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The Lab build
You’re now ready to build your lab. Your host laptop will need the following hardware:
CPU cores | RAM | Disk | ||
Minimum | 4 | 6GB | 500GB | |
Recommended | 8 | 32GB | 1TB | |
Host laptop hardware specification for a Hyper-V SCCM lab
The Hyper-V lab will consist of three virtual machines as a minimum:
Machine | CPU cores | RAM | Disk | Role |
A 2008 R2 domain controller | 1 | 512MB | 30GB | Active Directory, DHCP,DNS, Network Policy and Access Services (Routing), Web Server (IIS) |
SCCM (2007 or 2012) with SQL 2008 R2 | 2 | 2GB-4GB | 150GB | Software deployment, OS deployment, configuration baselines |
A client machine | 1 | 2GB | 20GB | Windows 7 or 8 |
Hyper-V guest hardware settings
Be sure to use Dynamic Memory to let Hyper-V scale RAM on demand.
The installation of Windows Server on laptop can be divided in three phases.
Phase 1 – Laptop Build Preparation
- Save license keys with “magic jelly bean”/Everest/Belarc advisor
- Decide what you need to reinstall (keep)
- Backup data and settings: Email and contacts, Web browser, My Documents etc.
- Backup your drivers (copy %windir%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository) or use Driver Doubler
Phase 2 – Build the new machine
- Install Windows Server 2008
- Install missing drivers using the backup
- Install “hardware apps” that will likely include any remaining missing drivers
- Run Windows Update or an offline patch tool
- Install the following 2008 features: Hyper-V, Desktop experience, Wireless LAN, Server backup
Phase 3 – Hyper-V
The final step is to prepare Hyper-V. The major catch is that Microsoft expects the host machine to have multiple network cards, where one is for the outside world and one is for the virtual network. Most laptops only have one network card and wireless, but Hyper-V does not support wireless. This means your virtual machines will have no internet access.
Wireless internet access for Hyper-V virtual machines
The trick to giving your virtual lab access to the internet is simple. You just bridge your wireless to an internal network as below:
To bridge the Wireless Network Connection with the Virtual External Wireless Network:
- Logon with an administrative account.
- Open Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center and click Manage network connections.
- Hold the Ctrl key and click on both your Wireless Network Connection and Virtual External Wireless Network
- On the Advanced menu, select Bridge Connections and accept UAC if necessary
- A new Network Bridge network connection will appear.
Network bridge configuration to wireless internet access from any virtual machine
You now have two options: Assign this bridge to every VM or just use Routing and Remote Access (RRAS). Installing RRAS is easy, but is hidden under Network Policy and Access Services. Then run the wizard to use NAT on the “Hyper-V Wi-Fi” connection. All new machines will then magically get internet access.
Microsoft Security Essentials and Hyper-V
If you have installed Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) configure it to ignore the following Hyper-V files:
Excluded file types: VHD (default C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual Hard Disks)
Excluded processes: %windir%\system32\vmms.exe
%windir%\system32\vmwp.exe
Excluded paths:
- Virtual machine configuration files directory.
- Default: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V.
- Snapshot files directory
- Default %systemdrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V\Snapshots
>Performance Tweaking
There are a few Windows features you can disable to improve performance:
- Disable SuperFetch and Windows Search
- Disable Scheduled defrag
- Disable AeroGlass (and other effects)
- Use PerfMon to check the NUMA node settings for each VM by checking the “Hyper-V VM Vide Partition: NumaNodeIndex” counter.
Interesting article. I’ll have to plan my next machine specs to meet these requirements.
Performance, the last point “check NUMA Node”, great, we check them, what are the desired settings for VM?
Very good article