What's New in Hyper-V for Windows Server 2016

    The version of Hyper-V on Windows Server 2012 R2 has already implemented a sufficient amount of functionality, so today's review may seem to some people an “old song in a new way” - but for those who, for example, work with another hypervisor platform and are thinking about Switching to Hyper-V, it's time to take a closer look at the new product.
    So, let's see what has been presented to the general public today (do not forget that this post discusses Technical Preview # 4, and that changes and additions may appear to the release).




    PowerShell Direct


    Among the variety of new features I want to especially highlight PowerShell Direct. To connect to a virtual machine for remote control, you do not need to access the guest OS over the network. To connect to the machine on the host, you must run the
    Enter-PSSession -VMName VMName cmdlet
    and provide authorization data in the guest OS.
    To run the various commands that will be executed on the virtual machine, use the
    Invoke-Command -VMName VMName -ScriptBlock cmdlet {commands}
    To use PowerShell Direct you will need:
    • A host with Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 installed, on which virtual machines with Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 guest OS are running;
    • Administrator privileges on the host
    • data for authorization in the guest OS as an administrator.




    Version and format of the virtual machine configuration


    With the new hypervisor, you should expect a new version of the configuration. Windows Server 2012 R2 uses version 5 of the configuration, but already in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview # 3 there was version 6.2, and in Technical Preview # 4 it was version 7.
    Compared to previous versions, there was a change that would be of interest primarily to specialists projecting migration scenarios: if you move or import a virtual machine from a host with Windows Server 2012 R2 to a host with Windows Server 2016, the configuration version will not change (version 5 remains). This means the following:
    • You will not be able to use the new features of Windows Server 2016;
    • You can move the machine back to the host with Windows Server 2012 R2.

    To upgrade to a new version of the configuration, you can use the
    Update-VmConfigurationVersion vmname
    or
    Update-VmConfigurationVersion vmobject cmdlet.
    The format of the configuration file has changed in the new version of the OS. If earlier you could open it and read it without using special tools, now it is a binary file with the VMCX extension. Changing the format of the configuration file was made in order to improve performance and avoid the risk of data loss.



    Phased upgrade to the new Hyper-V cluster


    To realize a gradual transition to a new platform, you can use the Rolling Hyper-V Cluster Upgrade feature, which involves adding nodes running Windows Server 2016 to a cluster of nodes running Windows Server 2012 R2. The virtual machine configuration version for such a cluster will not change (version 5 remains). To upgrade to a new version of the configuration, you need to upgrade all cluster nodes to Windows Server 2016.

    Integration Services


    The developers have taken care to simplify the process of finding and installing OS updates for virtual machines. In Windows Server 2016, the update will be implemented using Windows Update, which will reduce the number of virtual machines with outdated components. It will also provide an opportunity to further control the update process.

    New Hyper-V Manager


    Hyper-V Manager is currently not popular with system administrators, as it was originally designed to manage individual Hyper-V hosts.
    Now you can manage earlier versions of Hyper-V (starting with versions of Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8) from the new Hyper-V console and use alternative credentials. The updated WS-MAN protocol will allow the use of authentication using the CredSSP, Kerberos or NTLM protocols and will simplify the configuration of the host for remote management, since the connection will take place through port 80, which is usually open by default.
    You may still need additional controls, such as SCVMM or 5nine, but the improvements made to Hyper-V Manager are good news.

    Linux Secure Boot


    In Windows Server 2016, UEFI Secure Boot will be possible with Linux Ubuntu 14.04 and Suse Linux Enterprise Server 12 for second-generation virtual machines. We hope that this list will be replenished with other versions of Linux.

    Hot add memory and network adapters


    As for the possibilities of working with memory and network adapters, in the new version without having to turn off the machines you can do the following:
    • increase and decrease the amount of memory for machines of the first and second generation, regardless of what memory (dynamic or static) the machine uses;
    • add and remove network adapters for second-generation virtual machines.




    New snapshot technology


    Microsoft has substantially redesigned the backup mechanisms available in Hyper-V 2016. In Windows Server 2016, two approaches will be taken to take snapshots of virtual machines:
    • by saving the state of the virtual machine (as it was in previous versions of Hyper-V);
    • by creating consistent disk images using VSS technology (or “snapshots” as they are called in the VMware world) for Windows virtual machines, or by flushing file buffers in memory to disk (file system buffer flush) for virtual machines with Linux

    The second approach will become the “default” approach and will be intended for use in productive networks, while the first approach is recommended for use in the debugging and testing process, including for testing OS updates before installing them.



    Nano server


    Although Nano Server is technically not part of Hyper-V, I cannot ignore it. Nano Server is a server component without a GUI and without the possibility of a local logon - for access you need to use PowerShell, WMI or other tools for managing a remote server (Windows Remote Management, Emergency Management Services). We can say that it turned out a very small (Nano) version of the server, with a small set of the most necessary components, which is installed and loaded very quickly, requiring a minimum of patches and reboots. The main purpose of this product, according to the manufacturer , will be support for computing clusters from Hyper-V systems, as well as DevOps tasks.
    You can deploy such a server on both physical and virtual machines. On Nano Server, you can install a specially designed package for the Hyper-V role (which supports, among other things, clustering), so it is quite possible to use it to create a Hyper-V infrastructure.
    Perhaps, at first, working with Nano Server will seem unusual to someone, but later on you will undoubtedly discover its advantages. I hope that Server Manager and PowerShell will help you with this, as well as MMC consoles (Cluster Manager, Hyper-V Manager, etc.) and 5nine Manager.
    In addition to the package for the Hyper-V and Clustering role, Technical Preview # 4 includes other packages that implement server roles: DNS, IIS, and MPIO. I think that there will be even more of them, and perhaps in the future someone's dream will come true about deploying the entire infrastructure (including file server, AD, DNS, DHCP and Hyper-V) based on Nano Server.



    I can also recommend:

    Nested Virtualization


    Many of us have dreamed about this for quite some time - and today, finally, you can implement this idea using Windows 10 and Hyper-V. Microsoft is actively working to ensure that “embedded virtualization” consumes the minimum possible amount of resources and, thus, could be involved not only in the test or demo environment, but if necessary in the production environment.



    Shielded virtual machines


    This feature will please those who would like the system or Hyper-V administrator to leave his machines and the data that is on them alone. This feature has been implemented for second-generation VMs and provides for the inclusion of VM disk encryption. It is assumed that secure virtual machines will also be in demand when working with a public cloud.

    Improvements for the ReFS File System


    Using ReFS as a file system is expected to significantly reduce the time it takes to create virtual machines (compared to creating a VHD / VHDX drive). And if you use snapshots of the state of virtual machine disks during backup (as most manufacturers do when backing up the entire machine), then you will certainly appreciate that:
    • the time required for final operations with the image, that is, making changes from the delta disk, closing and deleting the image, was significantly reduced;
    • read-write performance during these operations is now practically not affected (or minimally affected), allowing the working infrastructure to function normally.

    Discrete Device Assignment


    This feature appeared in Technical Preview # 4. It allows you to "push" some devices connected to hosts through PCI Express to the guest OS of the virtual machine. To some extent, it resembles “transparent” (pass-through) drives. A brief overview of this feature can be found in the TechNet blog article . In particular, support for non-volatile memory express devices (NVMe) and graphic processors (GPUs) has been announced (together with their manufacturers, a list of which has not yet been officially announced). However, those who expected support for transparent USB devices will have to wait.

    Hyper-V containers


    As you know, Microsoft is working to implement the use of containers on its platform - for example, in Technical Preview # 4, Windows Server Containers and Hyper-V Containers containers are supported. Therefore, if you have a need to work with them, you can start testing. You can read more about Microsoft containerization, for example, in
    this article of the Microsoft blog on Habré .

    Instead of a conclusion


    In this post, I focused only on a small part of the list of new products in Windows Server 2016 related to Hyper-V. But there are also many new developments in the field of storage systems and network infrastructure that will become a serious help in creating a virtual environment: fault tolerance of storage systems (Storage Resiliency), replica of storage systems (Storage Replica), quality of service for storage systems (Storage QoS), fault tolerance Virtual Machine Cluster (VM Cluster Resiliency), Enhanced Deduplication, RDMA Improvements, and more.

    In addition to the links to resources already given, I can also recommend:

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