Manage Hyper-V in a workgroup remotely

Managing  Hyper-V remotely in a workgroup can be challenging to configure. This is still the case for Windows Server 2016. For a testing environment I needed to remotely manage Windows Server 2016 core server with the Hyper-V role enabled from Windows 10 with the Hyper-V manager. I used the following manual configuration:

  • Client with Hyper-V Manager (Windows 10). This client is called win10-01
  • Server with Windows Server 2016 core version with the Hyper-V role enabled. The server is called hv-02
  • Both systems are in the same workgroup called “workgroup”
  • Both systems have the same username and password.

Configuration on the Windows Server 2016  server:

  • Enable Remote Management
Configure-SMRemoting.exe -Enable
  • Open firewall for  Remote Computer Management
Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup 'Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)' -Enabled true -PassThru
Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup 'Remote Event Log Management' -Enabled true -PassThru
  • Open firewall for ping (ICMPv4)
Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName “File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request – ICMPv4-In)” -Enabled True -PassThru
  • Enable Remote Desktop and allow remote connections
cscript.exe c:\Windows\System32\SCregEdit.wsf /AR 0
  • Enable Remote disk management
Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup 'Remote Volume Management' -Enabled true -PassThru

 

Configuration on the Windows 10 client:

  • Create a host file with IP address and hostname of the server. Make sure you can ping the hostname

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  • Make sure that the network type is part of a private network before executing the WINRM command

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  • Enable Remote Management
winrm quickconfig
  • For Managing remote systems
winrm set winrm/config/client @{TrustedHosts="Name of the Server"}
  • Enable remote disk Management (add this command on both systems) firewall rule
Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup 'Remote Volume Management' -Enabled true -PassThru
  • Open c:\windows\system32\dcomcnfg.exe and allow ‘anonymous logon’ for local and remote access.

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After making this settings I was able to manage the Windows Server 2016 server with the following tools remotely:

  • Hyper-V manager
  • Computer Management
  • Disk Management

 

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Test Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V with VMware Workstation

Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 3 (TP3) is released with some cool new features. An easy way to test Windows Server 2016 TP3 is to use VMware Workstation. Windows Server 2016 can be installed with the Hyper-V role and have some VMs nested with minimal configuration.

For this test i used the following hard-and software:

Hardware: Dell Latitude E6540 with an Intel i5-4310M CPU and 16 GB memory.

Software: As desktop OS Windows 8.1 Enterprise, VMware Workstation 12 PRO and Microsoft Windows Server 2016 TP3.

To install Windows Server 2016 and enable the Hyper-V role and nest VMs use the following steps:

  • Open VMware Workstation
  • Create a new custom Virtual Machine
  • Choose the highest VM hardware compatibility -> Workstation 12.0
  • In the guest Operating System Installation -> browse to the Windows Server 2016 ISO
  • As Guest Operating System choose -> Microsoft Windows and as version -> Hyper-V (unsupported)

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  • Give the VM one or more CPU’s and 4 GB of memory if you want to install some VMs in Hyper-V
  • Controller -> LSI Logic SAS
  • Virtual disk type -> SCSI
  • Create a new virtual disk of 40 GB of more. (For the best performance use -> Allocate all disk space now)

You’re ready to install Windows Server 2016 you have two options: Windows Server with or without GUI.

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  • After the installation add the Hyper-V role and reboot the server.

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  • When choosing for the core version install the hyper-v with the following PowerShell command:
powershell
Install–WindowsFeature Hyper-V
  • Open Hyper-V Manager and create one or more VMs

Hyper-V Manager

When having limited hardware resources and want to test Hyper-V in Windows Server 2016, VMware Workstation is a great choice. Without minimal effort it is possible to install Windows Server 2016, add the Hyper-V role and nest some VMs.

Tips for installing System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 R2 Update Rollup (UR5)

Here are some tips for installing System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager Update Rollup (UR5):

      • UR5 is available from Microsoft Update or by manual download. If you are not installing UR5 through Microsoft Update (e.g. you’re downloading the update and then installing it), you must install using elevated privileges. If you do not do this the update may fail silently.
      • During the UR5 installion the System Center Virtual Machine Manager & Agent will be stopped
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      • After the SCVMM UR5 server component, reboot the VMM server before installing the UR5 console
      • Before Update Rollup 5, you had to manually update the System Center Virtual Machine Manager DHCP Server (x64) component. As of Update Rollup 5, this is no longer required. When updating the agent on the server the DHCP server components is updated too.
      • Agents DHCP
      • The new SCVMM UR5 agent build version is: 3.2.7895.0
      • The Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager DHCP Server (x64) build version is still 3.2.7768.0
      • Make sure to update the agent on all the infrastructure servers such as the Update Server and library server. In VMM click on Fabric- Server for a complete overview
      • Updateagent
      • Refresh the cluster after updating the agents
      • When starting the VMM console the following error appears:
      • pipeline error
      • This error is permission related. To solve this error add the “Authenticated Users” group to the AddInPipeline directory and assign read and execute rights. The installation of VMM can be found under: <Driveletter>:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012 R2\Virtual Machine Manager\bin\AddInPipeline.
      • Update 24-02-2015: Microsoft released a hotfix for UR5 that addresses replica and smb shares issues. The link to the KB can be found here, link.

For all the details on SCVMM 2012 R2 UR5, see the following:

  • KB3023195 – Description of the security update for Update Rollup 5 for System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager, link