No Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell After Upgrading to Windows Server 8?

When I upgraded some of my Hyper-V hosts from Windows 2008 R2 to Windows 8 I noticed I wanted to do some experiments using the Hyper-v Module for Windows PowerShell. So the first thing I did was install the Windows PowerShell integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) via the Add Roles and Features Wizard on my client. You don’t usually install this on your servers.

ISEPosh

 

We opted to restart automatically if required, so we get a warning this server might restart.

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Windows PowerShell ISE is installing

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We are informed of our successful installation.installISE3

That was easy and no reboot required. So we launch ISE and start testing some commands of our new Hyper-V Module. But that doesn’t do much for us. Nothing happens.get-command 1

 

So I try some more commands. But no luck, just some errors that the commands are not recognized or Get-Help can’t find anything of that command.  I also not that for non of the Hyper-V commands I have any IntelliSense support.

Nope2 

No jio

So it seams the Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell is not installed. But I can’t make that out from the Roles Wizard.

I needed to get this going fast so I uninstalled the Hyper-V role and than added it again. That did the trick as now the Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell is also installed because I can execute commands

Success.

 

Just install the Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell via Features

But after discussing this with Microsoft it turns out that uninstalling and reinstalling the Hyper-V role is not necessary at all. You see when you upgrade a Window 2008 R2 node to Windows 8 it does not install Hyper-V by default as this would change the original install base and they try not to install features you didn’t have before during an upgrade. On a clean install where you add the Hyper-V role you won’t have this issue as the Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell is installed by default. What confused me is that I didn’t see an option under Roles to add Role Services to roles as I was used to do in Windows 2008 R2. There is no sub tree or anything.

Hyper-VRoleIInstalled

 

I was thinking along the same path in Windows 8 but here we can find it in the in “Add Roles and Features Wizard” under Features / Remote Server Administration Tools sub tree. That has two entries. One for Feature Administration Tools and one for Role Administration tools and und the latter we find the Hyper-V Management Tools with Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell. Just a tip Smile

You can add it your self after the upgrade by going to Server Manager and starting the Add Roles & Features Wizard.

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You go through the normal steps and select to install Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell.

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We are asked for confirmation of our request actions.

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The Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell is being installed.

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And we have a successful install. We can start scripting on that node right way Smile

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Happy scripting!

Upgrading Hyper-V Cluster Nodes to Windows Server 2012 (Beta) – Part 1

This is a multipart series based on some lab test & work I did.

  1. Part 1 Upgrading Hyper-V Cluster Nodes to Windows Server 2012 (Beta) – Part 1
  2. Part 2 Upgrading Hyper-V Cluster Nodes to Windows Server 2012 (Beta) – Part 2
  3. Part 3 Upgrading Hyper-V Cluster Nodes to Windows 8 (Beta) – Part 3

After I got back from the MVP Summit 2012 in Bellevue/Redmond I could wait to start playing with a Windows 8 Hyper-V cluster so I decided to upgrade my Windows 2008 R2 cluster nodes to Windows 8. That means evicting them on by one, upgrading them and adding them to a new Windows 8 cluster. As we can build a one node cluster this can be done a node at the time. This isn’t a fail proof definite “How To”, I’m just sharing what I did.

Evicting a node

Before evicting a node make sure all virtual machines are running on the other node(s). As you can see the cluster warrior has 2 nodes, crusader & saracen (I was listening to some Saxon heavy metal at the time I built that lab setup). We evacuated node saracen prior to evicting it.

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Evict the node & confirm when asked.

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When this is done all storage is off line to the node evicted from the cluster. No need to worry about that.

Upgrade that node to Windows 8

To anyone having installed/upgraded to Windows 2008 R2 this should all be a very recognizable experience. Being lazy, I left the iSCSI initiator configuration in there with the Hyper-V & failover cluster roles installed during the upgrade. Now for production environments I like to build my nodes from scratch to have an exactly known, new and clean installation base. But for my test lab at home I wanted to get it done as fast as possible. If only the days had more hours …For extra safety you can pull the plug (or disable the switch ports) on your iSCSI or FC connections and make sure no storage is presented to the node during the upgrade process. Now please do mind is use Intel server grade NIC adaptors for which Windows 8 beta has drivers. Your situation may vary so I can’t guarantee the 7 year old FC HBA in your lab server will just work, OK!?

So run setup.exe from the Windows 8 (Beta) ISO you extracted to a folder on the server or  from the (bootable) USB you created with the downloaded ISO.

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The Windows Setup installer will start.

04 run setup

 

Click on “Install now” to proceed and start the setup process.

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Select to “Go online to get the latest updates for Setup (Recommended)”

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So it looks for updates on line.

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It didn’t find any but that’s OK.

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Select the installation you want. I went with for Server with a GUI as I want screen shots. But as I wrote in the blog post Windows 8 Server With GUI, Minimal Server Interface & Server Core Lesson with the Desktop Experience Feature you can turn it into a Server Core Installation and back again now. So no regrets with any choice you make here, which is a nice improvement that can save us a lot of time.

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Accept the EULA

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We opt to upgrade (in production I go for a clean install)

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I get notified that I have to remove PerfectDisk. I had an evaluation copy of Raxco PerfectDisk installed I used to do some testing with redirected CSV traffic and defragmentation (see Some Feedback On How to defrag a Hyper-V R2 Cluster Shared Volume).

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So the upgrade was cancelled.

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I uninstalled PerfectDisk but still it was a no go. I  had to remove all traces of it in the registry & files systems that the uninstall left or the upgrade just wouldn’t start. But after that it worked.

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That means we can kick of the upgrade! It all looks very familiar Smile It takes a couple of reboots and some patience. But all in all it’s a fast process.

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After this step it takes a couple of reboots and some patience. But all in all it’s a fast process. After some reboots and a screen that goes dark in between those …we get our restyled beta fish.

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And voila we’re where we need to be … Smile

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After the upgrade process I ran into one error. The GUI for Failover Clustering would not start. The solution if found for that was simply to remove that role and add it again. That did the trick.

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So this was a description of the first steps to transition a  Windows 2008 R2 SP1 cluster to a  Windows 8 (Beta) Cluster. As seen we evict the nodes one by one to upgrade them or do a clean install. In the latter case you’ll need to do the iSCSI initiator configuration again,  install the Failover Cluster role and in the case of a Hyper-V cluster the Hyper-V role. The nodes can than be added to a new Windows 8 cluster, starting out with a one node cluster. More on that in the second part of this blog post.

Windows 8 Hyper-V Improved Integration Services Setup

In Windows 8 Beta there is a nice and functional improvement in Hyper-V Manager when you want to install or upgrade the Integration Services. It shows you what version (if any) is installed and if an upgrade is needed or not. Until now it just “mentioned” that “a previous” (no version, could be the latest one) were installed and happily let you reinstall them needed or not. Begs the questions how does this all deal with “corrupted” integration services if such a thing exists. I, personally, have never seen it. Uninstall/reinstall I guess when you come across it as I don’t know of a forced/repair install option.

Walkthrough of The Improved Integration Services Setup

In the Virtual Machine console navigate to Action and select “Insert Integration Services Setup Disk”

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In the Virtual Machine console you’ll see that inserting the integration services disk succeeded.

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Like before, if the setup process doesn’t start automatically just navigate to the DVD and kick start it yourself.

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As you can see below it now shows what version (if any) of the integration services is already installed and asks you if you want to update. In the example below you can see it has the Windows 2008 R2 SP1 version of the integration services. This is as expected as this machine (a W2K3R2SP2 guest) was imported from a Hyper-V cluster running that Windows 2008 R2 SP1.

Integration Comopnents

 

You click OK and the installation process for the integration services will start.

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When the installation is done you’ll be notified that the virtual machines needs to restart.

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The server will reboot and if you then try to install the integration services again it will notify you that it has already the correct version of the integration tools running.

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Remarks

If you hit an error in the Beta of Windows 8 Hyper-V I advise two things I have experienced myself in the labs.

  1. Make sure you have enough disk space. I had one test server that had only a few MB left on the C partition and that bit me Smile
  2. Make sure you do it after a clean reboot. Just to make sure you have no pending hardware detection/installs lingering around. I experienced this one on a Windows 2003 R2 SP2 guest. Error code 1618, yup that means Another installation is already in progress.

04

Windows 8 Hyper-V Cluster Beta Teaser

What does an MVP do after a day of traveling back home from the MVP Summit 2012 in Redmond? He goes to bed and gets up early next morning to upgrade his Windows 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V Cluster to Windows 8. That means when I boot the lab nodes these days I get greeted by the “beta fish” we knew from Windows 2008 R /Windows 7 but it’s “metro-ized”

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Here is a teaser screenshot from concurrent Live Migrations in action on a new Windows Server 8 Beta Hyper-V cluster in the lab. As you can see this 2 node cluster is handling 2 concurrent Live Migrations at the time. The other guests are queued. The number of Live Migrations you can do concurrently is dictated by how much bandwidth you want to pay for. In the lab that isn’t very much as you can see Winking smile.

ConcurrentLiveMigrations

In Hyper-V 3.0 you can choose the networks to use for Live Migrations with a preference order. Just like it was in W2K8R2. So if you want more bandwidth you’ll have to team some NIC ports together or put more NICs in and you should be fine. It does not use multichannel. You have to keep in mind that each live migration only utilizes a single network connection, even if multiple interfaces are provided or network teaming is enabled.  If there are multiple simultaneous live migrations, different migrations will be put on different network connections.

If the Live Migration network should become unavailable the CSV network in this example will take over. The CSV & the Live Migration network serve as each others redundant backup network.

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There is more to come but I have only 24 hours in a day and they are packed. Catch you later!