Ben Armstrong’s Virtualization Blog
Hyper-V Program Manager
Gathering Recent Events for a Specific VM
Imagine this scenario: you login to one of your Hyper-V servers and find that something has gone...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 05/20/2014
Quickly Recovering Replication on Hyper-V
Two weeks ago, I had to recover from a sizable power outage. When this happened, my first priority...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 05/19/2014
Hyper-V Replica to the Rescue!
Power outages are not infrequent where I live (something I find quite confounding – to be...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 05/01/2014
Listing all the IP Addresses used by VMs
Here is a neat little snippet of PowerShell: Get-VM | ?{$_.State -eq "Running"} | ...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 04/18/2014
Exporting a Virtual Machine Checkpoint
Something neat that you can do in Windows Server 2012 / Windows 8 or later is to export a virtual...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 04/17/2014
Hyper-V Networking–NIC Teaming
If you look at the advanced features of a network adapter in Hyper-V, you may have noticed the NIC...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 04/16/2014
Understanding Maximum Dynamic Memory from inside a VM
Dynamic memory is a great feature that allows Hyper-V administrators to get better utilization of...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 04/15/2014
Importing a VM with VHDs in Different Paths
I was recently given an interesting challenge. I was asked to show how you could use...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 04/14/2014
Hyper-V Networking–Router Guard
Router guard is another advanced networking feature that was added in Windows Server 2012: When you...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 03/25/2014
Hyper-V Networking–DHCP Guard
If you start digging into the advanced settings section of a virtual network adapter – there is a...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 03/24/2014
My Daily Hyper-V Status Email–Part 5 of 5
After displaying event logs, virtual machine health and storage health – the last thing that is...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 03/21/2014
My Daily Hyper-V Status Email–Part 4 of 5
Now that I have talked about displaying event log information and virtual machine health...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 03/20/2014
My Daily Hyper-V Status Email–Part 3 of 5
Continuing on with my daily status email series; after displaying event log information, my email...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 03/19/2014
My Daily Hyper-V Status Email–Part 2 of 5
Yesterday, I introduced my daily status email. Today I am going to talk about the first chunk...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 03/18/2014
My Daily Hyper-V Status Email–Part 1 of 5
Update 7/20/2015: This script is now available on GitHub at...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 03/17/2014
Protected Networks in Windows Server 2012 R2
One of the new features in Hyper-V in Windows Server 2012 R2 is the concept of a protected network:...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 03/11/2014
Updated Hypervisor Top Level Functional Specification
We have recently published a new version of the Hypervisor Top Level Functional Specification for...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 02/17/2014
Using Compare-VM on Compare-VM
I have been spending a lot of time this week looking at all the functionality that is available in...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 02/13/2014
Using PowerShell to Live Migrate to a Computer with a Different Virtual Switch
So far this week I have shown you how to register and how to import virtual machines with...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 02/12/2014
Importing an Incompatible VM with PowerShell
Yesterday I stepped through the process of registering an incompatible virtual machine with...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 02/11/2014
Registering an Incompatible VM with PowerShell
If you have ever tried to register a virtual machine in Hyper-V Manager, and the virtual machine was...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 02/10/2014
Why is the wrong time displayed on my virtual machine?
Here is the scenario: You have a bunch of server virtual machines that are merrily running somewhere...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 02/07/2014
Cloning running virtual machines in SCVMM 2012 R2
Yesterday I posted about how Windows 8.1 / Windows Server 2012 R2 allow you to export a running...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 02/04/2014
Exporting a running virtual machine
One of the small features that we added in Windows 8.1 / Windows Server 2012 R2 is the ability to...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 02/03/2014
Resizing the boot drive of a virtual machine
You can only resize the virtual hard disk of a running virtual machine if: It is a .VHDX file It is...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/31/2014
Shrinking a VHDX on a Running Virtual Machine
This week I have been talking about how to resize a VHDX on a virtual machine that is currently...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/30/2014
Online VHDX Resize with SCVMM 2012 R2
Yesterday I discussed how to expand the size of a virtual hard disk on a running virtual...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/29/2014
Online VHDX Resize in Windows Server 2012 R2 / Windows 8.1
One of the new features in Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 is the ability to resize a virtual...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/28/2014
New Poster: Windows Server 2012 R2 Private Cloud Storage and Virtualization
Another fantastic poster is out. This one is focused on the storage technology in Windows...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/27/2014
Managing Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V from Windows 8.1
In the past we have always required that you use Hyper-V Manager on the same version of Windows as...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/24/2014
Reading Hyper-V Event logs with PowerShell
Here is a handy tip – it is quite easy to gather any information that Hyper-V puts in the event log...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/23/2014
Using PowerShell to Update Integration Components with SCVMM
Given that the process for updating integration components in System Center Virtual Machine Manager...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/22/2014
Updating Integration Services with SCVMM
As a Hyper-V program manager, I am very familiar with the process for upgrading virtual machines...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/21/2014
Checking Integration Services Versions with SCVMM
I have done a number of posts about checking your integration services versions in the past (here...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/15/2014
SCVMM, Hyper-V Replica, UI and PowerShell
Before I get started on this – I do want to be upfront about the context for this post. In my...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/14/2014
Targeting Group Policy at Hyper-V VMs
I make heavy use of group policy in my home environment. It makes it very easy to push out...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/13/2014
Virtual Machine Stop Action in a Cluster
One of the interesting philosophical debates on the Hyper-V team is “What is the right thing to do...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/10/2014
Disabling VM heartbeat monitoring for a clustered VM
A Microsoft support engineer recently contacted me with an interesting problem. They were...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/09/2014
Virtual Machines not shutting down on host shutdown in Windows Server 2012 R2
Just wanted to let everyone know of a fix for Hyper-V that was included in the November 2013 update...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/08/2014
Automatic Virtual Machine Activation in Windows Server 2012 R2
Automatic virtual machine activation is an easy to miss, but really handy feature in Windows Server...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/07/2014
Local VM Management on Hyper-V Server with FreeRDP
A couple of weeks ago I blogged about the Veeam RDP virtual appliance for Remote Management of...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/06/2014
SCVMM 2012 R2 – Error 2912 NO_PARAM when using Hyper-V Replica
Another early issue that I hit when using System Center Virtual Machine Manager in my home...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/03/2014
SCVMM 2012 R2 and Alternate Credentials
A little while ago I updated my home installation to run Windows Server 2012 R2. This provided...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 01/02/2014
Faster Live Migration–Which Option Should You Choose?
Okay, now that I have talked about faster live migration with compression and faster live migration...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 12/31/2013
Faster Live Migration with RDMA in Windows Server 2012 R2
Today I want to go deep on faster live migration using RDMA. In the past I have talked about...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 12/30/2013
Veeam RDP virtual appliance for remote management of Hyper-V
Hyper-V has a number of options available for remote management. System Center Virtual Machine...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 12/18/2013
MAP Toolkit 9.0 now available
One of the more common questions that I get asked is this: “How can I figure out what I need...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 12/16/2013
Hyper-V Management Pack Extensions for WS 2012 and WS 2012 R2
The Hyper-V Management Pack Extensions – a free extension to the Hyper-V SCOM management pack...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 12/08/2013
Faster Live Migration with Compression in Windows Server 2012 R2
Last week I talked about the fact that we had introduced two new technologies for making live...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 10/29/2013
Configuring Faster Live Migration in Windows Server 2012 R2
On Monday I gave a quick introduction to the faster live migration technologies in Windows Server...
Author: Benjamin Armstrong Date: 10/25/2013