ptg6432687 140 5 Installing a Guest Session on Hyper-V NOTE You cannot change the allocated RAM on a r u n n i n g v i r tual guest session. The guest session must be shut down first, memory reallocated to the image, and then the guest image booted for the new memory allocation to take effect. Changing Network Settings for the Guest Session Another common configuration change made to a guest session is to change the network setting for the guest session. An administrator of a virtual server might choose to have each guest session connected directly to the network backbone just as if the guest session had a network adapter connected to the backbone, or the network administrator might choose to set up an isolated network just for the guest sessions. The configuration of the internal and external network segments that the administrator can configure the guest sessions to connect to is covered in the “Managing Host Server, Virtual Switch, and Disk Setting,” section of Chapter 6. The common configuration methods of the virtual network configurations can be broken down into two groups, as follows: . Direct addressing—The guest sessions can connect directly to the backbone of the network to which the virtual server host system is attached. In this instance, an administrator would configure an external connection in the Virtual Network Manager and have an IP address on that external segment. . Isolated network—If the administrator wants to keep the guest sessions isolated off of the network backbone, the administrator can set up an internal connection in the Virtual Network Manager, and the guest sessions would have an IP address of a segment common to the other guest sessions on the host system. In this case, the virtual server acts as a network switch connecting the guest sessions together. NOTE To connect the inter n a l n e t w o r k segment with the exter n a l n e t w o r k segment, a g u e s t session can be configured as a router or gateway between the internal network and external network. Mounting a Physical CD/DVD Image or Mounting a CD/DVD Image File When installing software on a guest session of a virtual server system, the administrator either inserts a CD or DVD into the drive of the physical server and accesses the disc from the guest session or mounts an ISO image file of the disc media. To access a physical CD or DVD disc or to mount an image of a CD or DVD, do the following: 1. From the Server Manager console or from the Hyper-V MMC snap-in, click to select the guest session for which you want to change the CD or DVD. 2. Right-click the guest session name, and choose Settings. Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 141 Launching a Hyper-V Guest Session 5 3. Click DVD Drive and choose Physical CD/DVD Drive if you want to mount a disc in the physical drive of the host system, or click Image File and browse for the ISO image file you want to mount as a disc image. 4. Click OK when you have finished. Other Settings to Modify for a Guest Session Configuration Other settings can be changed for a guest session. These options can be modified by going into the Settings option of the guest session and making changes. These other settings include the following: . BIOS—This setting allows for the selection of boot order on the guest machine to boot in an order that can include floppy, CD, IDE (disk), or network boot. . Processor—Hyper-V provides the ability to allocate core processors to the guest image, so a guest image can have up to four core processors allocated for each session. In addition, resource control can be weighted between guest sessions by allocating system resource priority to key guest server sessions versus other guest sessions. . IDE Controller—The guest session initially has a single virtual hard drive associated with it. Additional virtual hard drives can be added to a virtual guest session. . SCSI Controller—A virtual SCSI controller can be associated with a virtual guest session, too, providing different drive configuration options for the different drive configurations. . COM Ports—Virtual communication ports such as COM1 or COM2 can be associat- ed with specific named pipes for input and output of information. Launching a Hyper-V Guest Session After a Hyper-V guest session has been created, and the settings have been properly modi- fied to meet the expected needs of the organization, the virtual guest session can now be launched and run. Decisions need to be made whether you want the guest session to auto- matically launch as soon as the server is booted, or whether you want to manually launch a guest session. In addition, a decision needs to be made on the sequence in which guest sessions should be launched so that systems that are prerequisites to other sessions come up first. As an example, you’d want a global catalog server session and DHCP server session to come up before an application server that logs on and authenticates to Active Directory comes online and needs to authenticate to Active Directory before the server service begins. Automatically Launching a Guest Session One option for launching and loading guest sessions is to have the guest session boot right after the physical server completes the boot cycle. This is typically the preferred option if a guest session is core to the network infrastructure of a network (such as a Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 142 5 Installing a Guest Session on Hyper-V FIGURE 5.4 Automatic start actions. domain controller or host server system) so that in the event of a physical server reboot, the virtual guest sessions boot up automatically, too. It would not be convenient to have to manually boot each virtual server session every time the physical server is rebooted. The option for setting the boot option for a virtual session is in the configuration settings for each guest session. To change the boot action, do the following: 1. From the Server Manager console or from the Hyper-V MMC snap-in, right-click the virtual machine for which you want to change the setup option, and select Settings. 2. In the Management section of the settings, click Automatic Start Action. 3. You are provided three options, as shown in Figure 5.4, of what to do with this virtual guest session upon boot of the physical server. Either click Nothing (which would require a manual boot of the guest session), click Automatically Start If It Was Running When the Service Stopped, or click Always Start This Virtual Machine Automatically. To set the virtual session to automatically start after the physical server comes up, choose the Always Start This Virtual Machine Automatically option. 4. Also on this setting is the ability to have an automatic start delay. This allows you to sequence the boot of image files by having some images take longer to automatically start than others. Click OK to save these settings. Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 143 Installing the Windows Guest Session Integration Tools 5 Manually Launching a Guest Session Another option for guest session boot is to not have a guest session automatically start after a physical server boots. This is typically the preferred option if a guest session will be part of a demonstration or test server where the administrator of the system wants to control which guest sessions are automatically launched, and which sessions need to be manually launched. It would not be convenient to have a series of demo or test sessions automatically boot every time the system is booted. The administrator of the system would typically want to choose to boot guest sessions. To set the boot action to manually launch a guest session, do the following: 1. From the Server Manager console or from the Hyper-V MMC snap-in, right-click the virtual machine for which you want to change the setup option, and select Settings. 2. In the Management section of the settings, click Automatic Start Action. 3. When provided the three options of what to do with this virtual guest session upon boot of the physical server, either click Nothing (which would require a manual boot of the guest session), click Automatically Start If It Was Running When the Service Stopped, or click Always Start This Virtual Machine Automatically. Choose the Nothing option and the session will need to be manually started. Save State of a Guest Session In Windows 2008 Hyper-V, there are two concepts for saving guest images, one being snapshots and the other being a saved state. At any time, an administrator can select a guest session and choose Action, Save State. This Save State function is similar to a Hibernate mode on a desktop client system. It saves the image into a file with the option of bringing the saved state image file back to the state the image was in before being saved. Installing the Windows Guest Session Integration Tools Hyper-V provides integration tools that are components and drivers that get added into the guest session of the operating system. For Linux-based guest sessions, the Linux inte- gration components were installed as part of the installation of the operating system. However, for Windows server and client guest sessions, the integration tools are installed after the operating system has been installed. The Windows integration tools include specific drivers for the network adapter, hard drive controller drivers, sound drivers, and the like. Instead of using legacy drivers, the drivers with the integration tools are opti- mized to provide better performance and better integration of the guest operating system as a virtual guest session. Microsoft provides integration tools for the core operating systems they support as guest sessions. Additional integration tools will be released by Microsoft as they add support for other guest sessions. Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 144 5 Installing a Guest Session on Hyper-V FIGURE 5.5 Adding the integration tools. Installing the Windows Integration Tools The integration tools for Windows are installed from a virtual CD that is mounted when you select to install the integration tools on the guest session. The Windows integration tools require the following operating systems: . Windows Server 2008 x86 and x64 . Windows Server 2003 SP2 or later x86 and x64 . Windows Vista x86 . Windows XP SP3 or later x86 To install the Windows integration tools, do the following: 1. Start the virtual Windows guest session that you want to install the integration tools onto. 2. Log on as an administrator to the guest session, effectively an administrator that has the security rights to install drivers and applications onto the guest session (typically a local or domain administrator). 3. On the guest session window, choose Action, Install Integration Services Setup Disk, as shown in Figure 5.5. Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 145 Using Snapshots of Guest Operating System Sessions 5 4. Within the Windows guest session, you will be prompted to launch the integration tools installation utility. Click the installation utility to begin the installation. 5. Reboot the guest session, and the integration tools will now be activated. What you’ll find with the integration tools is that the mouse no longer gets “captured,” nor does it have to be “released” as required before the integration tools were installed. With the integration tools installed, the mouse will have control of the guest session when the mouse is within the guest session window, and the mouse will control host session screens when the mouse is outside of a guest session window. Using Snapshots of Guest Operating System Sessions A highly versatile function in Windows 2008 Hyper-V is the option to create a snapshot of a guest session. A snapshot in Windows Hyper-V uses Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) technology, which captures an image of a file on a server—in this case, the file is the VHD image of the virtual server itself. At any point in time in the future, the snapshot can be used for recovery. Snapshots for Image Rollback One common use of a guest image snapshot is to roll back an image to a previous state. This is frequently done with guest images used for demonstration purposes, or test labs where a scenario is tested to see the results and compared with identical tests of other scenarios, or for the purpose of preparing for a software upgrade or migration. For the case of a guest image used for demonstration purposes, a user might run through a demo of a software program where he adds information, deletes information, makes soft- ware changes, or otherwise modifies information in the software on the guest image. Instead of having to go back and delete the changes, or rebuilding the image from scratch to do the demo again, with a snapshot the user can just roll the image back to the snap- shot that was available before the changes were made to the image. Image rollback has been successfully used for training purposes where an employee runs through a process, then rolls back the image so that he can run through the same process all over again, repeating the process on the same base image but without previous installa- tions or configurations. In network infrastructures, a snapshot is helpful when an organization applies a patch or update to a server, or a software upgrade is performed and problems occur; the administra- tor can simply roll the image back to the point prior to the start of the upgrade or migration. Snapshots for Guest Session Server Fault Tolerance Snapshots are commonly used in business environments for the purpose of fault tolerance or disaster recovery. A well-timed snapshot right before a system failure can help an orga- nization roll their server back to the point right before the server failed or problem Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 146 5 Installing a Guest Session on Hyper-V FIGURE 5.6 Viewing snapshots of a guest server. occurred. Instead of waiting hours to restore a server from tape, the activation of a snap- shot image is nothing more than choosing the snapshot and selecting to start the guest image. When the guest image starts up, it is in the state that the image was at the time the snapshot was created. Creating a Snapshot of a Guest Image Snapshots are easy to create. To create a snapshot, do the following: 1. From the Server Manager console or from the Hyper-V MMC snap-in, click to select the guest session for which you want to create a snapshot. 2. Right-click the guest session name, and choose Snapshot. A snapshot of the image will immediately be taken of the guest image, and the snapshot will show up in the Snapshots pane, as shown in Figure 5.6. Rolling Back a Guest Image to a Previous Snapshot Image The term used in Windows 2008 Hyper-V to roll back an image is applying a snapshot to an existing image. When an image is rolled back, the image currently running has the snapshot information applied to the image, thus bringing the image back to an earlier configuration state. To apply a snapshot, do the following: 1. From the Server Manager console or from the Hyper-V MMC snap-in, click the snap- shot to which you want to revert the running guest image. Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 147 Best Practices 5 2. Right-click the snapshot image and choose Apply. The configuration state of the image will immediately be reverted to the state of the image when the snapshot was taken. NOTE By default, the name of the snapshot image takes on the date and time the image was created. As an example, if the image is called Windows 2008 IIS, an image taken on April 26, 2008 at 6:19 a.m. will show up as Windows 2008 IIS-20080426-061900. Reverting a Snapshot Session When working with snapshots, if you snapshot a session and then apply an older session snapshot to the current session, to effectively undo the rollback choose Action, Revert to bring the server back to the state it was in before the rollback had occurred. Summary The installation of a guest session in Windows 2008 Hyper-V is nothing more than running an Installation Wizard that provides prompts to specify memory, processor, disk, and other resources that’ll be allocated for the guest session. Then you just insert the guest session operating system and walk through the installation procedure of the operating system. Hyper-V supports the installation of Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2008 Server, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and non-Windows clients such as SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10. The process of installing guest sessions, whether Windows or non-Windows, is the same. After a guest session has been installed, the integration tools for the operating system can be installed on the system. These provide better drivers for disk, network, audio, and the like. The integration tools are available for the supported guest operating systems and provide better mouse control and switching between guest and host sessions on keyboard and the mouse. This chapter focused on the new installation of a guest operating system. For the conver- sion of existing physical or virtual sessions to a Hyper-V virtual guest session, see Chapter 10, “Creating Guest Images from Existing Production and Virtual Systems.” Best Practices The following are best practices from this chapter: . Select the guest operating system you want to install on Hyper-V from the list of operating systems supported by Microsoft on Hyper-V. . Refer to Chapter 3 to properly size the Hyper-V host server to accept the amount of resources required for the guest sessions. Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 148 5 Installing a Guest Session on Hyper-V . Refer to Chapter 4 to properly install the Hyper-V host role on a Windows Server 2008 system, whether that is a full server configuration or a server running Windows 200 Server Core. . Have the installation media and license keys needed for the installation of the guest operating system handy when you are about to install the guest operating system session. . Apply all patches and updates on guest sessions soon after installing the guest oper- ating system, just as you would for the installation of updates on physical systems. . For Microsoft Windows guest sessions, install the Windows integration tools to improve the use and operation of the guest session. . For SUSE Linux guest sessions, install the Linux integration tools to improve the use and operation of the guest session. . After installing the guest session and its associated applications, confirm whether the memory of the guest session is enough, and adjust the memory of the guest session accordingly to optimize the performance of the guest session. . Allocate enough disk space to perform snapshots of images so that the disk subsys- tem can handle both the required guest image and the associated snapshots of the guest session. . Consider using snapshots before applying major patches, updates, or upgrades to an image session to allow for a rollback to the original image. . Set a guest session to automatically launch if the guest session is a live server on the network; that way, the Hyper-V host reboots, and the guest session will start soon after the Hyper-V host has restarted. Download at www.wowebook.com ptg6432687 PART III Administering and Maintaining Hyper-V Host Services IN THIS PART CHAPTER 6 Managing, Administering, and Maintaining a Hyper-V Host Server 151 CHAPTER 7 Optimizing the Hyper-V Host Server and Guest Sessions 209 Download at www.wowebook.com . and Maintaining Hyper -V Host Services IN THIS PART CHAPTER 6 Managing, Administering, and Maintaining a Hyper -V Host Server 151 CHAPTER 7 Optimizing the Hyper -V Host Server and Guest Sessions. Refer to Chapter 4 to properly install the Hyper -V host role on a Windows Server 2008 system, whether that is a full server configuration or a server running Windows 200 Server Core. . Have the. operating system and walk through the installation procedure of the operating system. Hyper -V supports the installation of Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2008 Server, Windows Vista, Windows XP,