Ivo Beerens
Identify NICs in Windows Server 8 Hyper-V
In a Hyper-V cluster are normally a lot of NICs involved. Identifying the right can be challenging. It is important to consequently label your network adapters on all the servers in the Hyper-V cluster.
In Windows Server 8 there are PowerShell Cmdlets that can be used for identifying NICs. Once you identified the NIC, rename it to meaningful name. The PowerShell Cmdlets listed below can be executed on the following versions:
- Hyper-V Server 8
- Windows Server 8 Core
- Windows Server 8 GUI
Three ways are listed using PowerShell to identify the NIC in a Windows Server 8 Hyper-V environment.
Before you begin
Execute PowerShell and import the Hyper-V module using the following command:
Import-Module Hyper-V
1. Identify the NIC by connection State
Connect one NIC and use the following command:
Get-NetAdapter | Select Name, InterfaceDescription, MediaConnectionState | FL
Look at which NIC is connected and rename the NIC to a meaningful name (listed below)
Add the second NIC and execute the command again and rename the name of the NIC. Do this for all NICs
2. Identify the NIC using the MAC address
When you know the MAC address of the NIC (for example in a HP Flex-10 environment) it can be identified using the following command:
Get-NetAdapter | Select Name, InterfaceDescription, MacAddress | FL
Look at the corresponding MAC address and rename the NIC to a meaningful name (listed below). Do this for all NICs.
3. Identify the NIC by PCI bus ID
The last option is to identify the NIC by PCI bus ID. The following command list all NICs PCI bus adapter information:
Get-NetAdapterHardwareInfo | select Name, InterfaceDescription, DeviceType, Busnumber, Devicenumber, Functionnumber | FL
Look at the corresponding PCI bus and rename the NIC to a meaningful name (listed below). Do this for all NICs.
Rename the NIC
Rename the NIC to a meaningful name, for example, rename the name “Wired Ethernet Connection 2” to “MGMT-LOM01-VLAN20” use the following command:
Rename-NetAdapter “Wired Ethernet Connection 2” –NewName “MGMT-LOM01-VLAN20”
Unable to join domain when deploy a template using guest customization specification
At a customer I was unable to join a domain when deploying a template from vCenter using a guest customization specification. This only happened with Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7 templates.
To solve this problem, you need the do the following in the guest customization specification:
- Enter the FQDN name in Windows Server Domain field (1)
- Enter the user@domain_FQDN in the username field (2)
I used the NetBIOS domain name in the “Windows Server Domain” field and “domain\username” in the username field what doesn’t work with Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 7 anymore.
More information can be found here state that you need to fill in:
Enable Windows Server 8 Hyper-V in VMware Workstation
VMware Workstation Technology Preview 2012 is available as download. The Technology Preview makes it possible for example to install and operate Windows 8 and Windows Server 8 in a VM and the possibility to nest VMs.
I tested the installation of Windows Server 8 in VMware Workstation TP, enabled the Hyper-V role and run a Windows 7 64-bit VM in Hyper-V. Here are some screenshots (Hyper-V manager and the Windows 7 64 bit running in Hyper-V):
To make the above configuration work, add to following options to the end of the VMX file before starting the Windows Server 8 installation:
hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = FALSE mce.enable = "TRUE"
The VMware Workstation TP VMs are started in debug mode which impacts the performance!
More information can be found here:
- VMware Workstation Technology Preview 2012 Overview
- Download
Intel X79 whitebox for vSphere 5 and Hyper-V 3
In an earlier blog post (found here) I mentioned that it is time for a new homebrew whitebox based on the Intel X79 chipset. With the X79 chipset it is possible to install 64GB of memory (8 x 8 GB). Because the 8 GB DIMMs are expensive on the moment, I decided to use 8 x 4GB DIMMs (total 32GB).
I decided to create one physical host for testing VMware vSphere 5, vCloud Director, VMware SRM, VMware View 5 etc. The possibility to create a physical ESXi5 server, create virtual ESXi hosts on it and start VM on the virtual hosts is great! This feature is called nesting. How to do this, can be found on William Lam blog found here.
Components used for the ESXi 5 whitebox:
- Intel i7-3820 CPU 3.60 GHz, 4 cores, with Hyper threading 8 cores
- Zalman CNPS10X performance cooler
- Asus P9X79 s2011 motherboard. Some specs:
Socket 2011
8 DIMM slots, supports 64GB memory
Expansions slots: 2 x PCIe 3.0 (dual x16), 1 x PCIe (x8 mode), 2 x PCIe 2.0 x1, 1 x PCI
2 SATA 6 Gb/s port, 4 x SATA 3 Gb/s
LAN: Intel 82579V Gigabit LAN controller
- 2 x Corsair Vengeance DDR3- 1600 16GB (4 x 4) kit, total 32GB memory
The case, power supply, graphical card, RAID controller and extra NIC(S) are reused. Here are some photos of the configuration:
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When the hardware configuration was done and tried to power on the system, nothing happened (black screen). The appears that BIOS of the motherboard didn’t know the i7-3820 CPU yet. The cool thing is that the motherboard has a function called “USB BIOS Flashback”. It is possible to flash the BIOS without CPU or memory installed. Here are the steps:
- Download the latest BIOS from the Asus site;
- Extract the BIOS on a USB stick;
- Rename the BIOS file, example: rename “P9X79-ASUS-0906.ROM” in “P9X79.ROM” (important);
- Place the USB stick in the USB port with the WHITE interior on the back;
- Press the BIOS flashback button for 3 seconds and the light will begin to flash;
- Don’t turn of the computer during the BIOS flash;
- When the flashing light stop, the BIOS has been complete;
After the BIOS update was finished, the system boots and I was able to install VMware ESXi and Windows Server 8.
vSphere 5 / ESXi 5 screenshots:
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| Hyper threading enables 8 cores | 32GB memory |
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| The onboard SATA controller is listed as Patsburg 6 Port SATA AHCI controller.
Software-RAID does not work The hardware RAID controller is added as extra PCI card |
The onboard Intel 82579V NIC is not supported in ESXi5. Use the procedure found here to add the NIC. Use at your own risk!
The Intel 82574L NIC is added as extra PCIe card. |
Physical Windows Server 8 screenshots:
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The onboard Intel 82579V NIC is not recognized in Windows 8, so I used an extra NIC (Intel 82574L NIC).
Windows Server 8 PowerShell Cmdlets for Hyper-V help
In Windows 2008 & Windows R2 there were no official PowerShell Cmdlets available for Hyper-V. This is changed in Windows 8. Windows Server 8 has 162 PowerShell Cmdlets available for Hyper-V. Windows 8 uses PowerShell version 3.
Cmdlets are very powerful, that lets you automate all aspects of Hyper-V. Here some guidance how-to find the Cmdlets you need.
To view all the Hyper-V PowerShell Cmdlets:
Get-Command -Module Hyper-V
To search for Cmdlets, for example with the name “host” in it:
Get-Command -Module Hyper-V -Noun *host*
To get the Cmdlet syntax:
Get-VMHost -?
Get the Cmdlet syntax and available parameters, details and examples:
get-Help Get-VMHost -Full
More information over the Hyper-V Cmdlets can be found here. PowerShell 3.0 is available as Community Technology Preview (CTP) found here.
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