Installing Hyper-V in Server 2008 x64
If you installed the 64bit edition of Windows Server 2008 it is possible to integrate virtualization of 32bit and 64bit guest operating systems into your Operating System. In order to use this you need a processor that supports hardware assisted virtualization. To check if your processor is supported check the Troubleshooting section.
Installation
To install Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 64bit, do the following steps:
1. Start the Server Manager by clicking the Server Manager icon in the systray, or the Server Manager shortcut in directly the Start menu or in the menu Administrative Tools.
2. In the Server Manager click below the category Roles Summary on Add Roles.
3. At the Before You Begin page click Next.
4. Check the Hyper-V role and click Next.
5. Review the introduction and notes and click Next.
6. At the Create Virtual Network page check your internet connection network card to have internet in your virtual pc’s, or leave it to leave your virtual pc’s offline. Then click Next.
7. Review the roles to install and your settings, then click Next.
8. After installing the Hyper-V serverrole, click Yes to restart your computer.
9. After the computer has restarted the Hyper-V setup will be completed. After the installation has completed click Close to finish the wizard.
10. To create, start and configure virtual pc’s go to the Server Manager as described in step 1, expand Roles -> Hyper-V -> Microsoft Hyper-V Servers and finally click your computername.
My own Hyper-V installation
My Hardware: Gigabyte GA-M56S-S3 Motherboard with DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU.
Directly after the Hyper-V Serverrole installation had finished I tried starting a virtual machine, but got the message “The virtual machine could not be started because the hypervisor is not running.”. I looked this error up on the internet, and it came out that I had an old version of my bios software (< stepping 3). Your processor needs at least stepping 3 to run Hyper-V. To check which stepping you currently have download and run CPU-Z from http://www.cpuid.com/.
To upgrade the bios I went to the support site of my motherboard and downloaded the newest version of my bios. First I created a Windows startup disk. After creating the startup disk I extracted the files m56ss3.f4e and FLASH895.EXE to that floppy. Next I rebooted my pc and booted up from the floppy. After the I got the command prompt of the startup disk I entered the following command flash895 m56ss3.f4e to upgrade my bios software. After the upgrade had completed I reset the pc, went to the bios and Enabled hardware virtualization.
“Now my Hyper-V MUST work” I thought, but after clicking Start of a Virtual Machine I again got the message “The virtual machine could not be started because the hypervisor is not running.”!! I did some research, and I found that the hypervisor was not added to my Boot Environment. To add the hypervisor to the boot environment start the command prompt and enter the following command: BCDEdit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto. After you get response “The operation completed successfully.”, reboot your system and Hyper-V should work now! If not, take a look in your Hyper-V Event Viewer (See Troubleshooting) and try to find out what the problem is.
Troubleshooting
Question: How can I see if my CPU supports Virtualization?
Answer: Download the tool SecurAble and look if your processor supports 64bit, Hardware DEP and Hardware Virtualization.
Question: After creating a new Virtual Machine in the Hyper-V section in the Server Manager and clicking Start, I get the error message: “The virtual machine could not be started because the hypervisor is not running.”
Answer: The Hyper-V hypervisor needs to be running. If it isn’t running there are probably errors when starting the service. Errors of the Hyper-V Server Role can be found in the Server Manager under Diagnostics -> Event Viewer -> Custom Views -> Server Roles -> Microsoft Hyper-V. Search the error messages at google or in the Server Virtualization section at the Technet Forums.
References
Tags Server 2008 Workstation
April 4th, 2008 at 9:18
Is it really necessary to update you BIOS if you use a F3 stepping CPU like the AMD Athlon 64 64 LE-1620 (stepping=F3, core= Orleans).
I mean, hardware D.E.P. is default enabled. Any risk that without update of BIOS this will disable hardware D.E.P. ?
Admin: You need at least stepping 3 to have Hardware Virtualization support. I think processors before stepping 3 do have Hardware DEP, but don’t have Hardware Virtualization. In your case you should be able to enable Hardware Virtualization in the bios and use Hyper-V.
April 5th, 2008 at 0:16
Okay. Thank you. Is very hard to find proper information on this for consumer garde CPU’s. You are very correct. It is not hardware D.E.P. that is critical, but Hardware Vistualization (AMD-V or Pacifica).
I read somewhere that with F3 you should be fine. With F2 you need to update your BIOS. Reason is unknown.
But still I wonder. Does the BIOS automatically start to show options for Virtualization once you use an appropriate CPU (>F3).
Will any modern BIOS support this. Any modern motherboard.
So far I’ve no read a manual for a motherboard that mentions these kind op options. That’s why I expect it to appear only after an update of the BIOS to a very recent version.
I am pretty shure now that an AMD ATHLON 64 LE1600 (F3, Orleans)
A prefer another MB already prepared for the Phenom like the ECM Geforce6100PM-M2VGA/R/S AM2+ (Phoenix).
allows Hyper-V in a MB like “Gigabyte MA69VM-S2 AM2 mATX” (AMIBIOS).
Since both CPU and MB are versioned after you setup. But Gigabyte is not yet fitted with AM2+ socket
1) Any ideas on that ?
2) Do you know any link to a website/forum were consumers inform others what combinations of CPU/MB support hyper-V based on the outcome of the GRC Securable tool ?
April 7th, 2008 at 0:23
It is not hard to find out whether CPU supports virtualization or not. Just use CPU-Z.
April 17th, 2008 at 14:37
@Admin (#1): F2 *does* have support for hardware virtualization.
@vanRossum (#2): Reason for BIOS update for F2 is that the processor has an erratum (in software we call it a “bug”) which causes problems with Hyper-V. BIOS update implements a workaround for this erratum. F3 fixed the erratum. See http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2007/12/18/installing-the-hyper-v-beta.aspx and linked article.
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:32
[...] Although Windows Virtual PC just works, you can install Hyper-V [...]
July 16th, 2008 at 0:59
I installed Virtual PC 2007 SP1 instead because Hyper-V disables sleep and hibernation mode. Hibernation is important to me specially when I’m on the run and don’t want to re-open all my applications tools when going back to office-home-office.
I use Gateway T-1616 laptop and Windows 2008 works great on this machine. The hardware virtualization works too.
July 20th, 2008 at 21:25
Hi vanRossum,
I highly recommend you read the Hyper-V guide at http://www.virtualizationteam.com
They had scripted a step by step guide for installing, configuring, & using MS Hyper-V. I have followed it in our installation for our testing enviornment and the installation was really easy. The MS Hyper-V 5 parts series are linked to below. Check it out and hope that will get you there easily just as I were able to do it first time.
http://www.virtualizationteam.com/microsoft/hyper-v/microsoft-windows-2008-hyper-v-rtm-installation-configuraiton-step-by-step-tour-intro.html
http://www.virtualizationteam.com/microsoft/hyper-v/microsoft-windows-2008-hyper-v-rtm-installation-steps.html
http://www.virtualizationteam.com/microsoft/hyper-v/microsoft-windows-2008-hyper-v-rtm-installation-configuraiton-step-by-step-part-2.html
http://www.virtualizationteam.com/microsoft/hyper-v/microsoft-windows-2008-hyper-v-rtm-installation-configuraiton-step-by-step-hyper-v-discovery-part-3.html
http://www.virtualizationteam.com/microsoft/hyper-v/microsoft-windows-2008-hyper-v-rtm-installation-configuraiton-step-by-step-hyper-v-discovery-part-4.html
http://www.virtualizationteam.com/microsoft/hyper-v/microsoft-windows-2008-hyper-v-rtm-installation-configuraiton-step-by-step-hyper-v-discovery-part-5.html
http://www.virtualizationteam.com/microsoft/hyper-v/install-suse-linux-enterprise-10-sp1-component-integration-for-linux-on-hyper-v.html
Hope that get you there.
Enjoy,
Susan
http://www.itcomparison.com