Your Computer Network Solution
Food for Thought: Explorations with Microsoft HyperV
With Microsoft releasing their newest entry in the Virtualization space, we wanted to do an in depth, live evaluation of HyperV running on Microsoft’s Windows 2008 Server X64. Our project would be to replace our aging Windows 2003 server running Virtual Server 2005 with a state-of-the-art 64 bit server configured with 8 GB of RAM and a fast disk array. The virtual server would be used initially to host two virtual machines running Blackberry and SharePoint servers.
With the release of Windows 2008, Microsoft has offered a limited installation mode designed to provide a purpose-built OS platform for a dedicated application. This installation mode, called Server Core, is a very limited installation of server components. By limiting the footprint of the installation, a system has fewer points of contact with the network, reducing the potential for vulnerabilities as well as a reduced requirement for periodic updates. Server Core is so limited, even the familiar Windows desktop and Explorer are not installed. This configuration is optimal for deployment as a Virtual server.
To begin with, installation of HyperV requires a 64-bit installation of Windows server. In addition, your hardware BIOS must have virtualization optimization capabilities. Most all server hardware currently sold today meets these requirements, but you definitely want to confirm this.
Installation of server core is simple and takes only minutes. When completed, the server boots to a standard CTRL-ALT-DEL screen and you login as usual. This is where similarity with a standard installation ends. After the system logs in, you are presented with a basic DOS style C> prompt. No start button, no programs, control panel, just a C:> prompt. At this point, you're wondering if we didn’t just jump back 20 years to 1988 and MS-DOS. Now the real work begins.
Getting the server joined to the domain, setting up network configuration and installing applications would not be easy. No point and click, you have to enter detailed commands to accomplish these tasks. We started by researching implementing server core with Microsoft. Fortunately there is a plethora of information published on these tasks. Within and hour and a half, we were on the network and ready to startup HyperV.
Managing HyperV from the server itself is not possible with server core. You need the HyperV administration utility running on another system. The requirements for the admin tool are Windows Server 2008 or Vista. If this is your first Windows 2008 installation and you don’t have Vista desktops, you may have a problem. After resolving a couple of firewall/security issues with connecting to the server core machine, we were able to manage the server remotely.
We were pleased with the improvements in administration over Virtual Server 2005. Everything is straight forward and intuitive. Setting up a new server is wizard-based and walks you through the process in a matter of a few clicks. As with 2005, HyperV uses the Microsoft .vdm disk file and the .vmc configuration file. This makes moving a virtual machine between hosts very simple. We did discover that in migrating from Virtual Server 2005 to HyperV you need to remove the VMAdditions first on the old server before moving to HyperV. HyperV has a newer VMAddition suite that cannot coexist with the older version and you can’t remove the old software once up and running under HyperV. After a false start, we were easily able to copy the machines to the new server and get them up and running under HyperV.
Conclusions
Virtual machines running under HyperV are definitely faster and more easily managed than with the older 2005 virtual server. HyperV seems every bit as reliable as the earlier version as well as offerings from VM Ware. The question is whether the extra effort for the Server Core installation is justified over a standard Windows install. As one of our techs put it “It’s about the same as setting up a Linux system with VMWare”.
For more information about HyperV, call Chris Faist, Integrated Computer Systems Support at 425-284-5410.
