Tag: Linux

Nov122018November 12, 2018January 12, 20193Commentsby Thomas Maurer
WLinux WSL Setup Wizard for Windows 10

WLinux – The best WSL for Windows 10

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Virtualization, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Windows, Windows 10, Work

A couple of Windows 10 releases back, Microsoft delivered the Windows Subsystem for Linux. The Windows Subsystem for Linux allows you to run Linux distros, like Ubuntu, Debian, Suse and others, on Windows 10. Around the Microsoft Ignite 2018 timeframe another distro was released to the Windows Store called WLinux. WLinux is a Linux environment for Windows 10 built on work by Microsoft Research and the Debian project. WLinux is a custom Linux distro built from Debian specifically for use on the WSL. While other distros are available for WSL, WLinux is the first optimized for use by users of WSL for WSL. It helps developer run Linux tooling on Windows and integrates into perfectly into Windows.

WLinux Setup

WLinux WSL Setup Wizard for Windows 10

WLinux comes with a custom setup, to prepare your environment in a very simple and easy wizard. It lets you setup some predefined software and settings and configure integration into Windows.

WLinux WSL Docker Bridge to Windows

WLinux Docker Bridge

If you want to run Docker in the Windows Subsystem for Linux, you can bring the Docker Client to the Windows Docker Engine. This allows you to run Docker directly from WSL and from PowerShell at the same time.

Microsoft Tooling

WLinux Installing Azure CLI

Of course WLinux brings the usual Linux development tools and easy setup for Ruby, NodeJS, Go, Java, Python, editors like emacs and even different shells. You can also easily add Microsoft tooling by adding Azure CLI, PowerShell Core and even Visual Studio Code.

Windows Explorer Integration and WSL Utilities (wslu)

It easily lets you to setup Windows Explorer integration and brings wslu, a collection of utilities for WSL, preinstalled. Wslu bringt the following features to the WSL

  • wslusc This is a WSL shortcut creator to create a shortcut on your Windows 10 Desktop.
  • wslsys This is a WSL system information printer to print out some basic system information.
  • wslfetch This is a WSL Screenshoot Information Tool to print information in an elegant way.
  • wslupath This is a WSL Windows path Converter that can convert Windows path to other styles of path.
  • wslview This is a fake WSL browser that can help you open link in default Windows browser.

WSLfetch

If you want to know more about WLinux, check out the website Whitewater Foundry.

Or download WLinux from the Microsoft Store.

You can also contribute on the project on GitHub.


Aug202018August 20, 2018August 20, 20181Commentby Thomas Maurer
AzCopy Azure and Azure Stack

Sync Azure Blob Storage with Azure Stack Blob Storage

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, PowerShell, Work

There are some scenarios where you want to sync Blob Storage on Azure with Blob Storage on Azure Stack. This easily be done using the AzCopy tool. AzCopy is a command-line utility designed to copy data to and from Microsoft Azure blob and table storage using simple commands with optimal performance. You can copy data from one object to another within your storage account, or between storage accounts in Azure as well as in Azure Stack.

You can get AzCopy on Windows and AzCopy on Linux. You should get at least AzCopy version 7.1.0. In my example I use the version 8.0.0 preview version, which also works fine. Make also sure that you have deployed a supported version of Azure Stack. Check out my blog about updating Azure Stack to get more information.

After the installation you will find the AzCopy.exe in the “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\AzCopy”

How to Sync and copy files from Azure to Azure Stack

You can use AzCopy with Azure Stack as you would do in Microsoft Azure. To copy and Sync files you can use the following command. Be aware that synchronous data transfer between Azure storage and Azure Stack is not supported. There for you will need to specify the the /SyncCopy or –sync-copy parameter.

Of course this works in both directions and also between two different Azure Stack storage accounts.

You can find more about AzCopy on Azure Stack on the documentation page. If you have any questions feel free to comment on the blog post. There are other great storage tools which work great with the Microsoft Hybrid Cloud environment like Visual Studio or Azure Storage Explorer. These scenarios show perfectly how Microsoft built their hybrid cloud environment. Basically you can use the same tools, processes and knowhow in the Public Cloud as well as in your datacenter.


Jun202018June 20, 2018August 22, 201812Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Create Ubuntu Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machine

How to Install Ubuntu in a Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machine

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

If you want to install Ubuntu or any other Linux inside a Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machine you need to do a simple change to the VM so you can install it from ISO.  If you just create a Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machine and try to start the Virtual Machine, the Virtual Machine will not boot from ISO. This is because of the Secure Boot feature which is included in Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machines, and applies to all Linux operating systems running on Hyper-V.

How to Install Linux in a Hyper-V Generation 2 VM

Create a new Virtual Machine in the Hyper-V Manager

Create Ubuntu Hyper-V Generation 2 Virtual Machine

On the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Generation selection screen, choose Generation 2

Create Ubuntu Hyper-V Generation 2 VM

Attach the Ubuntu ISO Image to the virtual machine

Attach Ubuntu ISO to Hyper-V VM

After you have created the Virtual Machine using the wizard, go into the settings of the virtual machine. Switch to the Security section and choose the Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority Secure Boot Template.

Now the Virtual Machine will boot from the Ubuntu ISO and you can install Ubuntu.


Jun132018June 13, 2018January 12, 20195Commentsby Thomas Maurer
OpenSSH Server on Windows Server

Install OpenSSH Server on Windows Server

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 1709, Windows Server 1803

Back in 2017 Microsoft made OpenSSH available on Windows 10. Shorty after OpenSSH was also available for Windows Server, version 1709. This blog post should give you a simple step by step guy how you install OpenSSH Server on Windows Server. OpenSSH is available for Windows Server, version 1709 and higher. If you are running Windows Server 2016, and you want to stay in the long-term servicing branch, you will need to wait for the next Windows Server LTSC build.

Install OpenSSH Server on Windows Server

If you are running a Windows Server 1709 or higher, you can simply use PowerShell to install the OpenSSH Client and Server.

OpenSSH on Windows Server

You can use the following PowerShell commands to install the OpenSSH Server on the server.

After the installation you can find the OpenSSH Server files and some more configuration options under “C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH”

Next you need to configure the OpenSSH Server (sshd)

To enable authentication into an SSH server on Windows, you first have to generate host keys and repair the ACL on the host keys.

Configure OpenSSH Server on Windows

To configure the OpenSSH Server, just run the following PowerShell commands:

Now you should be able to access your Windows Server using an SSH client.

OpenSSH Server on Windows Server

Remember if you run your server in Microsoft Azure, you might also need to configure the Network Security Group to allow SSH Remoting on port 22.

I hope this post help you and if you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.


Apr122018April 12, 2018January 12, 20192Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Ubuntu on Windows Server using WSL

Install Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows Server

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 1709, Windows Server 1803, Work

In 2017 Microsoft made it possible to run different Linux distribution on Windows 10, using a feature called the “Windows Subsystem for Linux“. With the latest official Semi-Annual Channel Windows Server release called Windows Server, version 1709 Microsoft also allowed to run the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on Windows Server. With the next release of Windows Server called Windows Server, version 1803, Microsoft will also add some improvements to the Windows Subsystem on Linux, which also apply to Windows 10 as well as Windows Server. This blog post shows you how you can do this.

First you have a Windows Server, version 1709 running. After that enable the Microsoft Windows Subsystem for Linux feature, running the following command (This will need a reboot)

You can download the appx packages for you favorite Linux distribution, this can be today:

  • Ubuntu
  • OpenSUSE
  • Suse Linux Enterprise Server

If you are running on Windows Server Core (which is highly likely), you can use the following command to download the Linux distributions.

You can then unpack the file:

Now you can open that folder and run the installer for example ubuntu.exe. The first time this will do the setup where you also define the UNIX username and password as well as the root password.

WSL on Windows Server

After that you can run updates for your distro and you can start using Linux.

If you want to know more about the WSL, check out the Microsoft Documentation: Windows Subsystem for Linux Documentation and have a look at my WSL post in for Windows 10: Crazy times – You can now run Linux on Windows 10 from the Windows Store

You can also find the other Linux distro packages here: WSL distro packages.


Apr032018April 3, 2018January 12, 20194Commentsby Thomas Maurer
Hyper-V HVC SSH Direct for Linux VMs

HVC – SSH Direct for Linux VMs on Hyper-V

Posted in Cloud, Hyper-V, Microsoft, PowerShell, Virtualization, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 1803, Windows Server 2019, Work

If you are running Hyper-V on Windows 10 or on Windows Server 2016, you probably know about a feature called PowerShell Direct. I also mentioned that PowerShell Direct is one of the 10 hidden features in Hyper-V you should know about. PowerShell Direct lets you remote connect to a Windows Virtual Machine running on a Hyper-V host, without any network connection inside the VM. PowerShell Direct uses the Hyper-V VMBus to connect inside the Virtual Machine. Of course this feature is really handy if you need it for automation and configuration for Virtual Machines. As this is great for Windows virtual machines, it does not work with Virtual Machines running Linux. In the latest Windows 10, Windows Server 1803 (RS4) and Windows Server 2019 (RS5) Insider Preview builds, Microsoft enabled a tool called HVC. HVC is at tool which allows you to do some command line VM management. HVC SSH is basically SSH Direct of Linux VMs.

This allows to connect to a Linux VM using SSH over the Hyper-V VMBus. You are also able to copy file inside a virtual machines using scp.

How to connect to Linux VMs using SSH Direct

HVC SSH on Hyper-V

To connect to Linux VMs using SSH Direct (HVC) simply type hvc.exe into the command line or PowerShell. This will give you all the possible command options. Of course SSH has to big configured inside the Linux virtual machine.

To make this work, the SSH server inside the VM needs to be configured.

Final Thoughts

Pretty cool tool which will be available in the official releases of Windows 10 and Windows Server 1803, released this spring. Later this year this feature will also be included in Windows Server 2019. If you want to try it out today, give the Windows Insider Preview builds a spin.

Thanks to Ben Armstrong for pointing this out 😉


Jan112018January 11, 2018August 27, 20181Commentby Thomas Maurer
PowerShell Core

PowerShell Core 6.0 for Windows, Linux and macOS General Available (GA)

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, PowerShell, Windows, Windows 10, Windows Server, Windows Server 1709

Microsoft yesterday announced the general availability of PowerShell Core 6.0. PowerShell Core 6.0 is a new edition of PowerShell that is cross-platform (Windows, macOS, and Linux), open-source, and built for heterogeneous environments and the hybrid cloud. PowerShell Core uses .NET Core 2.0 as its runtime. PowerShell Core also exposes the API set offered by .NET Core 2.0 to be used in PowerShell cmdlets and scripts.

First and foremost, thank you to all of our amazing community, especially our open-source contributors (the most recent of which you can find on our community dashboard at https://aka.ms/PSGitHubBI) for donating your time and energy to PowerShell Core. Whether you contributed code, tests, documentation, issues, or even just your feedback and opinions, we are extremely grateful for the sweat and tears that you’ve invested in PowerShell. (For those interested in contributing, hop and over to our Contribution Guide on GitHub. You don’t have to be a guru to help out!)

Quote: PowerShell Team Blog: PowerShell Core 6.0: Generally Available (GA) and Supported!

PowerShell Core Installer

You can get PowerShell Core 6.0 here:

PowerShell Core is open source and you can have a look at the code on PowerShell on GitHub



  • Follow Me

  • About

    Thomas Maurer

    My Name is Thomas Maurer. Microsoft MVP. Work as a Solutions Architect and Technology Lead for itnetX, a consulting and engineering company located in Switzerland. I am focused on Microsoft Technologies, especially Microsoft Cloud & Datacenter solutions based Microsoft System Center, Microsoft Virtualization and Microsoft Azure.

    Microsoft MVP

  • Sponsor

  • Sponsor

    Starwind HCA

  • Sponsor

    Vembu BDR Suite

  • Sponsor

    Altaro Hyper-V eBook