TechEd Bloggers Virtualization

Understanding File Configurations on Your Virtual Hyper-V Machine

Ben Armstrong — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:48:16 GMT

Ben Armstrong writes, "...Hyper-V has a concept of the “virtual machine data root” and the “virtual machine snapshot root”. These are the locations where the virtual machine configuration (.XML) and saved state (.BIN & .VSV) files are stored. For example..." more

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:48:16 GMT

Hyper-V Whitepapers on Live Migration Configuration and Storage Performance

Ben Armstrong — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:47:14 GMT

Ben Armstrong writes, "...We have released a bunch of updated documentation in the last week. The first thing to look at is the Live Migration Network Configuration Guide....The next thing to look at is a new Virtual Hard Disk performance white paper that we have released that analyzes the performance characteristics of virtual hard disks..." more

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:47:14 GMT

Getting Windows Server Backup and Hyper-V to Work Together

Ben Armstrong — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:07:02 GMT

Ben Armstrong writes, "...I would just backup the current system disk – and restore it to the new physical disk. As this was just going to be a “once off” backup – I did not want to spend the time to setup a full enterprise backup solution...I knew that Windows Server Backup does not support Hyper-V by default – so went off to get the details of how to enable this...Unfortunately this story is yet to have a happy ending..." more

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:07:02 GMT

Two Ways to Connect a Smart Card to a Windows 7 Virtual Machine

Ben Armstrong — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:06:53 GMT

Ben Armstrong writes, "...if you try to use a smart card in a Windows 7 virtual machine (either under Windows Virtual PC or through remote desktop on Hyper-V) you are likely to get an error stating that the drivers are not present – like this...there are two ways that you can work around this. The first way only works for Windows Virtual PC, and that is..." more

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:06:53 GMT

How to Get IE to Work as a Published App With XP Mode

Ben Armstrong — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:23:38 GMT

Ben Armstrong writes, "...A lot of people are looking at using Windows XP Mode to allow them to access websites that still need Internet Explorer 6 / 7. Unfortunately Internet Explorer is not published by default. The reason for this is that Windows does not create an Internet Explorer shortcut...Here is a handy screen shot of what the folders should look like:..." more

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:23:38 GMT

Beware of the Difference: A Hyper-V Snapshot of a Running System vs a Shutdown System

Brian Harry — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:24:13 GMT

Brian Harry writes, "...my VERY STRONG advice to you is shut down your Hyper-V server before you take a snapshot if you hope to ever restore it. It might work 500 times for you and then on the 501st time boom - your snapshot of a running system..." more

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:24:13 GMT

Workaround Accessing Shared Drives from the Windows Virtual PC

Ben Armstrong — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:56:03 GMT

Ben Armstrong writes, "...One of the issues is that shared drives do not get drive letters assigned to them inside the virtual machine with Windows Virtual PC. Which means that while it is easy to use them from the graphical user interface, it can be problematic if you want to access them from the command line. Luckily there is an easy solution..." more

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:56:03 GMT

Sample Code for Hyper-V ActiveX RDP Control

Ben Armstrong — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:05:44 GMT

Ben Armstrong writes, "...create a Remote Desktop connection directly to the virtual machine (not to the guest operating system) in exactly the same manner as when you are using the Virtual Machine Connection window in the Hyper-V Management Console. As this is an ActiveX control you can even use it in..." more

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:05:44 GMT

How to Increase VMBus Buffer Optimizing Network Performance to Guest VMs

Ben Armstrong — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:24:15 GMT

Ben Armstrong writes, "...how to optimize network performance inside of virtual machines by increasing the size of the VMBus buffers used by our network adapters...explaining the causes and implications of performance issues around virtual networking..." more

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:24:15 GMT

Tasks Automated with VMM Powershell Jobs History Garbage Collection

Kurt Roggen — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:15:39 GMT

Kurt Roggen writes, "...Jobs are displayed for each action performed in VMM and can be viewed directly in the VMM administrator console...central place for monitoring actions...ability to sort, filter and group job...Each failed job has troubleshooting tips to..." more

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:15:39 GMT

Hyper-V VM State to Memory Dump Converter Tool

Ben Armstrong — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:50:00 GMT

Ben Armstrong writes, "...[allows you to] take the saved state files from a Hyper-V virtual machine and convert it to the memory dump format that is used by the Windows debugging tools...You can even use this tool to look at the memory state from a virtual machine snapshot..." more

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:50:00 GMT

List of Virtual Machine Manager Refresh Jobs & Intervals

Kurt Roggen — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:41:00 GMT

Kurt Roggen writes, "The VMM server initiates a series of specific refresh jobs at specific intervals. Here’s an overview of what happens..." more

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:41:00 GMT

Be Careful With Hyper-V and Virtual PC

Richard Siddaway — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:15:58 GMT

Richard Siddaway writes, "...be careful if you have virtual machines in virtual PC and switch to using Hyper-V. Not sure what I did wrong... but managed to trash my virtual SQL Server. There are instructions..." more

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:15:58 GMT

More SCVMM Fatal Error Installation Issues

Michael Ruminer — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:22:22 GMT

Michael Ruminer writes, "The Hyper-V Server host is where I originally tried to install SCVMM with it getting hung between installed and not installed. That has come back to bite me again. The agent is not installed on the Host but since the install routine thinks that the SCVMM Server is installed then it thinks the agent is by default also present. Of course, neither is really there. So now..." more

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:22:22 GMT

Let Me Save You Time: SCVMM on a VHDs

Michael Ruminer — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:13:29 GMT

Michael Ruminer writes, "In my experience the short and simple word when it comes to installing Systems Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 (SCVMM) is that you should not do this on a virtual disk. Here is my experience and long convoluted path to getting it installed...spent numerous hours last week trying to install SCVMM onto a virtual drive..." more

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:13:29 GMT

2 Approaches to Compacting a Virtual Disk

Ben Armstrong — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:30:00 GMT

Ben Armstrong writes, "...Under the covers there are two different approaches that are taken to compacting virtual hard disks:...Perform a blind “block level” compaction...Hyper-V and Windows 7 use a different approach to compacting virtual hard disks. What they do is look for an NTFS file system on ..." more

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:30:00 GMT

Best Hyper-V Resource Round-Up Page

James ONeill — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:00:36 GMT

James ONeill writes, "...among the other links is the answer to a question I got asked a couple of days ago “how do I allow hyper-V to get access to shared files on other computers”..." more

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:00:36 GMT

Windows Cannot Obtain the Domain Controller Name Error

Vitalie Ciobanu — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:52:37 GMT

Vitalie Ciobanu writes, "...This resolved the connectivity problem, however I wanted to test one more thing. As DC2 where a virtual machine with 2 cores assigned, I changed it to use only one processor and modified the boot.ini file to its original state. After restarting the VM and monitoring the server for bout 20 minutes, looks like..." more

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:52:37 GMT

App-V Support for Applications with Custom Shell Extensions

Justin Zarb — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:18:06 GMT

Justin Zarb writes, "Microsoft Application Virtualization does not support applications that use shell extension handlers implemented with a custom dynamic-link library (DLL)...this would require providing Windows Explorer access to the virtual environment..Some applications allow disabling of their customer shell extensions...it probably can be sequenced in App-V..." more

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:18:06 GMT

Basic Understanding of SR-IOV

Scott Lowe — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:40:51 GMT

Scott Lowe writes, "...SR-IOV is a specification that allows a PCIe device to appear to be multiple separate physical PCIe devices. The SR-IOV specification was created and is maintained by the PCI SIG, with the idea that a standard specification will help promote interoperability...SR-IOV is related to, but not the same as, hypervisor bypass..." more

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:40:51 GMT