IMHO, dispersing the storage between the hosts and configuring data replication between them would be the best option.

Creating several tiers for the migration of your VMs is always nice to have - downtime strikes unexpectedly.

good article thanks and handy script

@nerdydad said in Hyper-V Host - Member of the domain or not:

@jaredbusch said in Hyper-V Host - Member of the domain or not:

@tim_g said in Hyper-V Host - Member of the domain or not:

@jaredbusch said in Hyper-V Host - Member of the domain or not:

@jmoore said in Hyper-V Host - Member of the domain or not:

I enable the local admin and set a secure password for everything here as sometimes machines quit responding to the Windows domain controller and I have to have a way to reset things.

By stating that you enable local admin, I want to know how it was disabled in the first place.

I don't know what the issue is here.

When you install Hyper-V Server, you can't log in any way other than local admin. Maybe after you join it to the domain you can disable the local admin account, which is weird to do...

That is entirely my point.

This was supposed to be more of a "Best Practices" question. I really don't have a problem situation in front of me, but wanted to better understand best practices when setting up a Hyper-V host.

I have setup a number of Windows 10 client devices and noticed that the local admin is disabled. I assumed (though never experienced) that the situation would be the same for a Hyper-V host.

Local Administrator account in Windows Servers and Hyper-V is enabled by default. Windows desktops has the local administrator account disabled by default.

@scottalanmiller said in MS Licensing - 3rd:

Just search "Windows 7 vdi licensing" and the MS PDF is the first hit.

So that's where they hide it... in the EULA of a separate product or whatever you want to call it.

But yeah, it's pretty clear in there.

@matteo-nunziati said

this is the list of things provided by the full agent

I wish that chart broke it down by

MS LIS and agent

@tim_g said in Port - Storage Spaces Direct (S2D): SCSI Enclosure Services (SES) needed only on HBA?:

@dashrender

RAID would be provided by SS.

He would need a controller that is pass-through.

Technically S2D is designed to be used by DAS systems (or JBODs if you like to make Scott facepalm), and not internal server storage... even though it works just fine.

There's no problem to use RAID controller instead of a basic HBA as long as you a) patch the registry (see my link below) or use special "filter" driver to report "RAID" bus (sic!) as SATA or SAS, and b) disable write-back cache on BOTH controller and disk itself, so all writes become atomic.

Storage Spaces Direct: Enabling S2D work with unsupported device types (BusType = NVMe, RAID, Fibre Channel). Part 1: Registry hack

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/resolving-enable-clusters2d-bus-type-support-issue-on-some-storage-controllers

P.S. It's a BAD idea to use anything like that in production because as long as Microsoft support will discover your S2D configuration isn't supported they will pull out and walk away with a grin face.

@luismc said in Port - How to go about setting up a client to be virtualized?:

@dashrender said in Port - How to go about setting up a client to be virtualized?:

As for Sharepoint - You don't get that much storage in Sharepoint in O365, so you'll likely be paying for more storage there. Sharepoint also has a number of files per site limit, just something else to watch out for.

For future reference to anyone wondering, I spoke to three different O365 reps today and they said the limit has been bumped to 1 million items so we'll be good for a while!

That's a bit more!

@jaredbusch said in How to Approach Installing Hyper-V SAMIT Video:

@scottalanmiller you really need to think about your still image on these.

Also. I broke down and clicked on this one.

The lead in music was significantly louder than the audio after the lead in. that is bad.

That's been since addressed. Actually both things have. The videos from today (not posted yet) are with a still camera and audio tweaking. My dad does the final edits, and he added the intro music. So hopefully those two things are taken care of in about two videos from now.

@dashrender said in Configuring Windows Server 2016 Core. Part1: Installation:

@jaredbusch said in Configuring Windows Server 2016 Core. Part1: Installation:

@wirestyle22 said in Configuring Windows Server 2016 Core. Part1: Installation:

@aidan_walsh afaik there is no reason to install it as a role. All it does is create unnecessary licensing dependencies.

The main reason some people do it is for auto activation of guest windows machines. That is no reason to ever do it IMO.

If every physical server is a Datacenter license then it is pretty transparent also.

But I still do not feel that Installing in this way makes sense.

Yep, KMS server to the rescue.

Correct. If you are big enough to have Datacenter licensing, spin up another VM and setup KMS.

Open a crontab for the apache user

crontab -u apache -e */15 * * * * php -f /var/www/html/nextcloud/cron.php

@emad-r said in Hyper-V 2016 Server free file server included ?:

@dustinb3403 said in Windows 2016 Server free file server ?:

Not legal. You can't legally use Windows Server for production purposes without it being licensed.

Also I dont see any licensing options for file server role, FYI.

It's not a role. To license the use of any non-hypervisor functionality the license is a full Windows Server license.

@nerdydad said in What Type of Hypervisor is Hyper-V? SAMIT Video:

Guess what version of Hyper-V I have.

0_1501287894163_tick box Hyper-v.PNG

The tick box version and not the right kind. Plus, I can't change this because this is the ERP system. I could just smack somebody.

You can change it by getting a PC set up with hyper V 2016 migrate to that then format the machine reinstall 2016 on the server hardware in migrate back.

@dashrender said in How Many Windows Server VMs Can You Run on Hyper-V SAMIT Video:

@jaredbusch said in How Many Windows Server VMs Can You Run on Hyper-V SAMIT Video:

@msff-amman-itofficer said in How Many Windows Server VMs Can You Run on Hyper-V SAMIT Video:

@jaredbusch said in How Many Windows Server VMs Can You Run on Hyper-V SAMIT Video:

@msff-amman-itofficer said in How Many Windows Server VMs Can You Run on Hyper-V SAMIT Video:

@jaredbusch said in How Many Windows Server VMs Can You Run on Hyper-V SAMIT Video:

@msff-amman-itofficer said in How Many Windows Server VMs Can You Run on Hyper-V SAMIT Video:

@tim_g

@tim_g said in How Many Windows Server VMs Can You Run on Hyper-V SAMIT Video:

@msff-amman-itofficer said in How Many Windows Server VMs Can You Run on Hyper-V SAMIT Video:

Oh and they provide the hyper v integration as cab file (guest agent):
windows6.x-hypervintegrationservices-x64.cab
I cant belive I complained when VIRT IO Tools was repackaged some time ago and they changed some folders in there ISO image, while MS gives you a .cab file and not even an executable.

What do you mean? What VM are you trying to install? You shouldn't need any integration tools at all for any modern operating system on a VM. They come built in and are updated via Windows Update (if running Windows OS)

If you install RHEL or CentOS, you can download a Linux Integration Services .ISO if you need to. You simply run the ./install.sh file. All other modern Linux OSs already have the Hyper-V Integration built in to the kernel.

This is what i am talking about:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-US/help/3063109/hyper-v-integration-components-update-for-windows-virtual-machines

Method 2: Microsoft Download Center

The following files are available for download from the Microsoft Download Center.

Operating system Update
All supported x86-based versions of Windows 8.1 Download Download the package now.
All supported x64-based versions of Windows 8.1 Download Download the package now.
All supported x64-based versions of Windows Server 2012 R2 Download Download the package now.
All supported x64-based versions of Windows Server 2012 Download Download the package now.
All supported x86-based versions of Windows 7 Download Download the package now.
All supported x64-based versions of Windows 7 Download Download the package now.
All supported x64-based versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 Download Download the package now.

Go to the download, and it is all .cab files.

WTF are you talking about. This is not DVD media. You are doing it wrong from the beginning.

Ofcourse I know this is not DVD media, those are the Hyper-V agents that MS wants you to install on your guest machine, MS calls them Hyper-V integration components.

ESXi and KVM Virt IO all provides much better ways to get this installed on your guest machines, and dont provide you a dumb .cab file.

Just because you are not capable of providing a share to get access the files from within the VM does not mean the process is stupid.

Who wants to mount ISO files from the hypervisor all the time just to update software in a guest VM? That is the stupid thing.

Okay, granted what are the commands to create share in Windows hyper-V standalone? I tried and failed, or the only way to do so is to have share outside hyper-V like NAS ? if so both KVM and ESXi can be easier in sending files directly to the host.

I dont want to go to fight about who is the best Virtualization platform cause that is pointless, but my trial wit Hyper-V is everything required 2 extra steps to get it configured. While the competition it can be done with one step.

Why are you trying to put these files on the hypervisor? They have no need to be on the hypervisor. You cannot download them there anyway why are you trying to put them there? The guest VM does not care where they are shared from. Just put them someplace accessible. or even download them directly in the guest VM.

I am not arguing best hypervisor platform. I am simply stating you are doing things wrong and causing your own problems.

I'm guessing that he might be saying that he has no NAS, and doesn't want to create a share from his desktop machine to make those ISOs available to the hypervisor.

ESXi allows you to have a folder on the DataStore that you can then reference. I did this for my ESXi server. Same goes for my XS, I had a local piece of storage on the hypervisor for ISOs.

I don't see an actual issue with this. The biggest one I seem is that you might be using more expensive disk to store ISOs instead of storing them on a NAS.

And Hyper-V lets you access share a folder too. It is all windows, so the admin share is there and active.

\\hypervservername\c$\somefolder

@BRRABill said in Never Install Hyper-V as a Role:

@scottalanmiller

If you went into a one physical server shop with Hyper-V installed as a role and existing VMs in place, would you consider this a big enough problem to redo the entire installation?

Immediately? No. But it would be immediately added to the project list to get planned as soon as convenient.

@Tim_G said in XP: Options in virtualization setup:

Oh should have I posted my reply on SW instead?

He sees it here, too.

@NashBrydges said in Nextcloud Questions:

@scottalanmiller said in Nextcloud Questions:

@brandon220 said in Nextcloud Questions:

I thought about making a new VM using Fedora 25 as the one @scottalanmiller provided the group works so well. I'm just afraid I won't be able to successfully migrate the data.

It's all just a database and filesystem. I've not done this, but should not be bad.

Would this still be possible if you've chosen to enable encryption? I would assume that your encryption key would be different in a new install. I don't remember reading anywhere about how to migrate data from one install to another if it was encrypted (although maybe I've never read it because it doesn't matter). Has anyone done this? Moved users and data to a new install with encryption turned on?

Doing the migration would decrypt on the source before doing the move. So it should be the same. The key would change or not depending on if you move the key.

@Dashrender said in How Do You Use USB HD for Veeam on Hyper-V:

@scottalanmiller said in How Do You Use USB HD for Veeam on Hyper-V:

@JaredBusch said in How Do You Use USB HD for Veeam on Hyper-V:

Don"t use USB disks.

If you want a USB disk that can be removed, use a NAS with a USB port that can replicate data in a certain folder to the USB.

Or use a NAS with Starwind VTL so that you get the behaviour of tapes. And the protection of RAID.

I'm going to have to look at that

It's a cool product.

@obsolesce It's called paravirtualization. And Xen has done it since the 1990s 🙂 Only Xen could do it for the entire VM, not just the drivers.

I should add that this is not exactly true. "Windows Dedupe" is not available in Hyper-V, which might sound obvious, as it is a Windows feature. But Hyper-V does have ReFS which has a new feature in 2016 that is not called dedupe but acts like a really light dedupe option. So while "Windows Dedupe" is not available, there is a dedupe technology available to use. But it's not a great one, it's super basic. But it also has like zero overhead, so can be pretty nice to use even if it doesn't do a lot.

@scottalanmiller said in NextCloud VM with NFS storage:

@dafyre said in NextCloud VM with NFS storage:

@scottalanmiller said in NextCloud VM with NFS storage:

@gjacobse said in NextCloud VM with NFS storage:

@scottalanmiller said in NextCloud VM with NFS storage:

How can you ingest NFS storage into NextCloud?

The Current is part of a VM, NextCloud would be a VM - Why could you not mount both?

How woudl that work? What would NextCloud do with a bunch of random files that have no metadata? They don't exist in the database, what would happen to them?

There's a command you can run that will take a list of files and make them available to a user, I think.

So one user would just get "everything." Or else it's a huge manual process.

Not exactly. Have you ever looked at the file structure of ownCloud/Nextcloud?

Basically in the /data folder there are subfolders per user. You would populate those with the files from the old file server. Then you pop into the CLI and issue this command to rescan the folders and put the stuff in the database.

sudo -u apache php occ files:scan --all -v

You can also do it per user.

I would not recommend ever doing this on an existing system that was not already hosed for some other reason.