Microsoft Official

Course

Module 3

Creating and Managing Virtual

Hard Disks, Virtual Machines,
and Checkpoints

Module Overview
Creating and Configuring Virtual Hard Disks
Creating and Configuring Virtual Machines
Installing and Importing Virtual Machines
Managing Virtual Machine Checkpoints
Monitoring Hyper-V
Designing Virtual Machines for Server Roles

and Services

Lesson 1: Creating and Configuring

Virtual Hard Disks
What Are the Storage Options for Virtual
Machines?
Overview of the Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk
Formats
Fixed-Size and Dynamically Expanding Virtual
Hard Disks
Differencing Virtual Hard Disks
Demonstration: Creating a Virtual Hard Disk
Directly Attached Disks
Virtual Hard Disk Sharing

What Are the Storage Options for Virtual

Machines?
Virtual hard disk and directly attached disks
Support two storage controller types:
IDE

SCSI

Only for Generation 1 virtual

machines

For Generation 1 and

Generation 2 virtual machines

Two controllerstwo devices

per IDE controller

Four controllers64 devices per

SCSI controller

Virtual machine starts from IDE

Only Generation 2 starts from

SCSI

Cannot modify devices while

virtual machine is running

Can modify devices when

virtual machine is running

Fixed size, dynamically expanding, or differencing

disk files
Directly attached diskslocal, or on iSCSI or Fibre

Overview of the Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk

Formats
.vhd

Up to 2,040 GB in size

.vhdx
Up to 64 TB in size
Internal log for enhanced resiliency
User-defined metadata
Large disk sector support
Larger sector size (improved performance)
Default format in Windows Server 2012 R2

Can convert between both formats

.vhdx recommended if not used in older versions
of Hyper-V

Fixed-Size and Dynamically Expanding

Virtual Hard Disks
Fixed-size

Dynamically expanding

Allocates all storage

Larger initial size
Creation takes time
without Windows
Offloaded Data
Transfers

Allocates space as needed

Smaller initial size
Created faster

Minimize fragmentation

Can cause fragmentation

Cannot overcommit

Can overcommit

Better performance (older Comparable performance

Hyper-V)
(Windows Server 2012)
Use in production

Use in testing and

development

Differencing Virtual Hard Disks

Stores changes from the parent disk

The parent disk should not be changed

The differencing disk isolates changes
Multiple differencing disks can use the same parent
Increases overhead (lower performance)

Can use for standardized base images

Should avoid in production environments
Read

Modify Create

Delete

1234

xxxx

3
1 234

1 23 4

File A

File B

File
C

1 2 34
File D

Gro
w
ReadOnly

Demonstration: Creating a Virtual Hard

Disk
In this demonstration, you will see how to
create a virtual hard disk

Directly Attached Disks

Virtual machine directly accesses physical

disk

Internal or LUN attached to Hyper-V server

Disk must be offline before it can be used

LUN on iSCSI or Fibre Channel SAN

Directly attached disk considerations

Best performance
Unlimited size, lowest CPU utilization
No checkpoints or differencing virtual hard disks
No portability and encapsulation
Not included in Hyper-V backup

Virtual Hard Disk Sharing

Provides shared storage for virtual machines
Used as shared Serial Attached SCSI disk by
virtual machines
Virtual hard disk must be using .vhdx format

Must be connected to a virtual SCSI controller

Must be stored on a failover cluster
CSV
Scale-out file server with SMB 3.0

Separation between infrastructure and virtual

machines

Quality of Service Management

Storage QoS restricts disk throughput
Configured per virtual hard disk
Dynamically configurable while a virtual machine is
running

Hyper-V Considerations for Virtual Hard Disk

Storage
Virtual hard disks consume large amounts

of space

Can increase over time; implement monitoring

Use multiple physical disks for better

throughput
Use redundant storage spaces
SSD dramatically increases performance

SMB 3.0 file share

Use SAN for storing virtual hard disks
Specialized, redundant, fast
Shared storage for failover clustering
Exclude virtual hard disks from antivirus

Demonstration: Managing Virtual Hard

Disks
In this demonstration, you will see how to
manage virtual hard disks

Lesson 2: Creating and Configuring Virtual

Machines
What Are the Components of a Generation 1
Virtual Machine?
Overview of Generation 2 Virtual Machines
Demonstration: Creating Virtual Machines
Configuring Virtual Machine Settings
What Is Dynamic Memory?
What Is Smart Paging?
Overview of Integration Services
Demonstration: Configuring Integration
Services

What Are the Components of a Generation

1 Virtual Machine?
Virtual machine has virtual hardware devices
Only devices that Hyper-V supports can be
used
Virtual hardware can be:

Emulated available during boot

Synthetic available in supported operating
systems
SR-IOV available in supported operating systems

Prior to Windows Server 2012 R2, only

Generation 1 virtual machines were available

What Are the Components of a Generation

1 Virtual Machine?

Overview of Generation 2 Virtual Machines

Emulated devices are removed
UEFI firmware instead of BIOS
Secure Boot
Boots from SCSI controller
PXE boot uses a standard network adapter

Faster boot and operating system

installation
Can run side by side with Generation 1

Generation 1 must be used for legacy systems

Supported guest operating systems

Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012
R2
64-bit versions of Windows 8 and Windows 8.1

Overview of Generation 2 Virtual Machines

Demonstration: Creating Virtual Machines

In this demonstration, you will see how to
create a virtual machine

Configuring Virtual Machine Settings

Only limited options are available during creation

Many more options are available after the virtual machine

is created
Configuration options depend on the generation of the
virtual machine

Most settings can be configured only if turned off

Adding or removing hardware components

Configuring memory, processor, disk settings
A few settings are configurable while a virtual machine is
running

Connecting a network adapter to a virtual switch

Adding a virtual hard disk to a SCSI controller
Enabling or disabling Integration Services

Use Hyper-V Manager or Windows PowerShell

Set-VM, Add-VMHardDiskDrive, Add-VMNetworkAdapter

Configuring Virtual Machine Settings

What Is Dynamic Memory?

More efficient use of available physical memory

Shared resource that can be reallocated automatically

Demand, available memory, and virtual machine memory

settings

Dynamic memory settings

Startup RAM

Minimum RAM

Can be increased while a virtual machine is running

Memory buffer

Can be decreased while a virtual machine is running

Maximum RAM

Operating system typically requires more memory when

started

Percentage of extra memory to reserve for a virtual machine

Memory weight

What Is Dynamic Memory?

Finance virtual machine

8 GB

Sales virtual machine

Engineering virtual machine

6 GB
4 GB
2 GB

T=0

T = 15

T = 30

Total system memory

Memory in use by virtual machines
Physical memory used

8 GB
3 GB
37.5 %

Virtual Machines
Memory Settings

What Is Dynamic Memory?

Finance virtual machine
Sales virtual machine
Engineering virtual machine

8 GB
6 GB
4 GB
2 GB

T=0

T = 15

T = 30

Total system memory

Memory in use by virtual machines
Physical memory used

8 GB
6 GB
75 %

Virtual Machines
Memory Settings

What Is Dynamic Memory?

Finance virtual machine

8 GB

Sales virtual machine

Engineering virtual machine
Service virtual machine

6 GB

Engineering reaches
max allocation

4 GB
2 GB

T=0

T = 15

T = 30

Total system memory

Memory in use by virtual machines
Physical memory used

8 GB
7.5 GB
94 %

Virtual Machines
Memory Settings

What Is Smart Paging?

A memory management technique that

uses physical disk resources as temporary

memory
Ensures that a virtual machine can always restart
Used during virtual machine restart only if:

Temporarily degrades virtual machine

performance

Hyper-V is low on memory, the virtual machine has more

startup than minimum RAM, and memory cannot be
reclaimed from other virtual machines

Used only for a limited time, and then removed

Not used when a virtual machine is started from

the Off state

Virtual machine operating system paging is always

preferred

What Is Smart Paging?

Finance virtual machine
Sales virtual machine
Engineering virtual machine
Service virtual machine

8 GB

Virtual Machines
Memory Settings

6 GB
4 GB
2 GB

T=0

T = 15

Total System Memory

T = 30
8 GB

Sales virtual machine and Service virtual

machine can be restarted only if Smart
Paging is used

Overview of Integration Services

Makes a guest operating system aware that it is

running on a virtual machine

Many operating systems include integration
services
Install the latest integration services
VMBus and synthetic devices support
Time synchronization, mouse release, VSS

Managed as virtual machine settings

Overview of Integration Services

Without Integration Services

With Integration Services

Demonstration: Configuring Integration

Services
In this demonstration, you will see how to
configure integration services

Using a Virtual Fibre Channel Adapter

Access to Fibre Channel SAN storage from virtual

machine
Hyper-V server has Fibre Channel HBA
Use Virtual SAN Manager to configure a virtual SAN

Virtual Fibre Channel adapter maps to the physical HBAs

Virtual Fibre Channel adapter connects to the virtual SAN

Storage hardware must support N_Port ID

Virtualization
Virtual machine can have four virtual Fibre Channel
Supported
Not supported
adapters
Virtual machine live
migration
Virtual machine failover
cluster
MPIO - multiple paths to

Boot from Fibre Channel

SAN
Checkpoints
Host-based backup

Lab A: Creating and Managing Virtual Hard

Disks and Virtual Machines
Exercise 1: Creating and Managing Virtual
Hard Disks
Exercise 2: Creating and Managing Virtual

Machines
Logon Information
Virtual machines:
20409B-LON-HOSTx
20409B-LON-CLx
20409B-LON-DC1
20409B-LON-SS1
User name:
Adatum\Administrator
Password:
Pa$$w0rd
Estimated Time: 70 minutes

Lab Scenario
A. Datum Corporation is continuing with its
pilot virtualization project. You have
deployed
the virtualization hosts by installing Hyper-V
on Windows Server 2012 R2 in one of the
subsidiaries. The next step is to deploy
virtual machines on these hosts.
Because the virtualization platform is new
to A. Datum, you need to spend some time
familiarizing yourself with the Hyper-V
features and components. To do this, you
decide to deploy and evaluate different

Lab Review
Can you attach a disk directly to a virtual
machine only if that disk is attached locally
to a Hyper-V host?
How can you use a virtual hard disk with the
installed operating system as a template for
new virtual machines?
How can you prevent a virtual machine from
monopolizing disk I/O when a disk-intensive
application is running on a virtual machine?
What are the requirements for virtual

machines to use dynamic memory? Is this

feature available only to virtual machines

Lesson 3: Installing and Importing Virtual

Machines
Virtual Machine Installation Methods
Importing Virtual Machines
Demonstration: Importing a Virtual Machine
Virtualizing a Physical Computer
The Virtual Machine Connection Application
Overview of Enhanced Session Mode
Demonstration: Using Enhanced Session

Mode

Virtual Machine Installation Methods

Install from a bootable CD/DVD

Single virtual machine can only use physical media at one

time

Install from an .iso file

Multiple virtual machines can use a .iso file

Install from a network-based installation server

Generation 1 legacy network adapter required

Copy a virtual hard disk file with an installed

operating system
Similar to computer cloning
Virtual hard disk should first be generalized

Use differencing virtual hard disks

Parent virtual hard disk should first be generalized

Importing Virtual Machines

You can import a virtual machine without first

exporting it
Only virtual machine data files are needed
More than 40 different types of issues detected, such
as:

Missing parent virtual hard disk

Virtual switch not available
Virtual machine has more processors than available

Import process:

Creates a copy of the virtual machine configuration file

Validates hardware configuration settings
Compiles a list of incompatibilities
Displays incompatibilities and asks for new settings
Removes the configuration file copy

Demonstration: Importing a Virtual

Machine
In this demonstration, you will see how to
import a virtual machine

Virtualizing a Physical Computer

Hyper-V does not include P2V conversion

functionality
Hyper-V can copy the content of data disks
Configure a disk in New Virtual Hard Disk Wizard
Copy an entire disk, not a volume or partition
Supported only for data; system disks are not
supported

Disk2vhd
Creates virtual hard disks
Uses VSS
Captured system has the same identity

Add a virtual hard disk to a virtual machine

Virtualizing a Physical Computer

The Virtual Machine Connection

Application
Connects to virtual machines on local and

remote Hyper-V
Port 2179 used (can be modified in the registry)
Connection allowed by Windows Firewall
Installed as part of Hyper-V role or RSAT feature

Single users can connect to virtual machines

Remote Desktop in virtual machines is not used

Hyper-V Administrators can connect to

virtual machines
You can restrict access to virtual machines
Revoke-VMConnectAccess cmdlet

Overview of Enhanced Session Mode

Remote Desktop connection to a virtual

machine
Virtual machine can be without network
connectivity
Devices can be redirected

Printers, drives, smart cards, audio, other PnP devices

Shared Clipboard, enhanced copy
Folder Redirection

RDS component is used

User must sign in to virtual machine

Remote Desktop Users group membership required

Enabled at Hyper-V virtual machine

connection and virtual machine level

Guest operating system support required

Demonstration: Using Enhanced Session

Mode
In this demonstration, you will see how to
use enhanced session mode

Lesson 4: Managing Virtual Machine

Checkpoints
What Are Virtual Machine Checkpoints?
Implementing Hyper-V Checkpoints
Overview of Checkpoints at File Level
Exporting Virtual Machines and Checkpoints
Demonstration: Working with Checkpoints
Issues with Checkpoints in Distributed
Environments
Checkpoints and Virtual Machine Generation

ID

What Are Virtual Machine Checkpoints?

A checkpoint is a point-in-time virtual machine

state

Can be taken if a virtual machine is not in paused state

Contains virtual machine configuration, memory, and disk

state
Does not affect the running state of a virtual machine

Primarily used for testing and development

Can cause issues in distributed production environments

Create differencing disk decrease performance

Cannot be created for directly attached disks

Used by Hyper-V Replica or in VDI deployments

Implementing Hyper-V Checkpoints

When created, a checkpoint cannot be

modified, only viewed, applied, exported,

renamed, or deleted
Checkpoint creation steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Pause virtual machine

Create differencing disk for each disk that virtual
machine is using
Create a copy of virtual machine configuration
Resume virtual machine
Copy virtual machine memory to disk

Checkpoint consists of
Configuration file (*.xml)
Saved state file (*.vsv)
Memory content (*.bin)

Overview of Checkpoints at File Level

Checkpoint

.vhd
.avhd

Apply (= create branch)

Apply (= delete Now)

Delete (= merge)

Delete (= delete)

Exporting Virtual Machines and

Checkpoints
Exporting a virtual machine is not required

You can copy virtual machine files

Exporting a virtual machine consolidate its files

If differencing drives are used, the entire hierarchy is

exported

Exporting multiple virtual machines increases total size

When exporting a virtual machine, all its checkpoints are

exported

Exporting a checkpoint exports only a single state

Differencing disks in a checkpoint hierarchy are merged

Live export you can export while a virtual

machine is running
Update integration services after import

Discard memory content and saved state from different

Demonstration: Working with Checkpoints

In this demonstration, you will see how to
work with checkpoints

Issues with Checkpoints in Distributed

Environments
Applying a checkpoint takes a virtual machine back

to a previous state
Can have serious implications and result in
corruption

Vector-clock synchronizations are impacted

Distributed applications depending on increasing logical clock

AD DS, DFS Replication, SQL Server replication

Applying checkpoint rolls back the logical clock

Members of replica set to not converge to the same state

Cryptography - reducing entropy of the random data

Distributed applications using vector clock algorithms
have no awareness of running in a virtual
environment
Removes changes in virtual machine as if they never
happened

Issues with Checkpoints in Distributed

Environments
DC2

DC1

T1

Create
Checkpoint

USN: 100
ID: A

RID Pool: 500 - 1000

+100
users
Only
50

Time

T2

T3

users are replicated to both domain

controllers. Others are either on first or second
USN: 200
domain controller. 100 users (RID 500-599)
ID: A
Replication to DC2: USN >100
RID Pool: 600 - 1000
have duplicated SIDs.

Apply T1
Checkpoint

DC1(A)

@USN =
200

USN: 100
ID: A

RID Pool: 500 - 1000

+150 users
USN: 250

T4

ID: A

RID Pool: 650 - 1000

Replication to DC2: USNs >200

DC1(A)

@USN =
250

Checkpoints and Virtual Machine

Generation ID
Designed to address issues of reverting to a past state

64-bit integer tied to a virtual machine configuration

Generation ID passed to a virtual machine in the BIOS

Application can compare current and previous values

If values differ, then something happened to virtual machine

Hypervisor must support virtual machine Generation ID

Operating system in virtual machine must be

Generation ID-aware
Virtual machine generation ID
change

Does not change

Virtual machine starts from

checkpoint

Virtual machine is livemigrated

Virtual machine restored from

backup

Virtual machine is paused or

resumed

Virtual machine is migrated

Virtual machine is restarted

Checkpoints and Virtual Machine

Generation ID

Checkpoints and Virtual Machine

Generation ID

Checkpoints and Virtual Machine

Generation ID

Lesson 5: Monitoring Hyper-V

Overview of Performance Monitoring
Monitoring a Hyper-V Host
Monitoring Virtual Machines
Demonstration: Using Performance Monitor
to Monitor Hyper-V
Resource Metering in Hyper-V

Overview of Performance Monitoring

Monitors operating systems and

applications that use system resources

Provides up-to-date information on
performance

Health of the IT infrastructure

Planning for future requirements

Compare current activity with the baseline

Whether current performance is sufficient

Identifying issues

Detecting problems
Proactive (real-time) and reactive (historical data)

Windows Server 2012 R2 includes several

tools

Overview of Performance Monitoring

Task Manager provides local, real-time performance
data
Helps identify and resolve performance-related
issues

Overview of Performance Monitoring

Resource Monitor provides in-depth, real-time
performance data
CPU, Memory, Disk, Network

Overview of Performance Monitoring

Event Viewer shows events that relate to server
activity
Collected locally and remotely
Filtering, custom views, attaching tasks to the
events

Overview of Performance Monitoring

Reliability Monitor provides an historical view of
server reliability and associated events

Overview of Performance Monitoring

Performance Monitor provides real-time monitoring
and viewing of historical data gathered by data
collector sets

Additional performance objects added with server

roles

Monitoring a Hyper-V Host

Only Performance Monitor can monitor

Hyper-V
Many Hyper-V performance objects added
Other tools monitor only their virtual environment

Parent partition is also considered a virtual machine

Memory, disk, and network monitored the

same
\Logical Disk(*)\Avg. Disk sec/Read and /Write
\Memory\Available Mbytes
\Network Interface(*)\Bytes Total/sec

Processor utilization based on available

resources

Hyper-V allocates resources to each virtual

Monitoring a Hyper-V Host

Worker
Process
Worker
Process

Virtual
machine

Parent
Partition
Hypervisor
Hyper-V server

Virtual
machine

Monitoring Virtual Machines

Virtual machine tools monitor the virtual

environment
Heavy utilization in a virtual machine does not mean
that a Hyper-V host is heavy utilized, and vice-versa
Available resources are adjusted based on server load

Memory and disk counters are the same as on the

server
Hyper-V performance counters should be used
Hyper-V Hypervisor\Virtual Processors
Hyper-V Hypervisor Logical Processor\% Guest Run
Time
Hyper-V Virtual Network Adapter(*)\Bytes/sec

Limit the processor resources that the virtual

machine can use

Demonstration: Using Performance

Monitor to Monitor Hyper-V
In this demonstration, you will see how to
use Performance Monitor to monitor Hyper-V

Resource Metering in Hyper-V

Track resources used by a virtual machine

or pool

Processor, disk, memory, network

Can be used for chargeback

Resource metering data follows a virtual

machine
Configure by using Windows PowerShell

Enable-VMResourceMetering, Measure-VM

Average CPU usage

Average physical memory usage
Minimum/maximum memory usage
Maximum amount of disk space allocated to a virtual
machine
Total incoming/outgoing network traffic for a network

Lesson 6: Designing Virtual Machines for

Server Roles and Services
Planning Hyper-V Host Management
Planning Virtual Machine Management
Designing Virtual Machines for a Domain
Controller
Designing Virtual Machines for SQL Server
Designing Virtual Machines for Exchange

Server

Planning Hyper-V Host Management

Standardize server platforms

Use the same operating system and Hyper-V host

configuration

Use Windows Server 2012 or newer

Deploy a Server Core installation for Hyper-V hosts

Install only the Hyper-V role
Test and apply updates to the Hyper-V host
Implement shared storage and high availability

Implement Cluster-Aware Updating

Automate and standardize administration

Join Hyper-V host to the domain to simplify administration
Implement remote management
Use Windows PowerShell
Consider implementing VMM

Planning Virtual Machine Management

Standardize the virtual machine

configuration

Use virtual disk templates

Copy generalized virtual hard disks

Use Windows PowerShell to create virtual

machines

Plan virtual machines for specific server

roles by:
Considering performance baseline of the physical
server
Configuring similar hardware as for a physical
server
Implementing best practices for each server role

Designing Virtual Machines for a Domain

Controller
Avoid single points of failure

Multiple domain controllers, running on different Hyper-V

hosts

Hyper-V hosts should be as secure as domain

controllers

If Hyper-V host is domain member, domain admin has full

access

Avoid differencing disks

Including checkpoints

Windows Server 2012 detects when a checkpoint is applied

Disable time synchronization with Hyper-V host

Domain controller has its own algorithm for time

synchronization
Use other integration services

Designing Virtual Machines for SQL Server

Plan for enough resources
Memory and processors are most important
Do not overcommit processors
Minimize background activities and services
Use SQL Server optimization
Use large page allocations to reduce memory
overhead
Consider dynamic memory to reduce I/O
overhead
Use the following formula for SQL Server memory

Memory (1%Memory * (NUMA_nodes)) 3%Memory

1GB

Consider setting SQL Server processor affinity

mask

Designing Virtual Machines for Exchange

Server
All Exchange Server 2013 roles can be virtualized
Do not overcommit processors

Physical-to-logical processor ratio not greater than

2:1

Ratio of 1:1 is recommended

Exchange Server 2013 is not NUMA-aware

Provide enough storage

Fixed-size disk, SCSI directly attached or iSCSI

Differencing and dynamically expanding disks not supported

Fixed-size disks can be stored on SMB 3.0 shares

Dynamic memory is not supported

Exchange Server virtual machine checkpoints are

not supported

Lab B: Creating and Managing Checkpoints

and Monitoring Hyper-V
Exercise 1: Importing Virtual Machines and
Working with Checkpoints
Exercise 2: Monitoring Hyper-V

Logon Information
Virtual machines:
20409B-LON-HOSTx
20409B-LON-CLx
20409B-LON-DC1
User name:
Adatum\Administrator
Password:
Pa$$w0rd
Estimated Time: 60 minutes

Lab Scenario
A. Datum is continuing with its pilot virtualization
project. You have deployed the virtualization hosts
by installing Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V in one
of the subsidiaries. The next step is to deploy virtual
machines on these hosts.
Because the virtualization platform is new to A.
Datum,
you need to spend some time becoming familiar with
Hyper-V features and components, including
checkpoints.
As the pilot project continues, you will need to be
able
to monitor server performance to ensure that virtual
machines are configured properly. For now, you will
familiarize yourself with the monitoring tools that are

Lab Review
Can you use enhanced session mode to
connect to all virtual machines?
Can you export a checkpoint while a virtual
machine is running?
Can you use checkpoints in a production
environment?
Which Windows Server 2012 R2 tool should
you use for monitoring Hyper-V hosts and
virtual machines?
How can you enable resource metering for

virtual machines in Hyper-V Manager?

Module Review and Takeaways

Review Questions