Tag: Hyper-V

Aug272019August 27, 2019November 10, 20192 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 WSL2 on Windows Server

How to Install WSL 2 on Windows Server

Posted in Hyper-V, Microsoft, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server

A couple of months ago Microsoft announced the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2), which is a successor of the Windows Subsystem for Linux shipped a couple of years ago. WSL 2 is currently available for Windows Insiders running Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18917 or higher and with the Docker Tech Preview, you can now even run Docker Linux Container directly on WSL 2. With the latest Windows Server Insider Preview build 18945, you are also able to run WSL 2 on Windows Server. In this blog post, I am going to show you how you can install the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2) on Windows Server. The Windows Subsystem for Linux was already available in earlier versions of Windows Server; however, WSL 2 brings a lot of new advantages.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux was in Windows 10 for a while now and allowed you to use different versions of Linux on your Windows 10 machine. With WSL 2, the architecture will change drastically and will bring increased file system performance and full system call compatibility. WSL 2 is now using virtualization technology (based on Hyper-V) and uses a lightweight utility VM on a real Linux kernel. You can find out more about WSL 2 in the release blog or on the Microsoft Docs Page for WSL 2.

Install Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2) on Windows Server

Here is how you can install WSL 2 on Windows Server.

Prerequisites:

Windows Server Insider Preview build 18945 or higher
A machine that supports Hyper-V Virtualization.
If you are installing your Windows Server in a virtual machine, make sure Nested Virtualization is enabled.

After you have installed a new Windows Server with the Windows Server Preview build, you will need to add the following features:

Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
VirtualMachinePlatform

To enable these features, run the following command:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
 
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform

These commands will need a restart to complete.

Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2) on Windows Server

Now you can install your Linux distribution which is available in WSL. You can also find the links to the Linux distro packages here: WSL distro packages. In my case, I am going to use Ubuntu 18.04, which is currently working with WSL 2.

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://aka.ms/wsl-ubuntu-1804 -OutFile ~/Ubuntu1804.zip -UseBasicParsing
md C:\Distros\Ubuntu1804
Expand-Archive ~/Ubuntu1804.zip C:\Distros\Ubuntu1894

Before you start and configure your WSL distro, I recommend that you set the WSL default version to 2. This will make the setup of your distro much faster.

wsl --set-default-version 2

Now you can start ubuntu.exe to run WSL.

C:\Distros\Ubuntu1894\ubuntu1804.exe

I hope this gives you a step-by-step guide on how you can install WSL 2 on Windows Server. Remember this is currently in preview, and not for production use. If you want to install the Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server 2019, check out this blog post: Install Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server.

Jul172019July 17, 2019July 17, 201911 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

How to Install Hyper-V Server 2019

Posted in Hyper-V, Microsoft, PowerShell, Virtualization, Windows, Windows Server, Windows Server 2019

A couple of weeks ago Microsoft released the installation media, and you can download Hyper-V Server 2019 right now. In this blog post, I am going to show you how to install and configure Hyper-V Server 2019 step by step. This should especially help beginners with Hyper-V Server 2019. Hyper-V Server 2019 ships only a core option, so there won’t be desktop experience version of Hyper-V Server like you would have with Windows Server 2019.

Hyper-V Server 2019 Requirements

Hyper-V has specific hardware requirements to run virtualization in a secure and performant way.

64-bit processor with second-level address translation (SLAT)
Minimum of 4GB of RAM. You will need more RAM for virtual machines on the Hyper-V Server.
Virtualization features and support needs to be enabled in BIOS or UEFI
- Hardware-assisted virtualization – Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT) or AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) technology.
- Hardware-enforced Data Execution Prevention (DEP) Intel XD bit (execute disable bit) or AMD NX bit (no execute bit).

Specific features, like Discrete device assignment (DDA) or Shielded Virtual Machines, will also have other hardware requirements. You can find more about the Hyper-V Server 2019 requirements on Microsoft Docs.

Download ISO

You can download Hyper-V Server directly from the Microsoft evaluation center. This SKU does not require a license key, and it also doesn’t expire. It is a fully supported version of Hyper-V for free. However, if you run workloads like Windows Server, Windows 10, or other operating systems on top of it, they need to be correctly licensed.

Install Hyper-V Server 2019

After you have download the ISO file, you will need to install this on your machine. There are multiple options to do this:

Burn a DVD drive and boot your server from DVD
Attach the file using an out of bound management solutions like HPE ILO or others
Create a USB drive to install Windows Server 2019
Use Windows Deployment Services
or other solutions

You can also follow this guide to add drivers to a Windows Server Image; this also works for Hyper-V Server.

Now you can boot your server with the Hyper-V installation media. This will start the step by step installation. Select the language and region settings you want to use for your Hyper-V Server.

Install Hyper-V Server 2019

Jul122019July 12, 2019July 12, 20195 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Migrate Hyper-V VMs to Azure using Azure Migrate

Assess and Migrate Hyper-V VMs with Azure Migrate

Posted in Cloud, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Virtualization, VMware, Windows Server, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019

Today, the Azure Migrate team launched an update to the Azure Migrate service, which can help you discover, assess, and migrate applications, infrastructure, and data from your on-prem environment to Microsoft Azure. This is excellent timing since we all know that Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are soon out of support and you get free extended security updates if you migrate your VMs to Azure. With Azure Migrate, you can now centrally track the progress of your migration journey across multiple thrid-party and Microsoft tools. In addition, Azure Migrate can now assess and migrate your Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs).

With the latest release of Azure Migrate you can now:

Extensible approach with choice across Microsoft and popular ISV assessment and migration tools
Integrated experience for discovery, assessment, and migration with end-to-end progress tracking for servers and databases
Server Assessment and Server Migration for large-scale VMware, Hyper-V, and physical server migrations
Database Assessment and Database Migration across various database targets including Azure SQL Database and Managed Instance

You can find more about the Azure Migrate capabilities on Microsoft Docs. For more information on Azure Migration, check out my blog post about Azure Migration on the Nigel Frank International blog. In this post, I am going to show you how you can step-by-step assess and migrate Hyper-V VMs to Azure using Azure Migrate.

Preparation

First, you need to prepare your Azure to set the right permissions and prepare the on-premises Hyper-V hosts and VMs for server assessment and migration. You can find more about the details for permissions and host preparations on Microsoft Docs.

Next, you will need to create a new Migration project for servers. Click on Asses and migrate servers.

Azure Portal Azure Migrate

Now you will need to add the tools you want to use for the assessment as well as for the migration, click on “add tools”.

Getting started

You will need to create a new Azure Migrate project. Enter the details for your subscription, resource group, and a name for the project. You will also need to choose a region where your project is going to be deployed. No worries, this will only store the assessment data, you can still select another region for the migration.

Jun262019June 26, 2019June 26, 20191 Commentby Thomas Maurer

How to create an Ubuntu VM on Windows 10

Posted in Hyper-V, Microsoft, PowerShell, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10

Windows 10 is not just a modern desktop operating system, and it also has some great IT Pro and Developer related features build in. One of them is client Hyper-V. This is the same hypervisor which powers virtualization in Windows Server and the Microsoft Azure datacenters. With Hyper-V, you can create virtual machines running on Windows 10, without the need for third-party software. You can not just run Windows virtual machines, and you can also run Linux virtual machines. In this blog post, I am going to show you how you can create an Ubuntu VM on Windows 10 using Hyper-V.

If you want to know more about Hyper-V on Windows 10, check out the Microsoft Docs.

Install Hyper-V

First, you will need to install Hyper-V on your Windows 10 computer. Hyper-V on Windows 10 has the following requirements:

Windows 10 Enterprise, Professional, or Education (Home does not have the Hyper-V feature included)
64-bit Processor with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)
CPU support for VM Monitor Mode Extension (VT-c on Intel CPU’s)
Minimum of 4 GB memory

The easiest way to enable Hyper-V on Windows 10 is to run the following PowerShell command as an administrator:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName:Microsoft-Hyper-V -All

After you have installed Hyper-V, you need to restart your computer.

Create an Ubuntu virtual machine on Windows 10

To create an Ubuntu virtual machine on Windows 10 Hyper-V, you could download the Ubuntu ISO file and install it like any operating system. However, there is a much easier way, using the Hyper-V Quick Create feature. In the Hyper-V VM Gallery, you will find not just two Windows 10 virtual machines; you will also currently find Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu 19.04. These are prepared Hyper-V virtual machines images, ready for you to download and install.

Select the Ubuntu version you want to install and click on Create Virtual Machine. This will start downloading the virtual machine image.

After the image is downloaded, you can either connect to the virtual machine and start it, or you can first modify the virtual machine settings.

Optional: If you click on Edit settings, you will be able to configure the virtual machine hardware settings like vCPU or vRAM. You can also enable Secure Boot. If you enable Secure Boot for a Linux virtual machine, make sure you change the Secure Boot template to Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority.

You can now start the Ubuntu VM.

This will boot you in the Ubuntu installation, where you can set up your Ubuntu operating system.

All the specific Hyper-V drivers for Ubuntu, are already included in the image. This allows you to use features like Hyper-V Enhanced Session Mode, which enables you also to use copy-paste, and others.

I hope this gives you a step-by-step guide, how you can create an Ubuntu VM on Windows 10 using Hyper-V. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.

Jun152019June 15, 2019June 15, 20193 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Download Hyper-V Server 2019 now

Posted in Cloud, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 2019, Work

A lot of people have been waiting for this. After the release of Windows Server 2019 back in October 2018, you were able to download Windows Server 2019 Standard, Datacenter and Essentials. Today you can also download Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019. This is the free version of the Hyper-V role which you can find in Windows Server 2019. It includes all the great Hyper-V virtualization features like the Datacenter Edition. This is especially interesting if you don’t need to license Windows Server VMs, and is ideal when you run Linux Virtual Machines or VDI VMs.

This version of Hyper-V also comes with a lower footprint, since it is only available as Server Core and doesn’t include any other roles and features, which are not related to virtualization. That said, it does not come with other Software Defined Datacenter features like Storage Spaces Direct (S2D). These features are only included in the Windows Server Datacenter edition.

Microsoft Hyper-V Server is a free product that delivers enterprise-class virtualization for your datacenter and hybrid cloud. Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019 provides new and enhanced features that can help you deliver the scale and performance needs of your mission-critical workloads.
The Windows hypervisor technology is the same as what’s in the Hyper-V role on Windows Server 2019. It is a stand-alone product that contains only the Windows hypervisor, a Windows Server driver model, and virtualization components. It provides a simple and reliable virtualization solution to help you improve your server utilization and reduce costs.

You can download Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019 ISO from the Microsoft Evaluation Center. You should also have a look at the Windows Admin Center, which is a locally deployed, browser-based app for managing servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure, and Windows 10 PCs

If you want to learn more about the new Hyper-V and Windows Server 2019 features, check out my blog: Windows Server 2019 – What’s coming next

Jun132019June 13, 2019November 12, 201916 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Install WSL 2 on Windows 10

Posted in Hyper-V, Microsoft, PowerShell, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10

With the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18917, the team also ships the first version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2), which was announced at the Microsoft Build 2019 conference. In this post, I am going to show you how you can install WSL 2 on your Windows 10 machine.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL 1) was in Windows 10 for a while now and allowed you to use different Linux distros directly from your Windows 10 machine. With WSL 2, the architecture will change drastically and will bring increased file system performance and full system call compatibility. WSL 2 is now using virtualization technology (based on Hyper-V) and uses a lightweight utility VM on a real Linux kernel. You can find out more about WSL 2 in the release blog or on the Microsoft Docs Page for WSL 2.

Requirements

To install WSL 2, you will need the following requirements:

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18917 or higher
A computer that supports Hyper-V Virtualization

Install WSL 2

To install the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2), you need to follow these tasks.

Enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux Optional feature (WSL 1 and WSL 2)
Install a distro for the Windows Subsystem for Linux
Enable the ‘Virtual Machine Platform’ optional feature (WSL 2)
Configure the distro to use WSL 2

Enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux

To run the WSL on Windows 10 you will need to install the optional feature:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

Install a Linux distro for the Windows Subsystem for Linux

If you don’t already have installed a WSL distro, you can download and install it from the Windows 10 store. You can find more here: Crazy times – You can now run Linux on Windows 10 from the Windows Store

Enable the Virtual Machine Platform feature

WSL 2 Enable Virtual Machine Platform

To make use of the virtualization feature for WSL 2, you will need to enable the optional Windows feature. You can run the following PowerShell command to do this. You will need to start PowerShell as an Administrator. After you run this command, you might need a restart of your computer.

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform

Set WSL distro to use version 2

After you completed the first two steps, you will need to configure the distro to use WSL 2. Run the following command to list the available distros in PowerShell:

wsl -l -v

To set a distro to WSL 2 you can run the following command:

wsl --set-version DistroName 2

You can also set WSL 2 as the default:

wsl --set-default-version 2

To find out more about installing WSL 2, check out the Microsoft Docs page.

If you are now running your distro using WSL 2, you can now see that there is a Virtual Machine worker process running and if you search a little bit more, you can also find the VHDX file of the distro.

I hope this helps you and gives you a quick overview, if you have any questions, let me know in the comments and check out the WSL 2 FAQ. The Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 Kernel is also open-source, you can follow the project on GitHub.

By the way, you can now also start using Docker Desktop together with the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.

Jun112019June 11, 2019June 10, 20192 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Generation 2 VM support on Azure – and why should I care?

Posted in Cloud, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Windows, Windows Server, Windows Server 2012 R2

A couple of days ago Microsoft announced the public preview of Generation 2 virtual machines on Azure. Generation 2 virtual machines support a bunch of new technologies like increased memory, Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX), and virtual persistent memory (vPMEM), which are not supported on generation 1 VMs. But more on that later.

What are Hyper-V Virtual Machine Generations

Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V introduced the concept of virtual machine generations. Not to be confused with Hyper-V configuration versions. The generation of a virtual machine defines the virtual hardware of a virtual machine and adds some additional and modern functionality. In Hyper-V, there are two virtual machine generations, generation 1 and generation 2. Generation 2 virtual machines support Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firmware instead of BIOS-based firmware. The Hyper-V team also removed a lot of the legacy devices and replaced them with a simplified virtual machine model.

On Windows Server Hyper-V Generation 2 VMs support features and improvements like

PXE boot by using a standard network adapter
Boot from a SCSI virtual hard disk
Boot from a SCSI virtual DVD
Secure Boot (enabled by default)
UEFI firmware support
OS disk > 2 TB
improved boot and installation times

However, an important note here, not all of these features are currently available on Azure Generation 2 virtual machines, and not all operating systems are supported in Generation 2 VMs. For example, in Windows7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 and 32-bit Windows systems are not supported. You can find more information about Hyper-V Generation 2 VMs here.

Azure Generation 2 Virtual Machines Overview

Azure Generation 2 Virtual Machines are currently in public preview. To be honest, Generation 2 VMs in Azure aren’t that new, with the public preview of Azure Confidential Computing, we already used Generation 2 VMs. However, now we can start using it for other workloads as well. This means that you can now upload and use your local VHD (not VHDX) files based on Hyper-V Generation 2 virtual machines. Before you had to use Azure Site Recovery to replicate and convert your Hyper-V Generation 2 VMs to Azure Generation 1 VMs.

Azure Generation 1 vs. Generation 2 capabilities

Currently, Generation 2 VMs are in public preview, and that means next to not having a service level agreement (SLA), the features which are available can and are limited. If you look at features like ASR or Azure Backup, which are currently not supporting Generation 2 VMs.

Capability	Generation 1	Generation 2
OS disk > 2 TB	❌	✔
Custom Disk/Image/Swap OS	✔	✔
Virtual machine scale set support	✔	✔
ASR/Backup	✔	❌
Shared Image Gallery	✔	❌
Azure Disk Encryption	✔	❌

You can find more information about Azure Generation 2 virtual machines with an updated list of capabilities on Microsoft Docs.

Hyper-V vs. Azure Generation 2 VMs

There are also differences between Hyper-V Generation 2 VMs and Azure Generation 2 VMs. Not all of the features provided in Hyper-V are currently present in the public preview version on Azure.

Feature	On-prem Hyper-V	Azure
Secure Boot	✔	❌
Shielded VM	✔	❌
vTPM	✔	❌
Virtualization-Based Security (VBS)	✔	❌
VHDX format	✔	❌

Again, you can find an up-to-date list on Microsoft Docs.

Getting started

You can get started using the Generation 2 VMs on the following VM Sizes on Azure Premium Storage and Ultra SSD:

In public preview, you can now also use the following Azure Marketplace images from the “windowsserver-gen2preview” offer.

Windows Server 2019 Datacenter (2019-datacenter-gen2)
Windows Server 2016 Datacenter (2016-datacenter-gen2)
Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter (2012-r2-datacenter-gen2)
Windows Server 2012 Datacenter (2012-datacenter-gen2)

Create a virtual machine

You can use the Azure Portal to create a new VM or the Azure CLI using the following commands:

 
az group create --name myGen2ResourceGroupVM --location eastus
az vm create \
--resource-group myGen2ResourceGroupVM \
--name myVM \
--image MicrosoftWindowsServer:windowsserver-gen2preview:2019-datacenter-gen2:latest \
--admin-username thomas \
--admin-password myPassword12

Conclusion

I hope this gives you an overview of the benefits and how you can run Generation 2 VMs on Azure. If you have any questions please let me know in the comments.

Tag: Hyper-V

How to Install WSL 2 on Windows Server

Install Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2) on Windows Server

How to Install Hyper-V Server 2019

Hyper-V Server 2019 Requirements

Download ISO

Install Hyper-V Server 2019

Assess and Migrate Hyper-V VMs with Azure Migrate

Preparation

How to create an Ubuntu VM on Windows 10

Install Hyper-V

Create an Ubuntu virtual machine on Windows 10

Download Hyper-V Server 2019 now

Install WSL 2 on Windows 10

Requirements

Install WSL 2

Enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux

Install a Linux distro for the Windows Subsystem for Linux

Enable the Virtual Machine Platform feature

Set WSL distro to use version 2

Generation 2 VM support on Azure – and why should I care?

What are Hyper-V Virtual Machine Generations

Azure Generation 2 Virtual Machines Overview

Azure Generation 1 vs. Generation 2 capabilities

Hyper-V vs. Azure Generation 2 VMs

Getting started

Create a virtual machine

Conclusion

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