Hopefully, you are a completely aware of the support of
GEN2 VMs in Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 R2.
The virtual machine generation determines the virtual
hardware and functionality that is presented to the virtual machine.
Generation 1 VMs
is the legacy VMs that we have been
using over the last years, that provides the same virtual hardware to the virtual
machine as in previous versions of Hyper-V.
Generation 2 VMs provides a lot of new functionality on a
virtual machine, like:
-
Boot from
a SCSI virtual hard disk
A well-known topic about the architecture of Hyper-V is
that the boot partition always had to be associated with an IDE controller in
the virtual hardware profile. This was because it would bypass the integration
service requirements, so that you could boot ‘any’ guest OS on Hyper-V. The
performance was identical as to SCSI controller associated disk when
integration services was present, but it was simply a bypass. This gave us some
challenges regarding new features we got in 2008 R2, like hot-add/remove of
virtual hard disk that could only be performed on VHD’s associated with the
SCSI controller. In other words, only data-partitions could be added/removed on
the fly. Since a GEN2 VM now can boot from a SCSI-controller, we can also
add/remove and resize these disks associated, even if it’s the boot partition.
Please note that VHDX is a requirement in order to use GEN2 VMs.
-
Secure
Boot (this one is enabled by default)
Secure boot is enabled by default for GEN2 VMs and is a
feature that helps prevent unauthorized firmware, operating systems, or UEFI
drivers from running at boot time
-
Boot from
a SCSI virtual DVD
Instead of using an IDE virtual DVD, we can now use SCSI
Virtual DVD
-
PXE boot
by using a standard network adapter (this is for real!)
If you wanted to boot a VM and to perform a remote
installation of the guest operating system using PXE boot, you had to use a
legacy virtual network adapter in the virtual hardware profile – in order to
bypass the integration services (since they were not present at boot time).
GEN2 VMs support PXE boot by using a standard virtual network adapter (aka
synthetic device) so there is no need to install a legacy network adapter,
which has been removed from GEN2 VMs.
-
UEFI
firmware support
The Generation 2 VM has a much more simplified virtual
hardware model and supports Unified Extensible Firmware interface (UEFI)
firmware instead of BIOS-based firmware. This means that most of the legacy
devices are removed from GEN2 VMs.
These are the guest operating systems that are supported
as GEN 2 VMs:
-
Windows Server 2012
-
Windows Server 2012 R2
-
64-bit versions of Windows 8
-
64-bit versions of Windows 8.1
By reading this, I can assume that you can see the
benefits of using GEN2 VMs.
In addition, SCVMM 2012 R2 support GEN2 VMs and we can
create, deploy (newly VMs or/and based on templates) through powershell and the
GUI.
Please note: Services in VMM in System Center 2012 R2 do not
support generation 2 virtual machines. When you create a service template
in VMM, if you have created virtual machine templates (VM templates) that
specify generation 2 virtual machines, you cannot add those templates to
the service template. You can only add virtual machine templates that specify
generation 1 virtual machines. Also, within a service template, in the
virtual machine (tier) properties sheet, properties for a generation 1
virtual machine appear, but properties that are unique to generation 2
virtual machines do not appear.
Since SCVMM is fully aware of your datacenter
infrastructure, it will leverage intelligent placement during VM deployment. This
means that SCVMM will identify which hosts that support GEN2 VMs prior to
deployment (give you a star rating) and help you to avoid faulty placement of
GEN2 VMs.
How to create a
GEN2 VM with SCVMM 2012 R2
1. Logon
to your SCVMM server and navigate to ‘VMs and Services’
2. Click
‘Create Virtual Machine -- > Create Virtual Machine’ from the ribbon menu
3. Select
‘Create a new Virtual Machine with a blank hard disk’ and click next. This is
important, as you can’t use any template with GEN1 as your source
4. On
the ‘Specify virtual machine identity’ page, assign the VM a name and also
specify the generation of the virtual machine. Click on the drop down list and
select Generation 2
5. On
the ‘Configure hardware for the virtual machine…’ page, add an ISO image to the
DVD drive, and eventually adjust any of the other hw settings to meet your
requirements. Please note the absence of the legacy hardware that we had in
generation 1 VMs
6. On
the ‘select destination’ page, please specify the cloud or the host group where
the VM should be deployed
7. Intelligent
placement will work out its magic and detect the best suited host to run the
virtual machine. Click next 3 times and finish to start the deployment
You should now have successfully deployed a GEN2 VM with
SCVMM 2012 R2
The next logical steps would be as follows:
1. Install
and customize the guest operating system within the VM
2. Shut
down the VM
3. Remove
the ISO attached to the VM
4. Create
a VM template with SCVMM 2012 R2 and place it in your library
