Archive for category Virtualization
Out with the XP, in with the Windows 2008 Server!
Posted by eric in Miscellaneous, Opinion, Reviews, Virtualization, Windows Vista on July 1, 2008
Last year I wrote a blog entry about how I was done with Windows Vista as a desktop operating system and thusly downgrading to Windows XP Professional. Things over the last year have changed though and it seem more and more applications and drivers are being released and updated for Vista (or newer 
, hah! ). I decided to take a look at my current options being that Windows Vista SP1 was released not so long ago.
Through my research and experiences at work, I actually decided that I would take a stab at running Windows 2008 Enterprise Server as my desktop operating system. In my research I happened across this blog on MSDN by Vijayshinva Karnure which documented the step by step instructions of taking a standard Windows 2008 Server installation and convert it to a Windows Vista like desktop.
I also settled on the 64-bit version of Windows 2008 Server Enterprise because it would allow me to run it in hypervisor mode with Hyper-V enabled, thus allowing me to migrate my Virtual PC VM’s to Hyper-V. Couple this with Hyper-V recently being RTM and I now have a virtualization ready desktop with the latest support for everything Vista! 
So far over the past week I haven’t had any issues or concerns while doing development with source control Virtual Machine running a Windows 2003 VM with Team Foundation Server installed running in the background under Hyper-V.
All in all, I’m very happy with this option of operating system. It allows me the convenience of XP (such as running as Administrator with no UNC) as well as the newer features and benefits of Vista (such as DirectX 10, latest drivers and technology). Virtualization is a must have for any developer these days because it gets rid of the need for a test lab of computers. Or even for the home user, it gives an option to perhaps run the Microsoft Zune host service under a Windows XP Virtual Machine to stream music from your NAS to your XBox 360
Hope my experiences and findings are able to help someone else out in the decision on what to do about Vista and their next choice of a desktop Operating System!
Cheers!
How to recover your Hyper-V Virtual Machines after installing the RC0 Update
Posted by eric in General Software, Virtualization on April 1, 2008
Have you installed the RC0 update for Windows 2008 Hyper-V and have just found out that all your Virtual Machines will not start? Not to worry!
What happens in this update is that the Virtual Machine configurations are incompatible between Beta and RC0, but only the configurations That’s the catch. The actual virtual disk (.VHD) is still fine, as it’s only a mountable partition. So what you’ll need to do is the following steps:
- After installing Hyper-V RC0, create a NEW virtual machine in the configuration manager
- Use the existing VHD file for the ‘old’ virtual machine on the ‘new’ one.
- Boot the VM!
What you’ll notice after the first boot is that Windows 2008 can no longer control the mouse. This is due to the beta version of the Hyper-V Integration Services being installed on the Virtual Machine. You’re still able to use the keyboard, so if you’re savvy enough to know how to tab around and make your way through Windows, you’ll be able to “Insert Integration Services Setup Disk” in Hyper-V and update the software package
After all this, you should be good to go!
One note is that after I updated to RC0 I had to set back up the network adapter in Hyper-V as it seems my previous network configurations were lost after the upgrade.
Cheers!
Are your Hyper-V Virtual Machines Locking Up?
Posted by eric in Virtualization on March 7, 2008
I’ve been working recently with Windows 2008 Server and Hyper-V, trying to get my Virtual PC machines running under Hyper-V. One problem I kept running into is that at random times, my Virtual Machines would just lock up or freeze.
At first I suspected the conversion from the Virtual PC HAL to the new Hyper-V HAL and the new Hyper-V drivers. I fiddled around with the devices to no avail. It got so bad that a Virtual Machine locked up on me while installing a fresh copy of Windows 2003 Server Standard 64-bit. We’re talking it locked up in the DOS-like part of the installation. So something was up.
I double checked that the Dell Precision 390 I’m using as my server had the latest BIOS and host driver packages for the video and network adapters. I also verified that Intel VT-i extensions were enabled in the BIOS.
Finally after poking around in the settings for my Virtual Machines I discovered the one’s that were locking up all had their Virtual PC CPU Limit set to something other than “100″. Once I set all my Virtual PC’s to use one CPU and set their limit to “100″ they all became stable.
This might be a bug with the Hypervisor or the CPU, I’m not completely sure. I just know that when I set this value to “100″ all my Virtual Machines became stable and none of them locked up.
Just to clear things up, no other VM’s were ‘hogging’ CPU causing other VM’s to lock up due to resource contention. Of course I checked for this first
Hope this helps someone else out!
Cheers!
Can a Microsoft Virtual PC VHD work in Windows 2008 Hyper-V?
Posted by eric in General Software, Virtualization on February 21, 2008
Yes…. kinda
It’s a bit tricky getting a Microsoft Virtual PC virtual machine working in the new Windows 2008 Virtualization Environment, Hyper-V. You’re going to run into several issues:
- Because of a significant hardware change visible to the VM, you might need to reactivate your Microsoft OS.
- You will need to uninstall the Microsoft Virtual Machine accessibility drivers/software.
- You will need to install the Hyper-V accessibility drivers/software.
The biggest issue I ran into was step #2. One of my virtual machines that was running Windows 2003 Server R2 and when I went to uninstall the ‘old’ Virtual PC accessibility drivers/software, I was told by the uninstaller that I was only able to uninstall the software while running in a Virtual Environment, which it was under Hyper-V. I did not have this problem with another Windows 2003 Server VM, so it might have been an isolated incident. Be that as it may, I had to boot up the VHD in Virtual PC and uninstall the software.
Also, the Hyper-V drivers/software will not install OVER the Virtual PC software, which is why you must uninstall it first. Once you install the Hyper-V software, it will install a new HAL, reboot, then install the new drivers for the network, video and sound devices.
The performance gains from Hyper-V are noticable and worth the upgrade! I believe Hyper-V being built into Windows 2008 Server will be a huge success over third party solutions such as VMWare. One thing to keep in mind is that Hyper-V is only available in the 64-bit version of Windows 2008 Server! Also, running Windows 2008 Server on a machine that has a CPU that supports Intel’s IVT or AMD’s AMD-V allow the Hypervisor to run the Virtual Machines at nearly full speed.
I’ve found that the setting for Intel VT-i on Dell machine’s is turned off by default and has to be enabled in the BIOS. Unfortunately, Dell has the Virtualization option in different locations in the BIOS menu depending on the system. On my Dimension 9200 it’s under ‘Security’, on my Precision 4300 Laptop it’s under ‘POST Options’ and on my Precision 390 it’s under ‘Performance’.
One thing I am noticing is that Hyper-V is still obviously BETA and there are some issues, with VM’s ‘locking up’ or the network adapter in a Hyper-V VM showing ‘Network Cable is Unplugged’, when the other VM’s are not having any issues. So user beware!
I hope this was able to help some people out!
Cheers!
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