Hyper-V “Needs Attention” after SCVMM 2008 RTM install

If you are like most people and start doing installs without Reading The Fabulous Manual (RTFM), then you’ll likely see the same issue nearly everyone I know has hit.  You see, after installing the RTM bits of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 you’ll notice your Hyper-V server(s) have a status of “Needs Attention”.  Don’t we all.

Fortunately this is documented in the release notes, right at the very beginning.  VMM requires an important update from Hyper-V and a critical update from Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS). Without these updates, VMM hosts display in the state of “Needs Attention” and the virtualization service version as “Upgrade available”.

Download and install the following updates on all of your Hyper-V SCVMM managed hosts:

• Hyper-V Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition (KB 956589) on the Microsoft Download Center at https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=FD44B4E3-2DCC-4299-B345-BC09A9A37B60&displaylang=en.
• Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) update (KB 956774) on the Microsoft Download Center at https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9EC9DBB9-82AD-4D34-9267-76A0126A8F18&displaylang=en.

I actually changed the link above to the x64 BITS update.  The Release Notes are pointed at the x86 update which will not install on a Hyper-V server.