Frequently Asked Questions about the Hyper-V Beta

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I've been watching the comments - both internally and externally - about yesterday's launch of the Hyper-V Beta (yes, I know I'm on vacation, but this is exciting to watch), and I thought I'd list the answers to a few commonly asked questions.

  1. Q: How do I install Hyper-V on my 32-bit server?
    A:  You don't.  Hyper-V is 64-bit only, and requires that you have an Intel or AMD processor with Virtualization extensions (Intel calls their's VT, AMD calls their's AMD-V).

  2. Q: How do I manage Hyper-V remotely?
    A:  It's not terribly easy to do with the beta.  If you're running Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V Beta on another machine besides your Hyper-V server, you can use the MMC Management Console to connect to your Hyper-V server remotely (which, in fact, you *must* do if your server is running Server Core). 

    If you've only got one server, you can use Terminal Services to connect to your Hyper-V server and run the MMC Management Console - though, you'll run into issues controlling the Virtual Machines with VMConnect if you don't have the Integration Components installed. 

    You can also use WMI calls to manage a Hyper-V server remotely.  The documentation for that should be online shortly, if it isn't already.

    We're going to make remote management easier to do in subsequent releases, so please stay tuned.

  3. Q: I've been using Hyper-V Beta for quite some time, and...
    A: No, you probably haven't, unless you're a TAP customer.  You may very well have used the Hyper-V CTP that was released along with Windows Server 2008 RC0 and RC1, but the beta has quite a few improvements over the CTP.  If you've only looked at the CTP, you really should take another look. 

  4. Q: How do I install the Integration Components on Windows Server 2008?
    A: You don't need to.  The Integration Components are now *part* of Windows Server 2008.  Each IC should be available to you the first time the OS boots to the desktop.

  5. Q: I don't have mouse integration or the Synthetic NIC in Server 2008 Setup / WinPE. What gives?
    Q: I can't PXE boot my VM. What gives?
    Q: I don't have a network card in my Windows XP VM. What gives?
    Q: etc...
    A: PXE booting requires the Legacy Network Adapter.  It will not work with the Synthetic Network Adapter.  Similarly, since there are no Integration Components for Windows XP with this beta, the Synthetic Network Adapter won't work.  You'll need to use the Legacy adapter.

    Also, the Integration Components, including the VMBus which makes all of our synthetic devices work, are not available at install-time on Windows Server 2008, or Server 2008 WinPE.  You won't have mouse integration, synthetic storage, or the synthetic network adapter until setup is complete and Windows has booted for the first time. 

  6. Q: How do I install Hyper-V on Server Core?
    A: Execute these two commands:

    BCDEdit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto
    start /w OCSetup Microsoft-Hyper-V

  7. Q: The installation documentation doesn't say anything about that BCDEdit command - which one is right?
    A: We both are.  Running the OCSetup command will make the same change to the BCD store that the BCDEdit command does, but it will only do it after the required reboot, which means that even after the first reboot, the Hypervisor will still not be running and you'll have to reboot a second time.  Running the BCDEdit command first will make sure that the Hypervisor will be running after the first reboot.

  8. Q: How do I upgrade from the CTP release?
    A: You don't.  There have been a lot of changes, and upgrading isn't supported.  Back up all of your VHD files, and record all of the settings for your VMs, then clean install Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V and set up your VMs again. 

  9. Q: VMMS fails to start with error code 87 - what's up with that?
    A: This beta release works on en-US builds of Windows Server 2008 *only*.  If it's not en-US, you'll likely run into the error code 87 issue. 

Hope that helps!  If you have any other questions, please leave them in the comments, and I'll get to them as soon as I can.