Different type of virtual network in Hyper-V

Currently in Hyper-V Manager, you can create three different type of virtual network, which is External, Internal, and Private. A lot of people may wondering these virtual network behavior and what is the scenario to use them. Below is the brief explanation for each type of virtual network:

If assign External virtual network to virtual machine, the virtual machine is allow to communicate between:

• Virtual machine to virtual machine (two way communication) on the same host
• Virtual machine to parent partition (two way communication)
• Virtual machine to other physical servers (two way communication)

If assign Internal virtual network to virtual machine, the virtual machine is allow to communicate between:

• Virtual machine to virtual machine (two way communication) on the same host
• Virtual machine to parent partition (two way communication)

If assign Private virtual network to virtual machine, the virtual machine is allow to communicate between:

• Virtual machine to virtual machine (two way communication) on the same host

Hope the above information is able to clear your doubt on basic virtual network concept in Hyper-V.

Active Directory replication issue on Virtualization

Recently we are testing Active Directory on VMware ESX server on top of Windows Server 2003 R2. After we successfully installed the Active Directory on ESX, we found all Active Directory virtual machines are unable to replicate with each other. We trying to force Active Directory replication but it still return errors to us.

After few hours of troubleshooting, we found that the host server system time did not set properly, and at the end cause time sychronization issue occur between all virtual machines. To encounter this problem, one of the easiest way is to set the correct timing for host server system time (such as correct Time Zone & current Date & Time).

Besides that, you can also double click on VMware Tool at the right bottom corner in Windows task bar on your virtual machine, at the VMware Tools properties, go to Options tab, and uncheck the option Time synchronization between the virtual machine and the ESX server.

Tweak your mouse sensitivity in Windows virtual machines

I doubt a lot of virtualization fans is having this issue on most of the virtualization platform. This is not a major issue, but it is quite annoying and it will lower down your mouse pointer sensitivity. It is very hard for you to do testing or manage the Windows virtual machine if you cannot move your mouse pointer smoothly. Recently I just realized how to solve it from a friend of mine. Before this I would like to share this post with my friend, Wayne Lee King Lek. Thanks for him to share this knowledge with me.

Here is the step by step how to encounter the issue mentioned above:

1. At your Windows VM desktop, right click your mouse, and then go to Properties.
2. Browse to Settings tab, and then click on Advanced button at the right bottom.
3. Click on the Troubleshoot tab, adjust the Hardware acceleration to Full.

Thats all for this small trick. Hope this post will help you all. :)

Linux X-Windows cannot display properly on virtual machine

When you try to install Suse Linux or Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Microsoft virtualization environment (Virtual PC 2007, Virtual Server 2005 R2, or Hyper-V), you might not be able to boot into run-level 5 or execute the X-Windows even you already appllied the virtual machine addition for linux on those system.

Here, we would like to share out some tips for you to encounter this issue:

• Suse Linux

1. Start your Suse in run-level 3.
   
2. Type "sax2 -r" command when the system is startup.
3. After that a screen resolution test will launch, click "OK" to accept the new sax configuration.
4. Then, start your X-Windows system.
   

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (or Fedora Core)

1. During the operating system installation, select "Thousand of Colors" for your screen resolution instead of "Million of Colors".
   

Hope this post is helpful. :)

Virtualization support

Recently, met up with few customer that interested with microsoft virtualization solution. However, they have different opinion and understanding. To share with you guys:

1) Yes, you will need Windows 2008 CAL to run Windows 2008 Hyper-V - however you need to understand this CAL is not just for Hyper-V - you can then run Windows 2008 other features, eg: Domain controller with RODC, serverCore +++

2) Lots of people did mention that Hyper-V do not support Windows 2000 as its virtual machine. It does, you will need SP4 and only support 1 proc. Check the guest operating system supports for Hyper-V:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954958/en-us

3) Other Microsoft product supported in other virtualization technology? Well, hopefully all in the near future. See what Microsoft would say: Its support policy.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897615/

Extend Windows 2008 Evaluation time frame

Remember someone asked me about how to extend Windows 2008 evaluation. This is important as we do not want to reinstall all the hardworked configuration, especially we are doing some R&D or testing.

By default, Windows 2008 will allow you to evaluation for 60 days, and use the following command to evaluate up to 180 days! Thats cool - all the research for sure be able to finish within 180 days - unless you want to use it for production :).

To do it?

1. Click Start, run -> CMD.
2. Type slmgr.vbs -dli, and ENTER to check the current evaluation period.
3. Type slmgr.vbs –rearm to reset the evaluation period and then press ENTER.
4. Restart the computer.

Thats it. Want to know more? Microsoft release one KB article about it:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948472

Install Hyper-V in Server Core

Recently, one of the audience asking on - how to install Hyper-V in Server Core???

First of all, the pre-req is the same, you will need a 64 b it hardware.

After install server core (which assume, servername, IP is configured).

then, in command prompt,

Type “start /w ocsetup Microsoft-Hyper-V” to enable Hyper-V role.

Restart when prompted.

Thats it. You can then manage from your Windows Vista or another Windows Server 2008.