Windows Server Administration/Virtualization

This lesson covers virtulaization. Activities include adding the Hyper-V role, creating virtual machines. working with snapshots, and converting physical machines to virtual machines.

Objectives and Skills

Objectives and skills for the Understanding Server Roles portion of Windows Server Administration Fundamentals certification include:^[1]

• Understand server virtualization: virtualization modes; VHDs; virtual memory; virtual networks; snapshots and saved states; physical to virtual; virtual to physical

Readings

1. Read Wikipedia: Virtualization.
2. Read Wikipedia: Hyper-V.
3. Read Wikipedia: VHD (file format).
4. Read Wikipedia: Virtual memory.
5. Read Wikipedia: Virtual network.
6. Read Wikipedia: Snapshot (computer storage).
7. Read Wikipedia: Physical-to-Virtual.

Multimedia

1. Watch YouTube: Using Hyper-V Manager in Windows Server 2012.
2. Watch YouTube: Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V : Creating a Virtual Machine.
3. Watch YouTube: Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V: Creating A Virtual Machine.
4. Watch YouTube: Hyper-V Training - Virtual Hard Drives (VHDs).

Activities

1. Review Overview of Hyper-V. Research Windows Server licensing requirements for Hyper-V.
2. Review Hyper-V. Add the Hyper-V role and set up a virtual machine.
3. Review About Virtual Machine Snapshots. Take a snapshot of a virtual machine, make changes to the virtual machine, then apply the snapshot to revert to the original configuration.
4. Review Disk2vhd. Use Disk2vhd to convert a physical computer to a virtual disk. Using Hyper-V, add the virtual disk to a new virtual machine and test the conversion.
5. Use the Discuss page to post comments and questions regarding this lesson.
6. Review the lesson summary, key terms, review questions and flashcards below.

Lesson Summary

• Virtualization is the simulation of a hardware platform, operating system, storage device, or network resources using software.^[2]

• In hardware virtualization, the host machine is the actual machine on which the virtualization takes place, and the guest machine is the virtual machine.^[3]

• The software or firmware that creates a virtual machine on the host hardware is called a hypervisor or virtual machine manager.^[4]

• Hyper-V is Microsoft's hypervisor, available in in two variants: a free stand-alone product called Hyper-V Server, and an installable role in Windows Server 2008 and later as well as the x64 edition of Windows 8 Pro.^[5]

• The Hyper-V role may be added to either full or server core installations.^[6]

• Hyper-V is a kernel mode (Ring 0) hypervisor rather than a user mode (Ring 3) hypervisor, resulting in better virtual machine isolation and better performance.^[7]

• Hyper-V requires a minimum of 2 GB of RAM, but each virtual machine running on the Hyper-V server requires its own memory.^[8]

• Hyper-V uses the VHD (.vhd) virtual hard disk file format, with Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 also supporting the newer .vhdx format.^[9]

• The VHD file format may contain what is found on physical hard disk drives, such as disk partitions and file systems, which in turn can contain folders and files.^[10]

• VHD files have a maximum limit of 2 TB for the size of any dynamic or differencing VHD.^[11]

• Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 and later operating systems support creating, mounting, and booting from VHD files.^[12]

• Virtual memory is a memory management technique developed for multitasking kernels that allows the operating system to use secondary storage as virtual memory address space and move memory pages between physical memory and virtual storage as needed.^[13]

• A virtual network is a computer network that consists, at least in part, of virtual rather than physical network links. The two most common forms of network virtualization are protocol-based virtual networks such as VLANs, and virtual device networks such as those connecting virtual machines inside a hypervisor.^[14]

• Physical-to-Virtual ("P2V") describes the process of decoupling and migrating a physical server's operating system (OS), applications, and data from a physical server to a virtual machine guest hosted on a virtualized platform.^[15]

• Microsoft provides the SysInternals disk2vhd utility for manually creating virtual images of Windows computers, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) for automated P2V capability.^[16]

Key Terms

autonomic computing

The self-managing characteristics of distributed computing resources, adapting to unpredictable changes while hiding intrinsic complexity to operators and users.^[17]

guest machine

A virtual computer which is run by a host machine.^[18]

host machine

A physical computer on which virtualization takes place.^[19]

hypervisor

A piece of computer software, firmware or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines.^[20]

link aggregation

Various methods of combining (aggregating) multiple network connections in parallel to increase throughput beyond what a single connection could sustain, and to provide redundancy in case one of the links fails.^[21]

NIC teaming

Another name for link aggregation.^[22]

snapshot

The state of a system at a particular point in time.^[23]

thin client

A computer or computer program which depends heavily on some other computer (its server) to fulfill its computational roles.^[24]

thrashing

A computer's virtual memory subsystem is in a constant state of paging, resulting in degraded system performance.^[25]

virtual LAN (VLAN)

A single layer-2 network which is partitioned to create multiple distinct broadcast domains, which are mutually isolated so that packets can only pass between them via one or more routers.^[26]

virtual machine (VM)

A software implemented abstraction of the underlying hardware which is presented to the application layer of the system.^[27]

virtual machine monitor (VMM)

Another name for hypervisor.^[28]

Review Questions

Click on a question to see the answer.

1. Virtualization is the simulation of _____ using software.

   Virtualization is the simulation of a hardware platform, operating system, storage device, or network resources using software.
2. In hardware virtualization, the _____ is the actual machine on which the virtualization takes place, and the _____ is the virtual machine.

   In hardware virtualization, the host machine is the actual machine on which the virtualization takes place, and the guest machine is the virtual machine.
3. The software or firmware that creates a virtual machine on the host hardware is called a _____ or _____.

   The software or firmware that creates a virtual machine on the host hardware is called a hypervisor or virtual machine manager.
4. Hyper-V is Microsoft's _____, available in in two variants: a _____ called Hyper-V Server, and an _____ in Windows Server 2008 and later as well as the x64 edition of Windows 8 Pro.

   Hyper-V is Microsoft's hypervisor, available in in two variants: a free stand-alone product called Hyper-V Server, and an installable role in Windows Server 2008 and later as well as the x64 edition of Windows 8 Pro.
5. The Hyper-V role may be added to either _____ or _____ installations.

   The Hyper-V role may be added to either full or server core installations.
6. Hyper-V is a _____ mode (Ring 0) hypervisor rather than a _____ mode (Ring 3) hypervisor, resulting in better _____ and better _____.

   Hyper-V is a kernel mode (Ring 0) hypervisor rather than a user mode (Ring 3) hypervisor, resulting in better virtual machine isolation and better performance.
7. Hyper-V requires a minimum of _____ of RAM, but each virtual machine running on the Hyper-V server requires its own memory.

   Hyper-V requires a minimum of 2 GB of RAM, but each virtual machine running on the Hyper-V server requires its own memory.
8. Hyper-V uses the _____ file format, with Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 also supporting the newer _____ format.

   Hyper-V uses the VHD (.vhd) virtual hard disk file format, with Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 also supporting the newer .vhdx format.
9. The VHD file format may contain what is found on physical hard disk drives, such as _____, which in turn can contain _____.

   The VHD file format may contain what is found on physical hard disk drives, such as disk partitions and file systems, which in turn can contain folders and files.
10. VHD files have a maximum limit of _____ TB for the size of any dynamic or differencing VHD.

    VHD files have a maximum limit of 2 TB for the size of any dynamic or differencing VHD.
11. Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 and later operating systems support _____, _____, and _____ from VHD files.

    Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 and later operating systems support creating, mounting, and booting from VHD files.
12. Virtual memory is a memory management technique developed for _____ kernels that allows the operating system to use _____ as virtual memory address space and move memory pages between _____ and _____ as needed.

    Virtual memory is a memory management technique developed for multitasking kernels that allows the operating system to use secondary storage as virtual memory address space and move memory pages between physical memory and virtual storage as needed.
13. A virtual network is a computer network that consists, at least in part, of _____ network links. The two most common forms of network virtualization are _____, and _____.

    A virtual network is a computer network that consists, at least in part, of virtual rather than physical network links. The two most common forms of network virtualization are protocol-based virtual networks such as VLANs, and virtual device networks such as those connecting virtual machines inside a hypervisor.
14. Physical-to-Virtual ("P2V") describes the process of _____.

    Physical-to-Virtual ("P2V") describes the process of decoupling and migrating a physical server's operating system (OS), applications, and data from a physical server to a virtual machine guest hosted on a virtualized platform.
15. Microsoft provides the SysInternals _____ utility for manually creating virtual images of Windows computers, and _____ for automated P2V capability.

    Microsoft provides the SysInternals disk2vhd utility for manually creating virtual images of Windows computers, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) for automated P2V capability.

Flashcards

• Test your understanding of this lesson.
• Test your understanding of the key terms.

See Also

• Microsoft Virtual Academy: Introduction to Hyper-V
• Microsoft Virtual Academy: Windows Server 2012 Technical Overview

References

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Resource type: this resource is a lesson.

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