Mission Impossible? Not with Hyper-V

 

Louis-Philippe Gauthier (Sherbrooke, Quebec)

We’ve all been there, boss calls you in at the last minute for your input on a project that has been brewing for months but all of a sudden needs to be implemented ASAP.  Louis-Philippe from Centre d’élaboration des moyens d’enseignement du Québec (CEMEQ) had such an experience and used Hyper-V to save his weekend :)

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The following takes place between 3:30pm and 4:15pm…

3:30 PM   I get back from a meeting have a note on my desk saying to go see accounting regarding something, no real details. So since this is a pay week no reason to delay going there and asking what's up.

3:32 PM   Arrive at the Accounting office.  I am told that they have a consultant showing up tomorrow to install licenses of the accounting software on the terminal server.  No problem except we don't have a terminal server.  Now here is a quote that every IT Pro really enjoys hearing "I think I should've told you a little earlier".  Rewind a couple of months and it is true that I mentioned in a casual talk that a terminal server would be a pretty good solution that we should try out for the accounting software.  Somewhere in between the decision was made and IT wasn’t notified :(

3:36 PM   Arrive back in IT.  Time to get cracking!  I start by firing up Hyper-V Manager to create a VM and start to install Windows Server 2008 in the VM.  While this goes on I have time to write this blog post and go over our Hyper-V setup.

Hyper-V is just like any other role that you can install on Windows 2008 x64 editions.  Install the OS, install all the Windows updates (one of which is Hyper-V RTM), reboot and we are ready to go!  As an FYI Windows Server 2008 x64 SP2 will include the RTM version of Hyper-V.  There are very few hardware requirements but they are important to know…

  • x64 version of Windows Server 2008
  • x64 capable CPU with Hardware Assisted Virtualization (Intel VT or AMD-V)
  • BIOS that supports Hardware Assisted Virtualization and has it enabled (most BIOS it is disabled by default)
  • BIOS that supports Data Execution Prevention and has it enabled

In my case I have an HP Proliant DL180G5 (Dual Socket Quad 2.83GHz Xeon with 12GB of RAM and 4TB of direct-attached drives in a RAID 0+1 setup) ready for the task.

3:45 PM   With the OS install done and network connectivity configured I update the VM with the Integration Components, Windows updates and it’s ready to install roles.  Since this is going to be a terminal server and I want to use the Remote Applications feature as well as TSWeb Applications I need to install the following roles…

  • IIS7
  • Terminal Server
    • TSWeb Access (this will automatically select and install the required IIS7 components)
    • TS Licensing

4:00 PM   The installation of the roles is complete and one last check on Windows Updates to ensure all is still up to date and we are golden!  In 15 minutes (give or take) I had a working installation of Windows 2008.  Another 15 minutes gave me a fully updated Windows with TS and IIS roles ready to go. Just in time for me to pack up my stuff and head home for the weekend!

So the Accounting department was happy, I was happy and so was my boss.  Nothing beats a happy boss!  No additional hardware was required, no additional cooling was required and no additional power was required!  If you have 2003 R2 or 2008 Enterprise you don’t even need additional licenses as it includes four virtual licenses (Datacenter includes unlimited licenses). 

Louis-Philippe

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Great example of the power of Hyper-V.  I thought I’d add a few notes at the end with some additional information.

Heroes Happen Here Lab Guide with Terminal Services Demos and Videos

Windows Server Virtualization Licensing Calculators

Hyper-V Getting Started Guide (Download Link)