10 tips for getting started with Hyper-V
- Tutorial
Typically, installing a Hyper-V environment is not fundamentally complicated and does not take much time. However, its setup can cause a lot of questions and will definitely require close attention. Therefore, today we would like to give some useful tips on how to properly configure Hyper-V. The order of their application can be arbitrary.
1. Install updates, and then decide how you will update Hyper-V in the future
Regardless of the installation method, the components on the Hyper-V server will need to be updated, and you need to decide how to do this. Updates that require a host reboot suspend the virtual machines running on it and resume their work as soon as the host is restarted. If this option is not acceptable, then you should consider the possibility of transferring the virtual machine, using SCVMM, allocating time for updates, etc.
2. Decide on the domain
There are different points of view on whether to add Hyper-V hosts to the same Active Directory domain where everything else is located or not. Some users set up a separate domain for Hyper-V hosts; others do not even enter Hyper-V hosts into the domain. Assess risks, consider domain management features and possible failure scenarios in order to make a decision, best of all, based on your assessment of the virtual environment, that is, there is no universal answer, and you will have to solve it yourself.
In addition, at this point you need to come up with a suitable Hyper-V host name. It’s better to choose a name that will stand out in the nomenclature of your servers, because errors when working with the Hyper-V host cannot be made: they can be really fatal. Confusing names and restarting the host with the virtual machines of the mail and file servers at the height of the working day is not the situation for which virtualization is being introduced.
3. Configure storage
If you need MPIO and NVA adapter drivers or SAN software, install all this before adding the Hyper-V role (this is an installation script for Windows Server 2012). By the time you take up the virtual machines, all of these components should already be operational.
4. Set up administrator accounts
Want to use the same admin pool as all other Windows Server servers? Then re-read paragraph 2.
5. Choose friendly names for network interfaces
If you set up the virtual environment correctly, there will be several network interfaces on your hosts. When they are all called “Local Area Connection” or “Local Area Connection 2”, this is not very convenient. Well, if you have different types of interfaces (for example, based on Broadcom and Intel devices): you can just remember what and where it stands. But rely only on your memory is not worth it. Give each interface a friendly name: “Host LAN”, “Control LAN”, etc. You can even specify the type of communication channel: “K” for cable, “C” for complex components, etc.
6. Disable unnecessary protocols
If the Hyper-V hosts are running in a data center, you most likely will not use most of the peer-to-peer network technologies of Windows, and especially IPv6. Everything should be extremely simple: it’s worth simplifying the infrastructure and disabling components such as IPv6, the data link topology service and generally everything that you definitely won’t use.
7. Be sure to activate Windows
Regardless of which activation method you use: Key Management Server (KMS), Multiple Activation Key (MAK), Windows OEM, or something else, make sure that Windows is not interrupted due to a proposal to activate the system using the console. This point is not so important when using Hyper-V Server 2012, Microsoft’s free hypervisor.
8. Configure remote and local management
This is one of the recommendations of Microsoft, which is necessary, but which is often ignored. The new Server Manager, PowerShell, and Hyper-V Manager allow you to perform many operations remotely without logging into the server directly. However, it is necessary to choose a convenient tool for yourself. For example, some still prefer to log on to servers in Remote Desktop mode, even if you have to use a common console with a single command line, like Windows Server Core with Hyper-V or Hyper-V Server 2012.
9. Set default paths to virtual machines and disks
What can be more annoying than stumble upon a virtual machine on a local drive? Oddly enough, sometimes this happens due to administrative errors. Be sure to specify the correct location in the settings of virtual hard drives and virtual machines. You can’t expect anything good if you fill the C: \ drive and the host stops working normally, so even if the above option (E: \ drive in Figure 2) is not optimal, in a situation where the drive is full, it is still better.
10. Verify freelance access
This tip is relevant for both Hyper-V and vSphere. Make sure you can connect to the system if something goes wrong. Tools such as KVM, Dell DRAC, or HP iLO will help you.
These are tips of the most general nature, based on experience with a virtual environment, but there are certainly a ton of other useful tricks. In fact, the best way to gain experience is to deploy the system, and then fix what exactly you had to change after installation.
In order for the tuned virtualization system to continue to function optimally in the future, you can use the backup, monitoring and performance analysis tools specifically designed for the virtual environment. Additionally, the following links can be viewed on this topic:
- Free Hyper-V Management Solution: Veeam ONE Free Edition
- Hyper-V Free Virtual Machine Backup Tool: Veeam Backup Free Edition for Hyper-V
