My Jorg

This is a new article series about SCVMM 2012 Beta product. In the final release, probably new features will be added and will be slightly different from this Beta version but I think that final release will be more-or-less the same with Beta. Therefore, I write an article series about the product in Beta version. Hopefully when the final release will be on the market, I will compare the differences.

As you already know, SCVMM is the product that we manage our virtualization environment. In this series, I will talk about the new features/talents that 2012 version has over earlier version of SCVMM. I will also show you how to install the product on a single server. Then I will play with the administrator console. New terminologies, cloud and services, are presented with this release. Therefore I will talk about the cloud and services also.

There are new features SCVMM 2012 Beta offers to customers over earlier versions. Some of them are:

- Run As accounts and Run As Profiles: This is a new security feature and we can provide necessary credentials for performing operations in VMM 2012.

- Support for Citrix XenServer as a virtual machine host

- Private Cloud: Combination of hosts, networking, storage and library resources together

- Service: Set of virtual machines that are configured and deployed together and are managed as a single entity. For example, a deployment of a multi-tier line of business application.

You can find a more detailed list in http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg671825.aspx .

As the previous version of SCVMM, SCVMM 2012 Beta has few components. These are VMM Management Server, VMM Console, Database Server, Library Share server and VMM Self-Service Portal Server (Optional). They can either be installed on different hardware separately or can be installed on a single machine. This depends on your virtualization environment. If you have lots of physical virtual host machines to manage, you will prefer the separation. Anyway, for installation of SCVMM 2012 Beta there are some hardware and software requirements. In the next part of the article series, I will explain the installation of product on a single server therefore I summarize a single server requirements in Table 1. For a detailed list of each components requirements, you can look at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg610592.aspx .

Table 1: System Requirements of SCVMM 2012 Beta on a single machine

As I wrote before, SCVMM 2012 now also supports Citrix XenServer. Table 2 summarizes which virtualization platforms can be managed by SCVMM 2012 Beta. This can be changed by final release because as you already know, in a short time VMware releases its new platform vSphere 5.

Table 2: Supported virtualization platforms by SCVMM 2012 Beta

Note 1: VMM 2012 does not support Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 as a virtual machine host.

Note 2: Installing the VMM Self-Service Portal on a domain controller is not supported

OK. These are the things you have to know for now. Before starting to the setup process, I have to install Microsoft SQL Server on the server (which has to be case-insensitive). The detailed explanation of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 installation can be found at http://www.ipsure.com/blog/2010/step-by-step-installation-of-sharepoint-server-2007-on-windows-server-2008-r2-and-ms-sql-2008-2/. Just go to this link and finalize your Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 installation then continue with the second part of this article series.

This is the end of Part 1. I will continue with the installation of SCVMM 2012 Beta on the next article. See you then. Bye for now.

This is the second part of the article series about SCVMM 2012 Beta product. In the first part, I talked about new features of SCVMM 2012 over previous versions and the requirements for product installation on a single machine. In this part, I will install the SCVMM 2012 Beta on a Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition server which also has Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition installed.

I assume that you finalize the installation of prerequisites and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 (as it is explained in http://www.ipsure.com/blog/2010/step-by-step-installation-of-sharepoint-server-2007-on-windows-server-2008-r2-and-ms-sql-2008-2/ ). Figure 1 shows that I did them on my machine. By the way, I also made my Windows machine a member of my mstip.com domain beforehand.

Figure 1: All the requirements are installed before SCVMM 2012 Beta setup

Therefore it is time to start with the installation. I download the Beta installation file via http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=609 and extract in a folder on my candidate machine. After the extraction, I double click the setup.exe file and start the installation process. Figure 2 shows the main screen of the SCVMM 2012 Beta setup wizard.

Figure 2: Main screen of SCVMM 2012 Beta setup wizard

I click on Install here and the actual setup starts. The first screen is License Aggrement and I fill the checkbox “I have read, understand and agree with the terms of the license aggrement” after I read all the aggrement and click Next . The second screen is the selection page for SCVMM 2012 components. Here I select VMM Server (with this selection, VMM Administrator Console is selected automatically) and VMM Self-Service Portal (Figure 3). After I click Next, Product Registration Information screen appears which I fill the Name, Organization and Product Key fields respectively (for evaluation purposes, there is no need to fill the Product Key field).

Figure 3: “Select features to install” screen

The next two screens are “Microsoft Update” and “Installation Location” screens (which I completed with pressing Next button). This gives me the “Database Configuration” screen (Figure 4). In this screen, I enter the name of my Windows machine and enter service credentials for SQL server. This credential must have the rights to create database on my SQL instance. You can give necessary permissions to this credential through the security part of SQL Server Manager interface beforehand. After I completed to fill the necessary fields (as it is seen in Figure 4), I click Next and “Account Configuration” screen appears (Figure 5).

Figure 4: “Database Configuration” screen

Figure 5: “Account Configuration” screen

In this screen, I use a domain account (scvmm12service which I created before in Active Directory) for SCVMM services. You have to make this account a member of local administrators group of the Windows machine and also you have to give the “Logon as a service” right to this account via “Local Security Policy” snap-in (Figure 6). If you don’t give “Logon as a service” right to the related account, setup will fail. More information about the service account can be found in http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg697600.aspx .

Figure 6: what I did for scvmm12service on local machine

In the same screen, Distributed Key Management (DKM) configuration is also available. This configuration is necessary if you have more than one VMM Server to manage your virtualization environment (for redundancy). Normally, encryption keys are stored locally but if you cluster your VMM servers and use more than one machine to administer your virtualization environment, this option gives you the opportunity to keep your encryption keys on Active Directory. Therefore if one of your cluster server is down, encryption keys will be still reachable. The detailed information about DKM container creation in Active Directory can be reached via http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg697604.aspx .

The next scren is “Port Configuration” screen. I didn’t touch anything in here but you can change the port configurations according to your needs (Figure 7). Click Next

Figure 7: “Port Configuration” screen

In “Self-Service Portal Configuration” screen, I fill the VMM Server name field and accept the default port values. If your portal server holds another website on port 80, you can specify a host header, in order to use the same port for different websites (Figure 8).

Figure 8: “Self-Service portal configuration” screen

Next is the “Library Configuration” screen (Figure 9). Here, I create a new library share point for my SCVMM 2012 infrastructure. I also have the option to use an existing share but I don’t have any. After I click Next button, summary page and installation progress screens are displayed. After the installation is completed, “Setup completed successfully” screen has to be seen as in Figure 10.

Figure 9: “Library Configuration” screen

Figure 10: Final screen for setup

When I check the “Open the Microsoft SCVMM 2012 Console when the wizard closes” checkbox and press Close, administrator console is opened after the server and role selection screens (Figure 11, 12 and 13). The administrator console is different from the previous editions (if you are familiar with them).

Figure 11: Server connection

Figure 12: Role selection

Figure 13: The main screen of VMM console

OK. This part is over now. I tried to explain how we install SCVMM 2012 Beta on a Windows Server 2008 R2 machine. I will talk about the new concepts , cloud and service, in the next part. I will try to show you how we create new private cloud and service and explain what they are. Bye for now.

 

 

Here is the third part of our SCVMM 2012 Beta article series and uptil now, I have talked about the new features that SCVMM 2012 offers to customers, the requirements for the installation of product on a single machine. I also explained the installation process on a Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system which also has Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 installed on. In this part I will try to explain what cloud means and I will play with the SCVMM 2012 Beta management interface to complete the necessary preparations before the creation and management of a new cloud.

What is cloud? As Wikipedia says, Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network. Cloud Computing can mainly be divided into three: public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud (which is a combination of public and private clouds).

Service providers are serving to the clients in Public Cloud topology. Microsoft Azure, Google AppEngine, RackSpace CloudServers can be given as examples for Public Cloud service providers. As the topic is Hyper-V and SCVMM on the other hand, we are actually talking about private cloud. As Microsoft says, Private Cloud is the implementation of cloud services on resources dedicated to your organization whether they exist on-premises or off-premises. Figure 1 illustrates the private cloud-public cloud relationship. Mainly in Private Cloud, the IT staff of your company manages the cloud (which means the cloud is dedicated to your organization) whereas in Public Cloud, your company buys all the services from a service provider and the provider manages it.

Figure 1: Public Cloud – Private Cloud

Microsoft utilizes various products for private cloud implementation. Figure 2 shows the products which Microsoft Private Cloud solution includes.

Figure 2: Microsoft products for private cloud implementation

As we briefly explained what the private cloud is, let me show you how we create a private cloud via SCVMM management interface. But before the creation of a new cloud, some preliminary steps must be completed. These steps actually prepare the fabric (which is basically the collection of hardware, software, profiles etc. that form the datacenter all together) for your cloud environment. But what are these steps? Here is a short list for that:

1- Configuring host groups

2- Configuring the library

3- Configuring networking

4- Configuring storage

5- Adding and managing hosts and host clusters on SCVMM

Actually most of the steps depend on your existing hardware and physical infrastructure. Therefore you have to do all the dependant configurations according to your infrastructure. Let me talk about the host groups first. Host Groups are used for logical grouping of host machines mostly based on their physical locations or resource allocations. Several settings and resources can be assigned at the host group level, such as placement weights, resource usage settings for host reserves and placement, dynamic optimization and power optimization settings, network resources, storage resources, and Run As profiles. In addition to that, host groups can be assigned to administrative groups therefore only members of the related administrative groups can view and manage the resources of the specific host group.

To create a host group, I open VMM interface and in the Fabric pane, I expand Servers and right-click All Hosts. I select Create Host Group on the popup menu (Figure 3). I give a descriptive name to the Host Group and press Enter. You can create as many host group as you want according to the (i.e.) location, capabilities of the underlying hardware or the virtualization platform. For example, you can create a group called “Redundants” and you can assign high available servers and replicating storages to this group. Or you can create a group called “vSphere” and assign your VMware ESX hosts to this group. As you understand, it is all up to you.

Figure 3: Select “Create Host Group”

After creation of host groups, it is the library’s turn. As you all know, library is a catalog of resources that provides access to file-based resources such as virtual hard disks, virtual floppy disks, ISO images, scripts, driver files and application packages that are stored on library servers, and to non file-based resources such as virtual machine and service templates and profiles that reside in the VMM database. Actually, I created a library share during the SCVMM 2012 Beta installation. Therefore I don’t need an extra library right now. But if you don’t have any, it can be added via Library workspace. On the Home tab, in the Add group, the Add Library Server icon is for this purpose. After adding the library, it is time to associate it with a host group. This procedure can be done through the Properties of the library share. Just select the appropriate one from the Host Group List (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Select the appropriate Host Group from the list

Now it is time to configure the networking. To deploy virtual machines and services, at least one logical network must be defined beforehand. A logical network is used to organize and simplify network assignments for hosts, virtual machines and services. In reality, Logical Networks represent the underlying pyhsical network infrastructure. After the creation of logical network, users can assign it to a virtual machine and service without having to understand the network details. For example, you can create logical networks called DMZ, LAN, LAB etc., divide your infrastructure and give IP configurations to your virtual machines according to your needs.

To create a logical network, I open the Fabric Workspace. On the Home tab, in the Show group, I click Fabric Resources and in Fabric pane, I expand Networking and click Logical Networks. On the Home tab, in the New group I click Create Logical Network. I give a descriptive name (such as LAN) and enter a description (i.e. Mstip Logical Network or Local Area Network connection for servers) for the Logical Network. That is it . If you need, you can do the same steps and create additional networks for your environment. But wait! I created the Logical Network but where is the IP definition? I only give a name and description to my Logical Network.

The answer to the question is “Logical Network Definition”. I have to create a definition for my newly created Logical Network. For this purpose I right-click my LAN, and select Create Definition. A wizard appears and on the first page, I give a desriptive name to the Logical Network Definition (for example, “LAN Definition – Istanbul”) . Under Host Groups, I select the check box next to each host group to which I want to make the logical network available, and then I click Next. On the Subnets and VLANs page, I enter the subnets and VLANs that I want to assign to the logical network definition (Figure 5). A summary page ends the wizard.

Figure 5: Subnet and VLAN definitions

Next step is to configure storage for your fabric. In VMM 2012, you can discover, classify and provision remote storage on supported storage arrays through the VMM console. VMM fully automates the assignment of storage to a Hyper-V host or Hyper-V host cluster, and tracks the storage that is managed by VMM. Storage automation through VMM 2012 is only supported for Hyper-V hosts. The following storage arrays support the new storage features in the Beta release of VMM 2012:

• EMC Symmetrix
  
• EMC CLARiiON CX
  
• HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA)
  
• NetApp FAS
  

Unfortunately I don’t have any of these storages in my test environment therefore I won’t configure storage in this article but if you want to configure in your fabric, you can complete this procedure via Storage menu in Fabric Workspace. The details about the storage configuration can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg610600.aspx .

Before the creation of a new cloud, there is only one step left which is adding a host or host cluster. But I will explain it on the next part of the article series. I hope you enjoy the article. See you next time.

This is the fourth part of my article series about SCVMM 2012 Beta and by now, I install SCVMM 2012 Beta on my management server and configure the components in my fabric. In this part I will add a Hyper-V host to SCVMM 2012 and create a new cloud. Lets start with the addition of my Hyper-V host first.

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To add a new host to my virtualization environment, I select “Fabric” on the leftmost panel and right-click on the host group that I created before under “All-Hosts” container. On the pop-up menu, I select “Add Hyper-V Hosts and Clusters“. As you can see in Figure 1, I can also add Citrix and ESX hosts via this menu. The first page of the wizard is “Resource Location” page. In here, I can add various kinds of Hyper-V hosts (Figure 2). I select the first one which is “Windows Computers on a trusted Active Directory Domain” and press Next button because I have a Hyper-V host which is a member of mstip.com domain (I have not explained Hyper-V installation in this series but Microsoft has a nice article on that in http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732470(WS.10).aspx webpage).

Figure 1: Add Hyper-V Hosts and Clusters

Figure 2: “Resource Location” page

The following page is “Credentials” page which I define the credentials for discovering the computer and deploying Hyper-V and VMM agent if necessary (Figure 3). After clicking on Next, “Discovery Scope” page appears. In here, I write all the hosts name in the textbox that I want to add to my management environment (Figure 4) and click Next. On “Target Resources” page, I select my hyper-v server which is listed (Figure 5) and Click Next. A warning message appears and I click OK on that. The message says that if Hyper-V role is not enabled on the machines I select, wizard will enable it and may restart the machine afterwards.

Figure 3: Credentials page

Figure 4: Discovery Scope page

Figure 5: Target Resources page

On “Host Settings” page, I assign the host to one of the hosts group and click Next (Figure 6). After I review the Summary page, I finalize the wizard. Therefore I have a host defined in my SCVMM console (Figure 7). “Jobs” window shows the progress of the addition of host (Figure 8).

Figure 6: Host Settings page

Figure 7: The host added to SCVMM management console

Figure 8: Jobs window

Before the creation of a new cloud I have to assign Virtual networks and storages (if I configured) to my host machines. As I don’t have any storage defined, I only assign the Virtual Network that I created to my hyper-V host. To do that I right click the host machine and select Properties. Under Hardware, I select the appropriate network card (which I defined as the virtual machine’s network) and fill the checkbox of my virtual network (Figure 9). This is a necessary step if you want to add virtual network during New Cloud Creation Wizard.

Figure 9: Assigning logical network to hyper-v host

Now it is time to create a new private cloud in my virtualization environment. In SCVMM 2012, we can create private clouds from the following sources:

• Host groups that contain resources from Hyper-V hosts, VMware ESX hosts and Citrix XenServer hosts
  
• A VMware resource pool
  

To complete the creation of the new cloud, I must perform the procedures as a member of the Administrator user role or as a Delegated Administrator where the administrative scope includes the host groups that I want to use for the private cloud. Therefore, I open the SCVMM 2012 management console with a credential mentioned above and open the VMs and Services workspace. On the Home tab, in the Create group, I click Create Cloud. This opens the Create Cloud Wizard. On the first page I give a descriptive name to my cloud and write a description for it (Figure 10). The second page is the Resources page and I select the host group that I created before, which contains my hyper-v server and thereby my physical resources (Figure 11). After I click Next, Logical Networks page appears and I select the logical networks that I want to make available to the cloud (Figure 12). The following three pages are Load Balancers, VIP Profiles and Storage pages. Because I didn’t configure any of them beforehand, these pages appear blank and I get through them with Next buttons. On Library page, I select my Library which I created during SCVMM 2012 installation (Figure 13).

Figure 10: General page

Figure 11: Resources page

Figure 12: Logical Network page

Figure 13: Library page

The next page is Capacity page. In this page I can set Quotas for my virtual machines and resources (Virtual CPUs, Memory, Storage and Custom). As you can see in Figure 14, I set quotas for some of them whereas accept the defaults for the others. Table 1 summarizes what these quotas are for.

Figure 14: Capacity page

Table 1: Quota Types

Next page is Capacity Profiles page. I select the capability profiles that match the type of hypervisor platforms that are running in my host group. The built-in capability profiles that are listed in this page (Figure 15) represent the minimum and maximum values that can be configured for a virtual machine for each supported hypervisor platform. I could also create custom profiles (Library workspace -> Profiles -> Capability Profiles) and set my own values for virtual machines.

Figure 15: Capacity Profiles page

The last page is Summary page and after I review the summary, I finalize the wizard by pressing Finish button. Therefore I create my first Private Cloud and this cloud can be assigned to one or more user roles for self-servicing. To assign the cloud and create a user role at the same time, I can click on Assign Cloud in VMs and Services workspace.

So this is the end of part four. I tried to explain how to create a Private Cloud in your environment. In the next part I will assign the cloud to a user role and talk about self-service user roles. See you next time. By for now.

powershell logon script    

Powershell login script to map network drives, printers and applicaton settings

Here is a Powershell login script to map network drives, printers and apply application specific settings for a Windows and Remote Desktop Services environment.

Firstly, there are a total of two scripts here.

1. The Logon.bat batch file which all users have set as their login script. This script simply executes Powershell to run the logon.ps1 file
   
2. The Logon.ps1 first maps company wide drives, map printers and make specific application settings (in this case, copies Microsoft Office shortcuts to users’ Start Menu and Desktop).
   

The logic behind why I did this is because I wanted everyone to have the SAME Logon.bat file as their login script. This keeps everyone’s Active Directory account consistent so if a user needs to have a specific drive or access to an application, we know that everyone’s settings are set in that login script.

The Logon.bat file contains only one line: powershell %0\..\logon.ps1
This simply calls Powershell to run the Logon.ps1 file.

NOTE: If you have an older Windows Operating System than Windows 7 or Windows 2008, you need to make sure you have the required Powershell file to run this login script. Have a look here to download Powershell: Download Windows PowerShell from Microsoft TechNet.

The Logon.ps1 file is the Powershell script which contains the following (which I will explain in detail):

—————————

This line queries Active Directory for user group membership. Seems abit extreme and a lot of code just to query AD for a user’s group membership. This is needed and has to be at the very TOP of the file (ie: first thing that runs) because the rest of the script is based on this code so it’s very important it’s the first code in the script.

$strName = $env:username

function get-GroupMembership($DNName,$cGroup){

$strFilter = “(&(objectCategory=User)(samAccountName=$strName))”

$objSearcher = New-Object System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher
$objSearcher.Filter = $strFilter

$objPath = $objSearcher.FindOne()
$objUser = $objPath.GetDirectoryEntry()
$DN = $objUser.distinguishedName

$strGrpFilter = “(&(objectCategory=group)(name=$cGroup))”
$objGrpSearcher = New-Object System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher
$objGrpSearcher.Filter = $strGrpFilter

$objGrpPath = $objGrpSearcher.FindOne()

If (!($objGrpPath -eq $Null)){

$objGrp = $objGrpPath.GetDirectoryEntry()

$grpDN = $objGrp.distinguishedName
$ADVal = [ADSI]“LDAP://$DN”

if ($ADVal.memberOf.Value -eq $grpDN){
$returnVal = 1
return $returnVal = 1
}else{
$returnVal = 0
return $returnVal = 0

}

}else{
$returnVal = 0
return $returnVal = 0

}

}

—————————

This line maps network drives based on the group membership the user is a member of. As you can see from below, if the user is part of the “Head Office” security group, the user will have the G:\drive removed, then get the G:\drive mapped to the network share: \\SERVER\general. If a user is part of the “IS” security group, the user will have the I:\drive removed, then get the I:\drive mapped to the network share: \\SERVER\IS$.

$result = get-groupMembership $strName “Head Office”
if ($result -eq ’1′) {
$(New-Object -ComObject WScript.Network).RemoveNetworkDrive(“G:”);
$(New-Object -ComObject WScript.Network).MapNetworkDrive(“G:”, “\\SERVER\general”);
}

$result = get-groupMembership $strName “IS”
if ($result -eq ’1′) {
$(New-Object -ComObject WScript.Network).RemoveNetworkDrive(“I:”);
$(New-Object -ComObject WScript.Network).MapNetworkDrive(“I:”, \\SERVER\IS$);
}

—————————

This part of the login script maps printers for the user. If the user is part of the “Head_Office_Printers” security group, they will get both the HeadOffice_DocuCentre_2260 and HeadOffice_HPLaserJet_5200 printers mapped for them (which is on the server called “PRINTSERVER”):

$result = get-groupMembership $strName “Head_Office_Printers”
if ($result -eq ’1′) {
Invoke-Expression ‘rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /q /n “\\PRINT_SERVER\HeadOffice_DocuCentre_2260″’
#Invoke-Expression ‘rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /in /q /n “\\PRINT_SERVER\HeadOffice_HPLaserJet_5200″’
}

—————————

This line copies the Microsoft Office shortcuts (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook) from the \shortcuts folder (which is located on the NETLOGON shared of the logon server) and copies them down to the user’s Desktop and Start Menu. The “Logonserver” is an actual variable and will detect the logonserver that the user has connected to (helpful if you have multiple domain controllers at multiple sites). I did this to ensure that everyone have a consistent Desktop and Start Menu. Also it gets rid of support calls asking “how do you open up Word as the icon isn’t there?”:

$result = get-groupMembership $strName “Remote_DESKTOP_USERS”
if ($result -eq ’1′) {
Copy-Item “$env:logonserver\netlogon\shortcuts\Microsoft Excel.lnk” “$env:UserProfile\Desktop”
Copy-Item “$env:logonserver\netlogon\shortcuts\Microsoft Outlook.lnk” “$env:UserProfile\Desktop”
Copy-Item “$env:logonserver\netlogon\shortcuts\Microsoft PowerPoint.lnk” “$env:UserProfile\Desktop”
Copy-Item “$env:logonserver\netlogon\shortcuts\Microsoft Word.lnk” “$env:UserProfile\Desktop”

Copy-Item “$env:logonserver\netlogon\shortcuts\Microsoft Excel.lnk” “$env:UserProfile\Start Menu”
Copy-Item “$env:logonserver\netlogon\shortcuts\Microsoft Outlook.lnk” “$env:UserProfile\Start Menu”
Copy-Item “$env:logonserver\netlogon\shortcuts\Microsoft PowerPoint.lnk” “$env:UserProfile\Start Menu”
Copy-Item “$env:logonserver\netlogon\shortcuts\Microsoft Word.lnk” “$env:UserProfile\Start Menu”
}

—————————

You can download the two script files here: Download Powershell login script to map network drives, printers and applicaton settings

Conclusion: This Powershell port from my KIX script too me a full THREE days of research and testing to get it to work. The problem I’ve found was that there wasn’t a lot of resources available on Powershell for login scripts. At time of writing, Powershell is only in version 2.0. If you also look at some of the codes, they are essentially converted codes from a .VBS script and are not full Powershell specific commands anyway. I think that while Powershell is very powerful in some areas, it’s still in it’s early stages when it comes down to using it in a login script.

Your comments are welcome if you have any suggestions or any further improvements. I hope that this is a good stepping stone for those who want to look at using Powershell for their login scripts. However, if I have to choose, I would choose a KIX script instead.

Nesting a Hyper-VM on VMware Workstation 8

So, following are the steps to create a Microsoft Hyper-V VM running in VMware Workstation 8, but later I’ll show you how to do it in ESXi 5 as well:

1. Create a New VM with version 8 hardware

2. Give it 4 GB RAM and 2 x vCPUs with about 80-100 GB disk space, depending upon how many VMs you wanted nested underneath Hyper-V.

3. The instructions lead you to believe that you should pick a VMware ESX option as the guest OS… STOP! DON’T! Select Windows 2008 R2 x64.

4. When you are finished, make sure you add another NIC to the VM used as the Hyper-V virtual network,

5. Under the settings of the VM > CPU, make sure you have the option to pass-through the Intel VT-x/EPT feature.

6. Make sure you have set the VM to boot from Windows 2008 R2 x64 media ISO.

7. Before booting, you should edit the config file .vmx and add the parameter: hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = “FALSE”

8. Now Boot and Install Windows 2008 R2 x64.

9. Once finished, open up Server Manager and click “Add Role“.

10. Select and install the Hyper-V option. At this point, you will know if your system is working correctly and passing the Intel EPT feature, because if it doesn’t, you won’t be able to go past this point.

11. You’ll also have to select the network adapter used for the virtual network.

12. Now install Hyper-V, which will need a reboot.

13. After it is completed, open Server Manager drill down to Hyper-V and connect to the local server.

14. Now create and install a virtual machine.

Once done, you should be able to use it as normal, albeit slow.

Nesting Hyper-VM running ESXi 5

Now, doing the same thing on ESXi 5 is a little trickier although some of the steps are the same.

1. Before anything you need to place an entry in the /etc/vmware/config file found in the tech support mode on your ESXi 5. I enabled SSH through the security profile in the vSphere Client. Then used putty SSH into the ESXi system.

2. From there I executed the following command which is needed to allow nested hypervisors :

# echo ‘vhv.allow = “TRUE” ‘ >> /etc/vmware/config

Notice the use of single and double quotes in the command-line

3. Now create a virtual machine using version 8 hardware, 4GB (or as much as you can spare), 2 x vCPUs, 2 or more vNICs and a 100GB virtual disk.

4. Before booting up the VM and installing Hyper-V we need to add two lines the virtual machines config file .vmx

You can try this through the vSphere Client in the settings of the virtual machine > Configuration Parameters, whereas I had better luck doing it from command-line

To add them using command-line move back in SSH > change into the directory where you Hyper-V VM is installed

# echo ‘vhv.allow = “TRUE” ‘ >> /etc/vmware/config

In my example the config file is called Hyper-V.vmx. Type the following commands:

# echo ‘monitor.virtual_exec = “hardware” ‘ >> Hyper-V.vmx

# echo ‘hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = “FALSE” ‘ >> Hyper-V.vmx

5. Now back in the VM settings > Options > CPU/MMU Virtualization make sure you have the option to pass the Intel EPT feature.

6. Now in the Options area > CPUID Mask click on Advanced

7. Add the following CPU mask Level ECX: —- —- —- —- —- —- –H- —-

8. Now Install Hyper-V or Windows 2008 R2 and enable the Hyper-V role.

9. You are ready to roll.

Welcome to myjorg blog. This is a blog for system administrators, system engineers.

everybody is welcome and is free to register to the blog

 

kind regards

myjorg team,