Recently while working on the new Virtualization shootout testing I came across the issue that Microsoft Hyper-V doesn’t offer any built in Physical to Virtual machine conversion tools so I set out for an easy way to convert a physical machine for some quick and simple testing. I found two options and I will present them both, the first option is a tool I recently became familiar with due to the fact that we are considering moving our internal virtual environment at the office to Citrix. Its obvious at this point who makes the tool but for the name its rather obvious as well and is called the XenConvert tool by Citrix. This tool is absolutely killer, it can convert physical machines, specific volumes, Microsoft VHD files, VMware VMDK files, Open virtualization OVF files and Xen virtual Appliances to XenServer Appliances, XenServer Hard Disks (VHD), Open Virtualization Packages (OVF), and Provisioning Services vDisk. Download Citrix XenConvert Next up on the list is a tool from Microsoft (go figure) although not directly linked or marketed for
Hyper-V & Core Must Have’s – Core Configurator & PowerShell Management Library
I thought I would share a couple links to some must have Server 2008 Core and Hyper-V Software. Core Configurator 2.0 & PowerShell Management Library for Hyper-V. Core Configurator 2.0 is a set of PowerShell programs that utilize Winforms for GUI’s so not only do you get a set of powerful tools but they are easy to use with the added graphical user interfaces. The PowerShell Management Library for Hyper-V is a must have toolkit for any Hyper-V administrator. This is the ultimate Swiss Army Knife of PowerShell for Hyper-V and if you don’t already have it you need to get it.
Virtualization Face Off, Bare metal & OS Level
Once the new server is built I plan to revisit virtualization with some new contenders added to the list. Here is the current bare metal line up VMWare ESX Microsoft Hyper-V Citrix XEN RedHat KVM Windows VM VMWare Workstation & Server Oracle / Sun Virtual Box Parallels Workstation Linux VM VMWare Workstation & Server Oracle / Sun Virtual Box Parallels Workstation This will all run on the new server so it will be the same hardware each time around. I might do this before I put in the Raid 50 to make my life a lot more simple when installing and configuring these. If I choose that route I will likely test with a WD Raptor as my main drive to keep the speed up. This will take some time to complete since the new server isn’t built yet and it is going to take a LOT of reloads. Thanks and stick around it’s going to be interesting.
VM Shootout Performance Numbers
!!! — UPDATE — !!! ~~ UPDATE – I will not be contniuing this testing with this machine. I am finding that although I have all the proper drivers and can get everything to work, something still doesnt seem right. At least if anything we can learn that even with all the drivers Hyper-v runs HORRIBLE on an Nvidia chipset or possibly just runs horrible. I am trying to get my hands on a T300 to really make the test fair and then perform all of this testing again. My biggest goal is for a box that is fully supported by ESXi so I dont hear any whinning that the testing was unfair since I can load drivers for virtually anything in Windows but ESXi takes a bit of hacking. I will leave this page posted for general knowledge and to get a taste of whats to come. Sorry the testing is incomplete. Carry on ~~ Purpose – Benchmark Vmware and Hyper-v in several configurations then compair the numbers because numbers dont lie. The testbed-
Managing Hyper-v server in a workgroup
Microsoft makes it very difficult to manage a standalone Hyper-v server in a workgroup but it is possible. The first thing you need to know is that you will need a Windows Vista machine to manage Hyper-v server. What Microsoft doesn’t make very clear is that machine will need to be Vista Business or Ultimate. Lucky for me my media pc is running Ultimate which is also how I discovered the OS needs to be “business classâ€. Lucky for you I’m here to walk you through the rest of setup process and get you VM’ing in a few simple steps. I’m not going to walk through this step by step. There are other guides out there that do that, I just want to highlight getting Hyper-v working in a workgroup. So as I write this I am assuming you are here because you already read a ton, know the basics and are at a dead end. You need to install the Hyper-v management utility found here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952627 Next you will need to create a matching
Installing drivers in Hyper-V Server 2008 Core
I am going to assume the person reading this is technically inclined and doesn’t need a whole mess of pictures detailing every step of the process. This is a quick guide intended to get you up and running as quickly as possible on a machine with little to no Server 2008 driver support. I will show you how to install drivers in Hyper-v Server on any machine as long as it will get through the initial install. Note: Hyper-v Server is the standalone version of Server 2008 w/ Hyper-v. To learn more check out this video. http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&vid=27a22995-ea7d-4a00-af86-bf18280b65cd First things first, you have to realize that just because Server 2008 will install on your Whitebox or OEM pc that doesn’t mean it’s running correctly on it. For this article I will be basing my experience off of an AMD setup composed of the following. AMD Athlon 64X2 4600+ Biostar TF8200 A2+ Socket AM2+ w/ Hyper Transport 3.0 Geforce 8200 Chipset 4GB DDR2 800 Realtek RTL 8111C Onboard GigaNIC Now I’m going to jump right into the
