No problems what so ever - great.

Hardware

My system is a desktop, a Dell Dimension E520 with 4 Gigs or RAM and I am very satisfied with it: It is silent, uses only 130 W when idle and runs 10 Virtual Machines each having 300 GB without problems. If they all apply hotfixes or are running similar IO heavy activity at the same time, you feel the IO bottleneck but besides that, its quite fast.

Installation

Next, I was looking a how to get Hyper-V running, so I could get rid of Virtual Server. Even though I was quite happy with that, you know how it is: You have to try the latest and the greatest. When things starts to run well, it is time to change it...

Well, it turns out that the pre-release of Hyper-V is part of the RTM installation, so I simply added the Hyper-V role to the server and restarted it. After restart it is a matter of finding Administrative Tools and select Hyper-V Manager. You also have to accept a pre-release EULA.

Migration of Virtual Server guests

I started trying to import an existing Virtual Server guest, but got a badly written error message: The operation was passed an invalid parameter. I tried both with and with-out 'Reuse old virtual machine IDs' (whatever that means - haven't found a help topic yet). I also tried to give NETWORK SERVICE modify access to the folder, as I can see the Microsoft Hyper-V Image Management Service uses that account. Did not help either.

Snapshot

Next, I created a new Virtual Machine and liked a lot that I asked me about OS installation in the wizard. I selected a Windows Server 2003 SP2 ISO image and off it went. I started to play with snapshots and took one while the installation had copied 6% of the files. Then I waited until it reached 9% and applied the snapshot - and I was back in time. Very nice.

I also tried the other scenario, where you can create a new snapshot before applying one. Soon, I had a bunch of snapshots and it is very easy to jump back and forth between the versions - but I guess, it is also very easy to get confused and you have to take care if the server is a domain controller or your have some other kind of distributed system.

Mouse Control

A small warning: When you use the new remote control feature - called Virtual Machine Connection - your have to release your mouse using CTRL+SHIFT+LEFT ARROW. Well, I did not succeed in that across Remote Desktop. I had to visit the server (approx 60 cm behind me!) and do it from the console. It is configurable, but CTRL+ALT+SHIFT did not work either. I could only make it work in full screen or if I choose to send "Windows key combinations" to the remote server. For me, this is a bug.

But as I browsed the web trying to find something about the importing problem, I found out that this is actually already documented in the release notes. Quote "The use of Virtual Machine Connection within a Terminal Services session is not supported".

BTW: If you disconnect and re-connect, you can get your mouse activated outside of the Virtual Machine Connection window. If your server is farther away than mine, that may be an option.

Resume after restart of host

Another good thing: With Virtual Server you had to configure an account, to enable a Virtual Machine to start automatically. This is not the case with Hyper-V. Actually, "Automatically start if it was running when the service stopped" is selected by default.

Conclusion so far

Seems ok, but I have to look more closely at the importing problem and the scripting interface.