70-410: installing and configuring windows server 2012 chapter 3 configuring hyper-v

70-410: Installing and Configuring Windows

Server 2012

Chapter 3Configuring Hyper-V

Objective 3.1: Creating and Configuring Virtual

Machine Settings

© 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 3

Virtualization Architectures

Type II Virtualization• Requires a “host” operating system• Using the Type II Hypervisor, you create a virtual

hardware environment for each VM• Install a “guest” operating system on each VM, just

like installing a new computer• The host operating system shares access to the

computer’s processor with the hypervisor• Does not provide the same performance as separate

physical computers• Good testing or lab environment• Examples: VirtualBox, VMWare Workstation



A hybrid VMM sharing hardware access with a host operating system



Type I Virtualization• Hypervisor is an abstraction layer that interacts

directly with the computer’s physical hardware• No host operating system required• Individual environments, called partitions have their

own operating systems installed and accesses hardware through the hypervisor

• No host operating system is sharing processor• Parent partition runs the virtualization stack which

creates and manages the child partitions• Examples: Microsoft Hyper-V, VMWare ESXi vSphere

Hypervisor



A Type 1 VMM, with the hypervisor providing all hardware access


Hyper-V Implementations

• Hyper-V role is required for the operating system to function as the computer’s parent partition, enabling it to host VMs.

• Only Standard and Datacenter editions support Hyper-V.

• No special requirements are needed for the guest operating systems (Microsoft or non-Microsoft).


Hyper-V Licensing• You must have licenses for both physical

and virtual instances of the operating system.

• Datacenter licensing allows you to create and run an unlimited number of VMs.

• Standard provides 2 virtual instances only.


Hyper-V Hardware Limitations

• Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V host system:o Up to 320 logical processorso Supporting up to 2,048 virtual CPUso Up to 4 TB of physical memory

• One server can host as many as 1,024 active VMs

• Each VM can have up to 64 virtual CPUs and up to 1 TB of memory

• Hyper-V can support clusters with up to 64 nodes and 8,000 VMs


Hyper-V Server• Subset of Windows Server 2012• Free downloadable product, but does not

include licenses for operating systems installed in the VMs

• Includes the Hyper-V role and limited File and Storage services and Remote Desktop capabilities

• Hyper-V role is installed by default• Only uses Server Core interface


Installing Hyper-V• Installing the Hyper-V role installs the

hypervisor software and Hyper-V Manager (GUI only)

• Recommendations:o Use Hyper-V role on the host without any other

roleso Put other roles on VMso Use Server Core installation


Hyper-V Hardware Requirements

• 64-bit processors that include hardware-assisted virtualization.

• A system BIOS that supports the virtualization hardware, on which the virtualization feature has been enabled.

• Hardware-enforced Data Execution Prevention (DEP), which Intel describes as eXecuted Disable (XD) and AMD describes as No eXecute (NS).


Using Hyper-V Manager

• The primary graphical tool for creating and managing VMs

• Can be used to manage VMs on multiple servers

• Installed with the Hyper-V Role, or you can install the Hyper-V Management Tools feature, or RSAT package for Windows 8


Creating a Virtual Machine

• To create a virtual machine (VM), you define the hardware resources that the system should allocate to them:o Number of processorso Memoryo Virtual network adapterso Virtual disks


Creating a Virtual Machine

Each virtual machine uses the following files:• Virtual machine configuration (.vmc) file:

This file in XML format contains the VM configuration information, including all settings for the VM.

• Virtual hard disk (.vhd or .vhdx) files: One or more files used to store the guest operating system, applications, and data for the VM.

• Saved-state (.vsv) file: The VM may use this if it has been placed into a saved state.


Installing an Operating System

Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 supports the following as operating systems you can install in virtual machines:o Windows Server 2012o Windows Server 2008 R2o Windows Server 2008 o Windows Home Server 2011o Windows Small Business Server 2011o Windows Server 2003 R2o Windows Server 2003 SP2o Windows 8o Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimateo Windows Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate SP2o Windows XP Professional SP3o Windows XP x64 Professional SP2 o CentOS 6.0–6.2o Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0–6.2o SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2


Installing an Operating System

• To start an installation from a DVD, or image file, you must configure the VM’s virtual DVD drive in the Settings dialog box. Enter one of the following options:o None: The equivalent of a drive with no disk

inserted.o Image file: Points to a disk image file with an .iso

extension stored on one of the host computer’s drives or on a shared network drive.

o Physical CD/DVD drive: Links the virtual DVD drive to one of the physical DVD drives in the host computer.


Configuring Guest Integration Services

Some of the functions added to solve compatibility issues with guest operating systems (OSs):

• Operating system shutdown: Enables the Hyper-V Manager console to remotely shut down a guest OS in a controlled manner, eliminating the need for an administrator to log on and manually shut the system down.

• Time synchronization: Enables Hyper-V to synchronize the OS clocks in parent and child partitions.

• Data Exchange: Enables the OSs on the parent and child partitions to exchange information, such as OS version information and fully qualified domain names.

• Heartbeat: Implements a service in which the parent partition sends regular heartbeat signals to the child partitions, which are expected to respond in kind. A failure of a child partition to respond indicates that the guest OS has frozen or malfunctioned.

• Backup: Allows backup of Windows VMs using Volume Shadow Copy Services.


Allocating Memory• When you create a new VM you specify the

amount of memory allocated to the VM.• Based on the amount of physical memory

on the computer.• Change the allocated memory by shutting

down the VM, opening Settings, and changing the Startup Ram setting.

• Experiment to find the optimum performance.


Using Dynamic Memory

• Allows the VM to automatically reallocate memory to the VM from a shared memory pool as its demands change

• Must be enabled by selecting the Enable Dynamic Memory check box on the VM’s memory page, and the following settings must be configured:o Startup RAMo Minimum RAMo Maximum RAMo Memory Buffero Memory Weight


Monitor Memory Allocation

Memory statistics for a virtual machine


Configure Smart Paging

• Smart paging is a new feature.• If a VM has to restart, and there is not

enough memory available to allocate its Startup RAM value, the system uses hard disk space to make up the difference and begins paging memory contents to disk.

• Because of slow disk access, performance degrades.

• Select the fastest possible hard drive for the Smart Paging file.


Resource MeteringResource metering uses PowerShell cmdlets

to track a variety of performance metrics for individual VMs, including:o CPU utilizationo Minimum/Maximum/Average memory

utilizationo Disk space utilizationo Incoming/Outgoing network traffic

Objective 3.2: Implementing Patch

Management


Working with Virtual Disks

• Hyper-V uses a virtual hard disk (VHD) format to package part of the space on a physical disk to appear to the VM as though it is a physical hard drive.

• You can construct virtual storage subsystems to emulate almost any physical storage solution.

• The New Virtual Machine Wizard creates the following virtual storage subsystem:o 2 IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) controllers

(system drive + DVD drive)o 1 SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) controller

(unpopulated)


Virtual Disk FormatsThree types of VHD formats:• Fixed hard disk image: An image file of a specified

size in which all the disk space required to create the image is allocated during its creation.

• Dynamic hard disk image: An image file with a specified maximum size, which starts out small and expands as needed to accommodate the data the system writes to it.

• Differencing hard disk image: A child image file associated with a specific parent image. The system writes all changes made to the data on the parent image file to the child image, to facilitate a rollback at a later time.


Virtual Hard Disk Formats

• VHDo Limited to 2 TBo Compatible with all versions of Hyper-V, Virtual

Server, and Virtual PC

• VHDX o Up to 64 TBo Support 4 KB logical sector sizeso Larger block sizes (up to 256 MB)o Not backwards compatible


Creating Virtual Disks• Hyper-V allows you to create virtual hard

disks as a part of a virtual machine, or create them later and add them to a VM.

• Hyper-V Manager provides access to most of the VHD parameters.

• Windows PowerShell provides the most granular control.


Creating a Virtual Disk with a VM

The New Virtual Machine Wizard includes a Connect Virtual Hard Disk page, with which you can add a single disk to your new VM with these options:

• Create a virtual hard disk: Enables you to specify the name, location, and size of a new virtual hard disk, but you can only create a dynamically expanding disk using the VHDX format.

• Use an existing virtual hard disk: Enables you to specify the location of an existing VHD or VHDX disk, which the VM will presumably use as its system disk.

• Attach a virtual hard disk later: Prevents the wizard from adding any virtual disks to the VM configuration. The assumption is that you will manually add a disk later, before you start the virtual machine.


Adding Virtual Disks to Virtual Machines

• If you chose the Attach a virtual hard disk later option when creating your virtual machine, you will need to attach a virtual hard drive to one of your controllers.

• In the VM’s settings you will see 2 IDE controllers (IDE 0 and IDE 1) and 1 SCSI controller.


Creating Differencing Disks

• Allows you to create a cloned version of a baseline installation

• The parent disk is the baseline installation• The child is the differencing disk• Make changes to the child differencing

disk without changing the baseline • You can revert back to the baseline

installation anytime• Excellent tool for testing or labs


Configuring Pass-Through Disks

• A pass-through disk is a type of virtual disk that points not to an area of space on a physical disk, but to a physical disk drive itself, installed on the host computer.

• The VM must have exclusive access to the physical disk.

• You must take the disk offline in the parent operating system.


Modifying Virtual Hard Disks

• You can edit a virtual hard disk, whether you have attached it to a VM or not.

• Use the Edit Virtual Hard Disk Wizard in the Hyper-V Manager.


Creating Snapshots• A snapshot is a captured image of the state,

data, and hardware configuration of a virtual machine at a particular moment in time.

• Offers a convenient way for administrators to revert a virtual machine to a previous state at will.

• Select Snapshot from the Actions pane.• The system creates a snapshot file, with an

AVHD or AVHDX extension in the same folder as the virtual hard disk file.


Connecting to a SAN• A storage area network (SAN) is simply a

network dedicated to high-speed connections between servers and storage devices.

• A SAN consists of one or more drive arrays equipped with network interface adapters, which you connect to your servers using standard twisted pair or fiber optic network cables.

• A SAN-connected server has a minimum of two network adapters—one for the standard LAN connection, and one for the SAN.


Connecting to a SAN

A server connected to a SAN


Advantages of SANs• Avoid the limitations imposed by the

maximum number of devices you can connect directly to a computer.

• Provide added flexibility in their communications capabilities.

• Can also greatly extend the distances between servers and storage devices.


Clustering in a SANBecause any device on a SAN can communicate with any

other device on the same SAN, high-speed data transfers can occur in the following ways:o Server to storage: Servers access storage devices over the

SAN just as if they were connected directly to the computer.o Server to server: Servers use the SAN to communicate

directly with each other at high speeds to avoid flooding the LAN with traffic.

o Storage to storage: Storage devices communicate among themselves without server intervention (e.g., performing backups from one medium to another or to mirror drives on different arrays).

By connecting redundant servers to the same network, enabling them to access the same data storage devices, you create fault tolerance—clustering.


Clustering in a SAN

Multiple servers connected to a SAN


SAN Technologies• Hard drive arrays directly connected to a

server consist of multiple drives and a SCSI interface.

• Some include RAID controllers, while some are JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks).

• Drive arrays for SANs are more complex because they also include support for networking and intelligent agents that provide advanced functions, like serverless backups.


Using Fibre Channel• Fibre Channel is a high-speed serial

networking technology that was originally designed for use with supercomputers, but which is now associated primarily with storage area networking.

• Supports various network media, transmission speeds, topologies, and upper-level protocols

• Its primary disadvantage is that it requires specialized hardware that can be extremely expensive.


Connecting Virtual Machines to a SAN

• Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V now supports the creation of virtual Fibre channel adapters.

• This is essentially a pass-through device that enables a virtual machine to access a physical Fibre Channel adapter installed in the computer, and through that, the external resources connected to the SAN.

Objective 3.3: Monitoring Servers


Virtual Networking• Virtual networking components are used in

place of physical ones in a virtual environment, such as:o Virtual network adapterso Virtual switches

• Allows you to connect to virtual and physical environments

• Hyper-V allows you to create multiple switches and adapters to provide a flexible networking environment


Creating Virtual Switches

• A switch has a series of ports, each of which is connected to a computer’s network interface adapter. Any computer connected to the switch can transmit data to any other computer connected to the same switch.

• Virtual switches created by Hyper-V can have an unlimited number of ports, so administrators don’t have to be concerned about connecting switches together or about uplinks and crossover circuits.


Creating the Default Virtual Switch

• Hyper-V provides you with the opportunity to create a virtual switch for each of the physical network adapters installed in the host computer. These switches enable virtual machines to participate on the networks to which the physical adapters are connected.

• When you create a virtual switch, the networking configuration in the host operating system on the parent partition changes: o The new virtual switch appears in the Network

Connections window, and if you examine its properties, you can see that the switch is bound to the operating system’s TCP/IP client.


The Default Virtual Switch

• An external network switch provides connections external to the Hyper-V environment

• The virtual network configuration overlays the physical network configuration

• The virtual switch is connected to the physical switch and the network adapter in the host computer is connected to the virtual switch

• It is the same as connecting two physical switches together


Creating a New Virtual Switch

There are three types of switches that you can create in the Virtual Switch Manager:

• External: Bound to networking protocol stack in the host OS and connected to a physical network interface adapter in the Hyper-V server. Virtual machines running on the server’s parent and child partitions can all access the physical network to which the physical adapter is connected.

• Internal: Bound to a separate instance of the networking protocol stack in the host OS, independent from the physical network interface adapter and its connected network. The virtual machines on the child partitions cannot access the physical network through the physical adapter.

• Private: Exists only in the Hyper-V server and is accessible only to the virtual machines running on the child partitions.


Configuring MAC Addresses

• Every network interface has a Media Access Control (MAC) address that uniquely identifies the device on the network.

• On physical network adapters, the MAC address is assigned by the manufacturer.

• Hyper-V has a pool of 256 addresses to assign to VMs as you create them.


Creating Virtual Network Adapters

Once you have created virtual switches in Hyper-V Manager, you can connect virtual machines to them by creating and configuring virtual network adapters.


Synthetic Adapters and Emulated

Adapters• Synthetic adapter

o A purely virtual device that does not correspond to a real-world product.

o Synthetic devices in a virtual machine running on a child partition communicate with the parent partition using a high-speed conduit called the VMBus.

• Emulated adapter (or a legacy adapter) o A standard network adapter driver that

communicates with the parent partition by making calls directly to the hypervisor, which is external to the partitions, and is substantially slower.


Configuring Hardware Acceleration Settings

You can configure the following hardware acceleration settings if your network interface adapters supports them:

• Enable virtual machine queue (VMQ): Stores incoming packets intended for VMs in separate queues on the physical network adapter, and delivers them directly to the VMs, bypassing the processing normally performed by the virtual switch on the parent partition.

• Enable IPsec task offloading: Uses the components on the network adapter to perform some of the cryptographic functions required by IPsec.

• Single-root I/O virtualization: Enables the virtual adapter to take advantage of the SR-IOV capabilities of the physical adapter.


Creating Virtual Network

ConfigurationsHyper-V makes it possible to• Extend virtually any existing physical

network configuration into its virtual space, or

• Create a completely separated and isolated network within the Hyper-V environment.


Extending a Production Network into Virtual

Space• Microsoft recommends the use of at least

2 physical network adapters in a Hyper-V server, with 1 adapter servicing the parent partition, and the other connected to the child partitions.

• When you have more than 2 physical adapters in the server, you can create separate external virtual network switches for the physical adapters, and connect each one to a separate VM.


Creating an Isolated Network

• By creating internal or private virtual switches, you can create a network that exists only within the Hyper-V space, with or without the parent partition included.

• Excellent for testing and evaluation purposes, or for classroom situations.

• You can also use VLANs to create isolated networks.

70-410: installing and configuring windows server 2012 chapter 3 configuring hyper-v

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