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Microsoft Hyper-V User Manual

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With Microsoft Hyper-V, you have the flexibility of having your environment managed for you by Rackspace’s Microsoft Hyper-V Support team or administering your own environment with full control of the hypervisors and virtual machines.

The following sections aim to help you navigate some of the common tasks associated with administering your own environment. If you need any assistance with these tasks or other tasks not included in this guide, contact your Rackspace team.

Manage Permissions

This section describes how to manage permissions in the MyRackspace Portal for your Microsoft Hyper-V solution.

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Before you begin, make sure that you are on the Dedicated Hosting tab on the top right-hand corner of your browser. Dedicated Hosting is highlighted in red if you are in the correct tab.

In order to access the Permissions section and to modify another user’s permission, you must have one of the following permissions:

  • Account Administrator – this permission grants a user unlimited access to every section of MyRackspace.
  • Admin – this permission (on a device or service) grants a user the ability to manage the device or service as well as which users can access the device or service.

Log in to the MyRackspace portal and use the steps in the following sections to manage permissions.

Assigning Permissions by User

Use the following steps to assign permission by user:

  1. Click the Account dropdown menu.
  2. Select Permissions from the list. Your MyRackspace portal automatically takes you to the Permissions / Assign By User panel.
  3. On the left hand side of the panel is the Users section that allows you to manage the permissions of an individual user. On the right hand side of the panel is the User Groups section that allows you to manage the permissions of a user group.
  4. For more details on how to assign the permission by user, see the Permissions Guide available in the Permissions tab of your MyRackspace portal login.

Assigning Permissions by Product

Use the following steps to assign permission by product:

  1. In the top navigation bar, click Account > Permissions.

    The Permissions / Assign by User page displays.

  2. On the left side of the page is the Users section, where you can manage the permissions of an individual user. On the right side of the page is the User Groups section, where you can manage the permissions of a user group.

For more details on how to assign the permission by user, click Permissions Guide in the top right corner of the Permissions page.

Managing Groups

Use the following steps to manage groups:

  1. In the top navigation bar, click Account > Permissions.

    The Permissions / Assign by User page displays.

  2. Select Assign by Product from the navigation bar.

    The Permissions / Assign by Product page displays. On the left side of the page is the Product section, where you can manage the permissions of an individual product. On the right side of the page is the Product Groups section, where you can manage the permissions of a product group.

For more details on how to assign the permission by user, click Permissions Guide in the top right corner of the Permissions page.

Changing Global Permissions

Use the following steps to change global permissions:

  1. Click the Account dropdown menu.

  2. Select Permissions from the list. Your MyRackspace portal automatically takes you to the Permissions / Assign By User panel.

  3. Select Global Permissions from the navigation bar. You switch to Permissions / Global Permissions.

  4. To adjust the Ticketing Settings, click the pencil edit button.

  5. Select either:

    1. Flexible: Users can see tickets containing at least one device they have permission to view.
    2. Strict: Only users who have access to all devices on a ticket can see the ticket. Users no longer see a ticket if devices are added that they do not have permission to view.

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    This changes the ticket viewing permissions across the entire account.

  6. Click Save Ticket Permissions.

  7. In the top navigation bar, click Account > Permissions.

  8. Select Global Permissions from the navigation bar.

    The Permissions / Global Permissions page displays.

  9. In the Ticketing Settings section, click the pencil edit button and select either:

    • Flexible: Users can see tickets containing at least one device they have permission to view.
    • Strict: Only users who have access to all devices on a ticket can see the ticket. Users no longer see a ticket if devices are added that they do not have permission to view.

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    This changes the ticket viewing permissions across the entire account.

  10. Click Save Ticket Permissions.

Credentials management

Windows Server 2016 (v2)

Rackspace

Rackspace maintains a formal password policy in accordance with ISO27001 requirements for Rackspace to have credentials for your environment. These credentials give Rackspace the ability to provide managed services and enable automation.

While customers have full administrator access to modify passwords and accounts as they feel necessary, Rackspace advises against making changes to the Rackspace account to avoid impacting your support experience. If modifications are made, contact Support to ensure Rackspace recorded credentials are updated.

Customer

As part of your Hyper-V deployment, customer domain accounts are created to provide access to hypervisors and the Hyper-V Management Console.

Additional users can be added at any time through a support ticket request.

Windows Server 2012 (v1)

Rackspace

Rackspace maintains a formal password policy in accordance with ISO27001 requirements for Rackspace to have credentials for your environment. These credentials give Rackspace the ability to provide managed services and enable automation.

While customers have full administrator access to modify passwords and accounts as they feel necessary, Rackspace advises against making changes to the Rackspace account to avoid impacting your support experience. If modifications are made, contact Support to ensure Rackspace recorded credentials are updated.

Customer

Microsoft Hyper-V customers on Windows Server 2012 R2 (v1) are joined to self-hosted domains within their Hyper-V clusters.

Additional users can be added at any time, through a support ticket request.

Datastore Overhead

Rackspace requires that customers have a certain percentage of each Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) datastore free at all times. We call this datastore overhead. Use the following guidelines to ensure that there is enough datastore overhead:

  • 10% free space, if the partition size is less than 1TB
  • 10% free space, if the partition size is between 1TB and 5TB
  • 10% free space, if the partition size is greater than 5TB

Why does Rackspace require this?

If a datastore runs out of free space, it causes any VMs running on that datastore to immediately hard stop, causing downtime. Stopped VMs cannot be started until insufficient free space on the datastore us available.

After VMs are stopped, it is possible that a VM might not power on due to insufficient space on the datastore.

VM performance impact is possible when the datastore is critically low on space, and certain Hyper-V features, such as checkpoints, might no longer function.

What else can consume space on my datastores?

  • Checkpoints: When performing a checkpoint, a delta disk is created for each disk you have on your VM. While the checkpoint is active or a export is in progress, all changes are written to the delta file(s). Delta files can grow rapidly and without your awareness.
  • VM log files: All VM log files are stored within the VM container folder on the datastore. Normal log files are only a few MB in size. However, log files can grow larger in size depending on VM activity.
  • RAM: Powered on VMs have a VM BIN file equivalent in size to the amount of RAM assigned to the VM. If a VM’s AutomaticStopAction is set to Save, Hyper-V reserves disk space equal to the amount of memory used by the VM when it is running. This ensures that memory can be written to disk when the physical computer shuts down. If the VM is powered off, there is no BIN file present, even if the VM is set to save.

Ordering Virtual Machines

This section provides information about ordering virtual machines.

Virtual Machine OS Images

Rackspace provides you with all the base images for all your VMs. The following is a list of supported virtual machine operating systems for Hyper-V:

  • Windows Server 2012 Datacenter
  • Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter
  • Windows Server 2016 Datacenter
  • CentOS 6.7
  • CentOS 7
  • Ubuntu® 14.04 LTS
  • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
  • RHEL 6.7
  • RHEL 7

Create a New Managed Virtual Machine

Create a support ticket to request a new managed virtual machine. Rackspace requests the following configuration details to ensure the VM is deployed to your specification:

  • Name
  • OS type
  • vCPU count
  • RAM size
  • Disks
  • VLAN/Segment
  • Requested IP
  • File level backups (Yes/No)
  • Customer domain

See the Additional Resources section for a video on how the Rackspace Microsoft Hyper-V support team creates virtual machines.

Create a New Unmanaged Virtual Machine

  • The New-VM cmdlet creates a virtual machine. Use the following commands to create a virtual machine by using PowerShell:
 New-VM -Name "<name>" -MemoryStartupBytes <size> -NewVHDPath <path>

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-NewVHDPath, -NewVHDSizeBytes and -VHDPath are required parameters when running this command. For more information, see the PowerShell documentation for New-VM.

  • Use the following instructions to create a virtual machine by using the Management Virtual Machine (VM):

  1. In the Management VM, click Action > New > Virtual Machine to open the New Virtual Machine Wizard.

  2. Review the Before You Begin page and click Next.

  3. Assign an appropriate name to the virtual machine.

    Ensure that the name you assign is under 15 characters.

  4. Choose a location where you want to store the virtual machine files or choose the default location, and then click Next.

  5. Select either Windows Server 2012 R2(v1) or Windows Server 2016(v2) as the generation, and then click Next.

  6. Select 2048 MB for the Startup Memory value and leave Use Dynamic Memory selected, and then click Next.

  7. On the Configure Networking wizard, select a virtual switch for the virtual machine and then click Next.

  8. Give the virtual hard drive a name, select a location or keep the default, and specify a size. Then click Next.

  9. On the Installation Options wizard, select Install an operating system from a bootable image file and then select an operating system .iso file. Click Next.

  10. Review the virtual machine details and then click Finish.

Converting Unmanaged VM to Managed

To convert an unmanaged VM to managed, create a support ticket with your Microsoft Hyper-V Support team to request a conversion.

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At this time, Rackspace can only convert Windows unmanaged machines. Linux machines are currently unable to be converted.

Managing Virtual Machines

With Microsoft Hyper-V, you can use the PowerShell command-line interface or the Management Virtual Machine UI, which contains all your remote server administration tools to administer your hosted environment and resources.

The following instructions are for self-service. If you want the Rackspace Microsoft Hyper-V Support team to perform any of the following tasks, create a support ticket.

Start or Resume a Virtual Machine

  • Use the following command to start or resume a virtual machine by using

PowerShell:

  1. To start a particular virtual machine, run the following command with name of the virtual machine:

    Start-VM -Name <virtualMachineName>

  2. To resume a particular virtual machine that has been left in a paused state, run the following command with name of the virtual machine:

    Resume-VM -Name <virtualMachineName>
  • Use the following instructions to start or resume a virtual machine by using the Management VM:
    1. To start up the virtual machine, select Start from the right-hand action list.
    2. To resume the virtual machine from a paused state, click Resume from the right-hand action list.

Shut Down a Virtual Machine

  • To shut down a virtual machine by using PowerShell through the guest operating system, use the following command for a graceful shut down:

    Stop-VM -Name <virtualMachineName>

    If the graceful shut down doesn’t work, you can force the VM to shut down by using the following command:

   Stop-VM -Name <virtualMachineName> -TurnOff

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For more information on stopping VMs, see the Stop-VM Microsoft documentation.

  • To shut down a virtual machine by using the Management VM, select the virtual machine that you want to shut down from the centered list.
    1. To gracefully power down the virtual machine, select Shut down from the right-hand action list.
    2. If the graceful shut down doesn’t work, you can force the VM to shut down by selecting Turn off from the right-hand action list.

Checkpoint a Virtual Machine

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The Hyper-V PowerShell module has several aliases. The terms checkpoint and snapshot can be used interchangeably. This document uses checkpoint.

Microsoft Hyper-V utilizes a standard checkpoint. A standard checkpoint takes a snapshot of the virtual machine and virtual machine memory state at the time the checkpoint is initiated. A checkpoint is not a full backup and can cause data consistency issues with systems that replicate data between different nodes, such as Active Directory.

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As checkpoint files grow, it can affect all virtual machines on the hypervisor. For this reason, Rackspace recommends keeping no longer than a two-day checkpoint. After this time, you can delete the checkpoint, or Rackspace can revert to the checkpoint and original disks.

  • Use the following command to snapshot a virtual machine by using PowerShell:

  • Checkpoint-VM -Name <virtualMachineName>

  • Use the following instructions to create a checkpoint by using the Management VM:

    1. In the Management VM, select the virtual machine that you want to checkpoint.
    2. Right-click the name of the virtual machine, and then click Checkpoint.
    3. When the process is complete, the checkpoint appears under Checkpoints in the Management VM.

Reverting a Checkpoint

If you want to revert your virtual machine to a previous point in time, you can apply an existing checkpoint.

  • Use the following commands to apply a checkpoint by using PowerShell:

    1. Get a list of checkpoints for a virtual machine by using the following command:

      Get-VMCheckpoint -VMName <virtualMachineName>

    2. Apply the checkpoint by using the following command:

      Restore-VMCheckpoint -Name <checkpointName> -VMName <virtualMachineName> -Confirm:$false

  • Use the following instructions to revert a checkpoint by using the Management VM:

    1. In the Management VM, under Virtual Machines, select the virtual machine to which you want to apply a checkpoint.

    2. In the Checkpoints section, right-click the checkpoint that you want to use and click Apply.

    3. A dialog box appears with the following options:

      • Create Checkpoint and Apply: Creates a new checkpoint of the virtual machine before it applies the earlier checkpoint.
      • Apply: Applies only the checkpoint that you have chosen. You cannot undo this action.
      • Cancel: Closes the dialog box without doing anything.

    4. Select either Apply option to create and apply the checkpoint.

Delete a Checkpoint

Deleting checkpoints can help create space on your Hyper-V host. Checkpoints are stored as .avhdx files in the same location as the .vhdx files for the virtual machine. When you delete a checkpoint, Hyper-V merges the .avhdx and .vhdx files for you. After the merge completes, the checkpoint’s .avhdx file is deleted from the file system.

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You should not delete the .avhdx files directly.

  • Use the following commands to delete a checkpoint by using PowerShell: 
    Remove-VMCheckpoint -VMName <virtualMachineName> -Name <checkpointName>
  • Use the following instructions to delete a checkpoint using the Management VM:
    1. In Management VM, in the Checkpoints section, right-click the checkpoint that you want to delete, and the click Delete.
    2. Confirm that it is the correct checkpoint, and then click Delete.

For more information on managing Hyper-V checkpoints, see the Microsoft Work with Checkpoints.

Export Virtual Machines

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The Hyper-V PowerShell module has several aliases. The terms export and clone can be used interchangeably. This document uses export.

An export gathers all required files into one unit: virtual hard disk files, virtual machine configuration files, and any checkpoint files. This function can be performed when the machine is running or stopped.

  • To export a virtual machine by using PowerShell, open a session as Administrator and run the following command: 
    Export-VM -Name <virtualMachineName> -Path <path>
  • Use the following instructions to export a virtual machine by using the Management VM:
    1. In the Management VM, right-click the virtual machine that you want to export and select Export.
    2. Choose where to store the exported files, and then click Export.

Resize Virtual Hard Disks

Resizing a virtual hard disk shrinks or expands the size of the disk. Resizing the virtual hard disk is an offline operation. The virtual hard disk must not be attached when the operation is initiated.

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When considering resizing virtual hard disks, keep in mind that .vhd files cannot be shrunk, only expanded, whereas .vhdx files can perform both functions. Rackspace recommends using .vhdx files.

  • Use the following command to resize a virtual hard disk by using PowerShell:
    Resize-VHD -Path -SizeBytes 

    Resize-VHD -Path <path> -SizeBytes <size>

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    -Path and -SizeBytes are required parameters when running this command. For more information, see the PowerShell documentation for resize-vhd.

  • Use the following instructions to resize a virtual hard disk by using the Management VM:

    1. In the Actions pane, click Edit Disk.

    2. On the introductory page, click Next.

    3. Browse for the location of the disk that you want to edit.

    4. Choose to Expand or Shrink (.vhdx only) the virtual hard disk. If the VM is off, you will see additional options. Click Next.

    5. Choose the new size of the disk in GB, and then click Next.

      A progress dialog box appears. Shrinking a virtual hard disk happens instantly, but expanding takes some time.

Reimage a virtual machine Z

Reimaging your virtual machine involves removing the primary operating system drive from the virtual machine and attaching a new one.

You might reimage your VM if you want to upgrade to a new version or to a completely new operating system.

If you have a managed or unmanaged virtual machine from Rackspace and you want to reimage, submit a ticket to your Rackspace Microsoft Hyper-V Support team.

Making a Virtual Machine Highly Available

Use the following commands to make a virtual machine highly available (HA) by using PowerShell:

  1. Create a virtual machine specifically for HA. Ensure that the VM has a memorable name:

    New-VHD -Path <PathToVHDXFile> -Dynamic -SizeBytes <size> –SwitchName <switchName> –BootDevice <deviceType> -VHDPath <PathToVHDXFile>

  2. Assign the location and the memory size:

    New-VHD -Name <name> -Path <PathToVMFolder> -Memory <memory>

  3. Specify that this VM will be installed from an .iso file:

    Add-VMDvdDrive -VMName <virtualMachineName> –Path <PathtoISOFile>

  4. Configure the virtual machine for high availability:

    Set-VM –Name <virtualMachineName> –AutomaticStartAction Nothing

    Add-ClusterVirtualMachineRole -VirtualMachine FailoverTest

  • Use the following instructions to make a virtual machine highly available by using the Management VM:

    1. Ensure that the VM is built and is running on your local hypervisor.

    2. In the left-hand panel, click on Failover Cluster Manager.

    3. Right click on Roles in the cluster manager and then click Configure Role.

    4. The High Availability Wizard displays. Click Next to continue.

    5. Scroll through the dialog box and select the Virtual Machine role.

    6. Select the virtual machine(s) that you want to configure for high availability, and then click Next.

      The wizard configures your chosen VM as a highly available role.

      Close the dialog once the wizard is complete.

Remove and Delete Virtual Machines

The Remove-VM cmdlet deletes a virtual machine. Running this cmdlet deletes the virtual machine’s configuration file but does not delete any virtual hard drives. If the virtual machine has any checkpoints, these are deleted and merged into the virtual hard disk files after the virtual machine is deleted.

If you want to remove or delete a virtual machine from your environment, submit a ticket with your Rackspace Microsoft Hyper-V Support team.

Decommissioning Virtual Machines and Hypervisors

If you want to decommission virtual machines or hypervisors for Microsoft Hyper-V, you must submit a ticket to the Rackspace Microsoft Hyper-V Support team. This process is for managed virtual machines and hypervisors.

After the ticket has been received by the Microsoft Hyper-V Operations team, the team responds to the ticket confirming the device(s) that you want to decommission.

During this process, the Microsoft Hyper-V team moves the associated .vhd and .vhdx files to the C:\rs-pkgs\temp directory. Ensure that the contents of C:\rs-pkgs\temp are deleted after the device is decommissioned.

For unmanaged VMs, the Hyper-V team can assist but you can also perform the deletion yourself. Use the following command to delete a virtual machine:

Remove-VM <virtualMachineName>

For more information or any questions, reach out to your Microsoft Hyper-V Support team.

Virtual Fibre Channel SAN

Microsoft Hyper-V provides Fibre Channel (FC) ports within the guest operating system which allows customers to connect to Fibre Channel directly from within virtual machines.

Hyper-V customers can utilize Fibre Channel SANs to virtualize workloads that require direct access to SAN logical unit numbers (LUNs).

Virtual Fibre Channel gives you the ability to cluster guest operating systems over the storage fabric using a standard World Wide Name (WWN) associated with a virtual machine. This also provides customers an additional option to configure guest clusters on Hyper-V VMs without the limitations of Shared VHDx.

This feature provides the following:

  • Increased performance.
  • Enables you to virtualize workloads that use direct access to Fibre Channel storage.
  • Allows you to cluster guest operating systems over Fibre Channel.
  • Provides an important new storage option for servers hosted in your virtualization infrastructure.

Rackspace currently supports Virtual Fibre Channel SAN on Windows 2012 R2, Windows 2016, and Windows 2012 Guest Virtual Machines.

For more information on the Virtual Fibre Channel, see Implement Hyper-V Virtual Fibre Channel.

Deploying Virtual SAN

If you want to deploy virtual SAN on a managed virtual machine from your environment, submit a ticket with you Rackspace Microsoft Hyper-V Support team.

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Unmanaged virtual machines cannot have SAN storage deployed on their virtual machines.

VMs using vFC require file-Level backups by installing a client backup agent on the VM. Image-level backups are not available.

Migrating from Server 2012 to 2016

Existing Microsoft Hyper-V customers on Windows Server 2012 R2(v1) are joined to self-hosted domains within their Hyper-V clusters. New customers on Windows Server 2016(v2) are on a centrally controlled domain managed by Rackspace. Customers can migrate all of their hypervisors from Windows Server 2012 R2(v1) to Windows Server 2016(v2) through certificate based replication.

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At this time, live migration and storage migration across domains has several restrictions. Speak to your Microsoft Hyper-V Rackspace support team for more information.

Certificate based replication is utilized to move VM tenant workloads from the customer existing 2012 environment to the new 2016 environment.

If you want to migrate from 2012 to 2016, submit a ticket with your account or service delivery manager. The Rackspace Microsoft Hyper-V Support team builds out your new 2016 environment and replicates your pre-existing environment.

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There is no downtime during this process until VMs require updating. In order to process the upgrade of the virtual machine, the VM(s) have to be shut down before backups in the 2016 environment are successful.

Updated 12 months ago