Windows IT Pro fundamentals – Windows 8 -Hyper-V – Part 1 – Installation

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If your using Windows 8 Pro you may have access to the client version of Hyper-V. I say “may” have access as it all depends on your system.

Client Hyper-V requires a 64bit processor with Second level address translation (SLAT)

To find out if your system has SLAT, and can run client Hyper-V, you can and should use PowerShell to find out if your system can run Hyper-V.

Run the following command within an elevated PowerShell session… 

Get-CimInstance -ClassName win32_processor -Property Name, SecondLevelAddressTranslationExtensions, VirtualizationFirmwareEnabled, VMMonitorModeExtensions |
Format-List Name, SecondLevelAddressTranslationExtensions, VirtualizationFirmwareEnabled, VMMonitorModeExtensions

You can also run the CoreInfo sysinternals tool http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/cc835722.aspx – Run coreinfo.exe –v to get the same information as the Powershell command.

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Installing the Hyper-V feature

image 

Select start, search for turn features on or off within settings.

Select Hyper-V.

Click on ok.

Installing the Hyper-V feature using Windows Powershell

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V-All

In both options you will need to restart your system.

Once restarted Hyper-V will be installed and ready for you to build your VM’s.

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IE 10 download location when running Windows8

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IE10 has finally been released for Windows 7 SP1

However if you try downloading the file using Windows 8 you will get the following web page.

ie10

 

Not much good if your trying to deploy an updated Windows 7 or 2008R2 build, and need the executable for your deployment share.

There is a separate page just for downloading the IE10 executable.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/downloads/ie-10/worldwide-languages

 

On Server Core. SCONFIG is your friend

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sconfig

If you are unsure of using Server 2008R2 – Server 2012 core and need some help setting up for the first time try running the command SCONFIG 

 

sconfig

Sconfig allows the server to be configured for networking and enabled for remote management allowing any additional configuration to performed remotely.

A lot of this work can be done using PowerShell in Server 2012. But in Server 2008R2 a lot of the CMDLETS are not available.

 

 

 

Show ISE in Windows 8 start

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When Windows 8 is first installed you may find the PowerShell ISE cannot be found.

PowerShell is there and of you type ISE in PowerShell the ISE will run.

Turns out Windows 8 sees the ISE as an administrative tool and will not show it when searched for.

To change this open start,

Open the charms bar and select settings,

Select Tiles,

Turn on show administrative tools.

administ

 

Once selected you will be able see ISE when searching

ise

 

 

 

Powershell Implicit remoting V3

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With Powershell V3 there is a  new and easier way to perform implicit remoting.

The import-module cmdlet now has the extra -pssession parameter

Implicit remoting allows a workstation to temporarily import cmdlets from a remote computer.

This is useful when a system does not have modules installed and you need to perform commands on a remote system.

In my case I needed to use the SCVMM 2012 cmdlets on my VMM server. I did not have these cmdlets installed on my laptop so I performed these steps to check my VM hosts.

Create a new session to the remote server and assign it to a variable

$vmm = New-PSSession -ComputerName srvvmm -Name vmm

Import the remote module 

Import-Module -PSSession $vmm -Name virtualmachinemanager

Use the imported cmdlet

Get-SCVMHost

Powershell will use any imported cmdlets and create implicit remoting automatically with the remote machine….

PS > Get-SCVMHost
Creating a new session for implicit remoting of “Get-SCVMHost” command…

FQDN : server….
LogicalCPUCount : 12
CPUSpeed : 2533
CPUModel : Xeon
CPUManufacturer : Intel
CPUArchitecture : 9
CPUFamily : 179
VMRCEnabled : True
VMRCPort : 2179
SecureVMRCEnabled : False
VirtualServerState : Running
VirtualServerStateString : Running
VirtualServerVersion : 6.1.7601.17514
VirtualServerVersionState : UpToDate
ServicingWindows : {}
RunAsAccount : Administrator
OverallStateString : OK
OverallState : OK
CommunicationStateString : Responding
CommunicationState : Responding
Name : server…
FullyQualifiedDomainName : server…
ComputerName : server…
DomainName : domain
Description :

Upgraded to Windows 8? Check your disk usage

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If you have recently upgraded to Windows 8 you might find your disk usage has increased.

Have a look at your disk usage.

Either search for disk cleanup in the start menu or right click on the c: drive and select properties then disk cleanup.

win8diskcleanup

You might find 5 + GB of installation files that have been left over from Windows setup and can safely be deleted.

 

Check your passwords strength

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I have just woken up to the news that Twitter was recently hacked.

http://blog.twitter.com/2013/02/keeping-our-users-secure.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21304049

Luckily my account wasn’t one of the 250,000 victims

Apparently the accounts compromised only contained names email addresses and password hashes so as long as your password was complex and secure, your password was most likely safe.

I have just checked some of my passwords using some online tools the first search results brought me to

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/security/pc-security/password-checker.aspx

So I have now followed the Microsoft safety and security centre tips on creating secure passwords

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/security/online-privacy/passwords-create.aspx

All I need to do now is find a way of remembering all my new passwords

Thanks

Paul

 

 

Upgrading Windows 8 – Make sure you make it compatible

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It’s the last day of the discounted upgrade offer for Windows 8 Pro. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/buy

The only problem, the upgrade assistant says I am cannot upgrade due to the country I live in.

Turns out the Windows 8 upgrade assistant was not compatible with my operating system….which is Windows 8!!

A quick search found this helpful article - Thank you to Vishal Gupta

http://www.askvg.com/fix-windows-8-not-available-for-download-or-purchase-in-your-country-or-region

To make the assistant work, you must make it compatible to XP SP3 level.

Hope this helps.

Paul

 

 

Cluster Validation fails “Validate Cluster Network Configuration” Test

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Now that I have client Hyper-V with Windows 8 I decided to create a home lab to evaluate products.

I thought I would be clever and script the creation of the VM’s by creating a base image then generalizing the OS by using Sysprep.

As I wanted to set up a 2008R2 Cluster I thought I would set up the Failover cluster manager feature before Sysprep

BIG MISTAKE!!

Every time I ran the validate a cluster wizard I received the error

Validate the cluster networks that would be created for these servers. An error occurred while executing the test. There was an error initializing the network tests. There was an error creating the server side agent

I found the following KB from Microsoft..

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2012835

On a Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Cluster, Validate may fail with either of the following errors:
Validate Cluster Network Configuration
Validate the cluster networks that would be created for these servers. An error occurred while executing the test. There was an error initializing the network tests. There was an error creating the server side agent (CPrepSrv). Creating an instance of the COM component with CLSID {E1568352-586D-43E4-933F-8E6DC4DE317A} from the IClassFactory failed due to the following error: 80070005.
OR
Validate IP Configuration
Validate that IP addresses are unique and subnets configured correctly. An error occurred while executing the test. There was an error initializing the network tests. There was an error creating the server side agent (CPrepSrv). Creating an instance of the COM component with CLSID {E1568352-586D-43E4-933F-8E6DC4DE317A} from the IClassFactory failed due to the following error: 80070005.
Cause:
This can be caused by deploying a cloned image of the operating system which was not properly prepared using the System Preparation Tool (Sysprep).
Resolution:
If the base image was not generated by using Sysprep with the /Generalize option, you must rebuild the base image, and then reinstall Windows Server.
It is not supported to SysPrep servers which have the Failover Clustering feature installed.  The Failover Cluster feature must be installed after the system has been SysPrep’d and cloned.

So to fix this remove the Failover cluster feature from the nodes reboot then add the feature.

Everything should now work.