Hyper-V

Import a Hyper-V Virtual Machine with PowerShell

I recently ran into a problem where an exported VM from Windows Server 2016 running Hyper-V wasn’t able to be imported on Windows Server 2019 running Hyper-V. When attempting to perform the import, the GUI stated “No virtual machines files found” as shown in the following image. This problem may have been due to using Hyper-V manager on a remote system running Windows Server 2012 R2, although the same system was used for the export....

Determine the Generation of a Hyper-V VM with PowerShell

Ever need to determine what generation all of the virtual machines are on your Hyper-V servers? This is simple using the Get-VM command that installs as part of the Hyper-V module for Windows PowerShell. Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName *hyper*powershell -Online While the previous command will work on both clients and servers, the following command could also be used on a Windows server. Get-WindowsFeature -Name *hyper*powershell The generation of the VM is one of the properties from the results of Get-VM....

PowerShell Function to Determine the Hyper-V Host for a VM

This week, I thought I would share a PowerShell function that I wrote to determine what Hyper-V host server a VM (virtual machine) resides on. In this scenario, you have no idea which Hyper-V host a VM resides on. #Requires -Version 3.0 function Get-MrVmHost { <# .SYNOPSIS Determines the HyperV host virtualization server for the specified virtual machines. .DESCRIPTION Get-MrVmHost is an advanced function for determining the HyperV host virtualiztion server for one or more VMs (virtual machines)....

Convert, Resize, and Optimize VHD and VHDX files with PowerShell

I recently received an email from someone who attended one of my presentations asking if I had a blog article on using PowerShell to compact and optimize VHD files. Since I didn’t have a blog article on that subject, I decided to create one. The process itself is fairly simple. The examples shown in this blog article are being run on a Windows 10 computer which has Hyper-V enabled on it....

Use caution when updating to Windows 10 RTM with data deduplication enabled volumes

I recently decided to reload my computer, moving from Windows 8.1 Enterprise Edition to Windows 10 Enterprise Edition. I had previously enabled the data deduplication feature on my Windows 8.1 installation with an unsupported hack by using the source files from Server 2012 R2. Deduplication was enabled on my SSD drive for the VHDX files that I use for my test and demonstration environment that runs via Hyper-V VM’s. In my opinion, Microsoft should support data deduplication on enterprise edition desktop operating systems since it can save an enormous amount of space....

Creating Hyper-V VM’s with Desired State Configuration

I’m looking to automate the build of my test environment that runs as Hyper-V virtual machines on my Windows 8.1 Laptop computer. To get started, I thought I would take a look at the xHyper-V DSC resource to create the actual VM’s. There’s also no reason this shouldn’t work on a Windows Server that’s running the Hyper-V role. The Hyper-V role has already been added to my Windows 8.1 computer. I also have a previously created virtual hard drive (vhdx) file that has been loaded with the Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system and all of the available Windows updates....

PowerShell One-Liner: Create a new Hyper-V VM

My test environment resides on a workstation that runs Windows 8.1 Enterprise Edition with the Hyper-V role enabled. I need to create a new VM that will be used as a second domain controller in my test environment. I’ll use a PowerShell one-liner to create this new VM which will use a differencing disk based on a Windows Server 2012 R2 vhdx that has been fully patched and syspreped: New-VM -Name 'DC02' -VHDPath ( New-VHD -Differencing -ParentPath 'D:\Hyper-V\Virtual Hard Disks\template\Server2012R2Core-Template....

PowerShell Function to Prevent Starting Hyper-V VM’s that are Connected to an External Network

Beginning with Windows 8 (Professional and Enterprise Edition), Hyper-V is available on workstations that have a processor that supports SLAT (Second Level Address Translation). For specifics about the requirements, see the Client Hyper-V blog article on Microsoft TechNet. That means you have a Hypervisor running right on your desktop or laptop computer for free. With the price of hardware these days, your regular everyday computer can be spec’d out with an i7 processor, 16 gigabytes of memory, and one or more solid state drives and in addition to performing your everyday work on it, you have an awesome test environment without the need for additional physical computers....

Use PowerShell to Determine the Chain of VHD’s for a Virtual Machine on Hyper-V

You want to determine what VHD’s exist for the virtual machines (VM’s) that are virtualized on your Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V virtualization host. This may sound simple, but what if you have a base image or template that has been configured and then multiple VM’s have been created using differencing disks that reference that single base image? If that weren’t difficult enough to keep track of, you may also have snapshots of those VM’s which are also classified as differencing disks in HyperV....

Use PowerShell to Check for Processor (CPU) Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) Support

The hardware requirements for using Hyper-V to run virtual machines on a Windows 8 client states that a 64-bit system that has a processor (CPU) that supports Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) is required. A minimum of 4GB of RAM is also required. How do I know if my Processor (CPU) supports Second Level Address Translation? You could do like most blogs on the Internet state and use Coreinfo: You have two additional choices if you already have Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 Installed....