So, I got a new computer to play with HyperV, partly made out of some spare parts. (sometime later I find out it doesn’t support it, neither processor or motherboard, but things don’t end there)

Naturally, I assemble the computer first. Nothing weird on that (just had to take processor out of my workstation in order to upgrade BIOS to support the new CPU). I put one of my PCI graphics card adapters there (as I didn’t really have any spare PCIe ones). I put my Windows 2008 R2 USB stick in and boot, excepting to get installing Server Core right away. Wait, uh, setup started and screen went blank… Reboot. Same repeats.

I decide to take my ATI PCIe card out of my workstation and use that. Okay, now this boots without problems. I select Standard Server Core and let the setup do it’s thing.

A bit later I’m greeted by the login screen. Awesome. I login and as excepted, I only command prompt. I google around to get started installing the HyperV (set static IP, hostname, install role etc.). I write (Microsoft: Seriously, just because it’s “core” install doesn’t mean you couldn’t add a better shell. You know, one with command completion (be it PowerShell, some stripped version or some new one). After all, you are excepted to write quite many of them…) the commands as instructed and a bit later I have something that I thought was a HyperV install.

I google around to figure out how I manage it. Wait, there is no XP support!? Uh, greeted by that fact I installed Windows 2008 32bit server on my Xen box and also the required upgrade. Uh, there is no HyperV role nor HyperV feature?? Fine, I wiped it and installed Vista (let’s not get to the Vista bashing this time…). I installed the MMC addin and tried to connect. hmm… Not working. Oh, I’m supposed to add the name to hosts or DNS. Well, added to hosts. Okay, it connects.

Then I used iscsicli to connect to to my iSCSI target. No problems there.

I try to create a new virtual machine. Everything goes fine…until it tries to create the disk. Loading, loading, loading… I canceled it and tried again (local disk, that iscsi target, creating disk manually etc.). Always hanging at that points. Google reveals someone else had the same problem. I try to troubleshoot (restarting HyperV services, restarting server etc.). Nope, nothing helps.

Then I check the event log. Oh, there is no virtualization support. Thanks for informing me… (if it doesn’t work, don’t pretend it works)

I bought a new mobo and did some CPU switching. Now the machine should be okay…

I reinstalled Windows. I also had to install Vista VM on my laptop as I no longer have HVM capable CPU on my Xen machine.

I did everything again until the point I should be able to connect to it. I attempt. Nope, “Access is denied.” Google’d around and found out I need to enable anonymous remote COM. Awesome, couldn’t figure out anything more dangerous? I do it and reboot. Now I’m getting “You might not have permission to perform this task". Googling revealed this handy tool, HVRemote. I try to use it. Giving some warning regarding disabled firewall (I did disable it during the first round as well)…
AND the fact Vista + HyperV R2 is not a supported combination.

So now I downloaded Win7 VM (the MS site says it’s for HyperV, but I do hope it also runs on VirtualPC…) and I am installing Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. Let’s see if I have any luck now…

EDIT:

So now I have successfully installed HyperV environment. The full steps:

• Install Win 7 (VHD trial image, works on Virtual PC) & Hyper-V Server 2008 R2
• Win7: Install RSAT
• Win7: Enable Hyper-V remote administration role
• Win7: Get hvremote.wsf
• Win7 admin prompt: cscript hvremote.wsf /anondcom:grant
• Win7 admin prompt: cscript hvremote.wsf /mmc:enable
• Win7 admin notepad: Add your server to System32\drivers\etc\hosts
• Hyper-V: Change computer name, check time, static IP etc. from core configurator. Don’t reboot yet
• Hyper-V: Get hvremote.wsf
• Hyper-V: net user XXXXX /add
• cscript hvremote.wsf /add:XXXXX
• Hyper-V: shutdown -r -t 0
• -
• For iSCSI:
• iscsicpl
• diskpart
• select disk 1
• attribute disk clear readonly
• online disk
• create part primary
• select part 1
• assign letter=M

HVRemote simplifies things shitloads. But if there is a pretty much need to use non-standard scripts to get the basic system going, there is still things that could be made easier… Including hvremote with the default install would be awesome.

Microsoft launched a while ago an intresting game, “Are you certifiable?” There is two paths avaiable, developer and IT Professional. Both consists 20 (questions per episode)*4 (episodes per season)*5 (seasons)=400 questions total. In the IT professional path, the questions vary from some random trivia ("When Windows was introduced?") to quite advanced questions in various Microsoft products (Vista, various 2008 server features like AD, CA and HyperV; Exchange, SQL server etc).

If you are considering taking a some certification exam, you might want to check it out. Bassicly it’s like a free mock exam. The program even tells you why some answer are correct (they seem to be from Microsoft’s Self-Paced Training Kit books).

So, I wanted to create a completly virtualized lab enviroment, including virtualized network devices.

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