Introduction

Windows Server 2019 Hyper-V On DELL UEFI generation 12 Servers boot loop issues are fixed. As many of you experienced Windows Server 2019 installed on UEFI mode BIOS setting on DELL generation 12 hardware (R620, R720) tends to send the server into a boot loop. This was a surprise as it worked well during the previews. The same was reported and experienced on DELL generation 11 hardware. You can read about it in various places like Windows Server 2019 Datacenter boot loops after enabling Hyper-V, Windows server 2019 fails after hyper-v role install and
Windows Server 2019 Boot-loop Problems…

In the end, it was an issue that Microsoft would have to fix and they did in KB4476976. Before that you would have to revert to BIOS to get Hyper-V to work on a generation 12 DELL Server. Today I am happy to report that the Windows Server 2019 Hyper-V On DELL UEFI Generation 12 servers boot loop issues have been fixed

Install using the original MSFT ISO

Use SW_DVD9_Win_Server_STD_CORE_2019_64Bit_English_DC_STD_MLF_X21-96581.ISO, not the earlier one that was retracted.

Clean Install

Install Windows Server 2019 and update it fully, including the latest CU, KB4476976 at the time of writing. Only then add the Hyper-V role.

In place upgrade

In-place upgrades work by removing the Hyper-V role, doing an in-place upgrade and then updating it fully up to KB4476976. Afterwards, add the Hyper-V role again. If the nodes are in a cluster you’ll need to evict it from the cluster and add it again before going through the above process for an in-place upgrade.

Install using a custom built ISO

I refer you the blog of my fellow MVP Philip Elder to learn how to do that. In this case, there is no need to remove the Hyper-V feature like in case of an in-place upgrade or run update after doing a clean install as the correct bits are in the ISO you created to install or upgrade the OS.

Conclusion

I’m happy I can finally use my lab hardware again and even upgrade some production servers. Do note that DELL generation 12 servers do not officially support Windows Server 2019. I will try this out on a generation 11 server when I get the chance.

What are the Veeam community editions?

Veeam is introducing the Veeam Community Edition for Veeam Backup & Replication and Veeam One. It actually already has the community edition for Office 365. Up to now, Veeam offered a free edition of VBR but that was, while good and helpful, limited in use cases. The tech community at large used it for many “one-off” situations. In combination with the free edition of the Veeam Agents for Windows and Linux, you could already protect your physical hosts and the VMs running on them.

With the community edition, which offers offer more functionality and capabilities than the free edition, allows us to get started with Veeam at zero cost. This is a smart move, a small company can leverage the Veeam Suite now without any hassle and if they like it can easily move to a paid version that allows for more users and, if needed, more features and capabilities. Let’s give a warm welcome to the Veeam community editions!

Veeam community editions

Veeam backup for O365 community edition

This was the first community edition that Veeam made available in 2018. It offers full functionality with the following limitations:

• Maximum # of Exchange Users: 10
• Maximum # of OneDrive for business users: 10
• The maximum amount of SharePoint data protected: 1 TB
• Best effort support

Veeam backup community edition

The Veeam Backup Community Edition becomes available with VBR Update 4. I have played with it during RTM and it worked flawlessly in my 100% physical Windows Server 2019 lab and with a mix of Windows OS versions on the hosts. You do not need a license. You just install VBR 9.5 U4 without a license file and you have the community edition. Easy. The Veeam Backup Community Edition has the Standard functionality but it is limited to 10 Instances.

Veeam ONE community edition

The Veeam ONE Community Edition will be released later this year. It allows for only 1 Veeam B&R (paid or community edition) to be added and it has the following limitations:

• Partial application level monitoring
• Partial backup repository heatmaps
• No email customization
• Some reporting functionality is not available
• …

An overview of what you get with the community edition

Look at the matrix below. You get a lot with the community editions, even integration with the Veeam Agents. A freelancer or small company it is an absolutely superb way to get started with rock-solid data protection and a recovery strategy. As a partner or consultant, it is super easy to drop these versions in an existing environment and let the customer get a taste of the licensed editions. If the Veeam community editions do all you need, well that’s it. Enjoy it courtesy of Ratmir Timashev & Andrei Baronov.

In a later blog post, we’ll take a look at Veeam Agent for Windows 3.0 as this version has some nice capabilities that really make it hit the sweet point.

Introduction

THANK YOU MICROSOFT!

Anyone who has had to support developers and IT Pros alike running Hyper-V on their clients and test systems in an environment with 802.1x port authentication knows the extra effort you had put into workarounds. This was needed due to the fact that the Hyper-V switch did not support 802.1X EAPoL. Sometimes it was an extra NIC on non-authenticated ports, physical security for rooms with non-authenticated ports, going Wi-Fi everywhere and for everything etc. But in conditions where multiple interfaces are a requirement, this becomes impractical (not enough outlets, multiple dongles etc. or add in cards).

On top of that, there was always at least someone less than happy with the workaround. 802.1x Support with the Hyper-V switch looks like it could or should work when looking at the vNICs both on the host and inside the VMs. You’ll see that the authentication properties are there, the policies to make it all work are pushed but no joy, authentication would fail

802.1x Support with the Hyper-V switch is here!

Windows Server 2019 LTSC (1809) & Windows 10 (1809), as well as the 1809 or later SAC versions, now offer 802.1x Support with the Hyper-V switch.

This is not enabled by default. You will need to add a registry key in order for it to be enabled. Form an elevated command prompt run

Reg add “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTControlSet\Services\vmsmp\parameters” /v 8021xEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

This change requires a reboot. So, we also give the Hyper-V host a kick

shutdown /r /t 0

When you have a Hyper-V switch that you share with the management OS you will see that the management vNIC now authenticates.

You can also authenticate VMs. Depending on your needs the configuration and setup will differ. 802.1x allows for Single-Session/Single-Host, Single-Session/Multiple-Host, Multiple- Session (names, abilities vary with switch type, model, vendor) and you’ll need to work out what is needed where for the scenarios you want to support, you won’t have one size fits all with port authentication. I’ll be sharing my experiences in the future.

The point is you’ll have to wrap your head around port authentication with 802.1x and its various options, permutations on the switches and radius servers. I normally deal with Windows NPS for the radius needs and the majority of my sites have DELL campus switches. Depending on the needs of the users (developers, IT Pros, engineers) for your VMs you will have to configure port authentication a bit differently and you’d better either own that network or have willing and able network team to work with.

Conclusion

Hurrah! I am a very happy camper. I am so very happy that 802.1x Support with the Hyper-V switch is here. This was very much missing from Hyper-V for such a long time the joy of finally getting makes me forget how long I had to wait! For this feature, I will shout “BOOM”!

With the extra focus on making Hyper-V on Windows 10 the premier choice for developers, this had to be fixed and they did. There are a lot more environments in my neck of the woods that leverage (physical) port authentication via 802.1x than I actually see IPSec in the wild. It might be different in other places but, that’s my reality. With ever more mobile and flex work as well as body shoppers, temp labor that bring their own devices I see physical port authentication remain for a very long time still.