PowerShell

Remotely Enable RDP

/ Mitch Garvis / Leave a comment

Like most IT Managers I manage myriad servers, most of which are both remote and virtual.  So when I configure them initially I make sure that I can manage them remotely… including in most cases the ability to connect via RDP (Remote Desktop).

But what happens if you have a server that you need to connect to, but does not have RDP enabled?  Using PowerShell it is rather simple to enable the RDP feature remotely:

Enter-PSSession -ComputerName computername.domain.com –Credential domain\username
Set-ItemProperty -Path ‘HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server’-name “fDenyTSConnections” -Value 0
Enable-NetFirewallRule -DisplayGroup “Remote Desktop”
Set-ItemProperty -Path ‘HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp’ -name “UserAuthentication” -Value 1

That should get you going.  Good luck!

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Step by Step: Adding the GUI to Windows Server Core

/ Mitch Garvis / 2 Comments

HELP! Mitch, you told me that I should learn Server Core and I am trying, but you also told me that it wasn’t a problem to add the GUI back into a Server Core machine if I really needed it.  How do I do that?

This is a question I have gotten a few times from readers and students.over the past year.  There are a few of ways to do it, and depending on your situation you may need to try both of them.

Method 1: No problem!

You installed Windows Server with the full GUI previously, and then you removed the GUI.  This is the simplest scenario for our problem.  Here goes:

  1. Open PowerShell (powershell.exe)
  2. Run the cmdlet: Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra,Server-Gui-Shell /reboot
      Now, if you are really deathly afraid of the command line, you can connect to a server with

Server Manager

      and use the

Add Roles and Features

    wizard.  Either way will work just fine.  However here’s the catch… both of them depend on the bits for the GUI being on the server’s hard drive.  If you never installed the GUI then they won’t be.  At this point you have to move on to…

Method 2: Still no problem 🙂

powershell_2 You dove in head first, decided to get right into Server Core.  That’s just how you role.  Unfortunately you discovered something that made you backpedal.  No problem, many fine IT Pros have made worse false- starts than this.  It won’t be difficult, all you have to do is add the GUI features.  However since the bits are not on the drive, you have to add a source.  Follow these steps and you’ll be on your way!

      1. Create a folder on the C Drive: MD c:\mount
      2. Check the index number for Server Datacenter (must be performed in a Command Prompt with Elevated privileges): Dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:<drive>:sources\install.wim
      3. Mount the WIM file to the previously created directory using this command at the same elevated command prompt: Dism /mount-wim /WimFile:<drive>:\sources\install.wim /Index:<#> /MountDir:c:\mount /readonly
      4. Start PowerShell and run this cmdlet: Install-WindowsFeature Server-Gui-Mgmt-Infra,Server-Gui-Shell –Restart –Source c:\mountdir\windows\winsxs

(For the fun of it, PowerShell will accept your Command Prompt commands, so you can do all of the above in a PowerShell window.)

    Again, if you have been soooo spooked by Server Core that you cannot bear to do this in the command prompt, do the following:
      1. Connect to a GUI-based server (or Windows 8.1 system with RSAT Tools) and open the

Server Manager

    .
      2. Right-click

All Servers

      and click

Add Servers

    3. Find and add your Server, ensuring that it reports as On-line.
      4. Click on

Manage

      and from the drop-down menu select

Add Roles and Features

    .
      5. In the

Before you begin

      page click

Next

    .
      6. In the

Select installation type

      page click

Next

    .
      7. In the

Select destination server

      page select your Server Core machine from the list and click

Next

    .
      8. In the

Select server roles

      page click

Next

    .

9. In the Select features page scroll down to User Interfaces and Infrastructure.  Expand the selection, then select Graphical Management Tools and Infrastructure and Server Graphical Shell.  Click Next.

Capture-1 10. In the Confirm installation selections page click on Specify an alternate source path .

11. In the Specify Alternate Source Path page enter the path to the installation media, then click OK.

12. In the Confirm installation selections page select the checkbox marked Restart the destination server automatically if required.

13. Click Install.

That’s it… your server will reboot with the full GUI.  honestly I don’t expect you will be doing this very often – I truly feel that Server Core is the way to go with the vast majority of servers going forward.  However isn’t it nice to know that you have the option should you really need it?

…Oh, and please, for G-d’s sake, if you are re-installing the GUI at least try the PowerShell method!

Building the IT Camp with PowerShell Revisited

/ Mitch Garvis / Leave a comment

I always said I am not hard to please… I only need perfection.  So when I wrote my PowerShell script to build my environment the other day I was pleased with myself… until I realized a huge flaw in it.  Generation 1.

Actually to be fair, there is nothing wrong with Generation 1 virtual machines in Hyper-V; they have served us all well for several years.  However how could I claim to live on the bleeding edge (Yes, I have made that claim many times) and yet stay safe with Generation 1?

In the coming weeks Windows Server 2012 R2 will become generally available.  One of the huge changes that we will see in it is Generation 2 virtual machine hardware.  Some of the changes in hardware levels include UEFI, Secure Boot, Boot from SCSI, and the elimination of legacy hardware (including IDE controllers and Legacy NICs).

Of course, since Generation 1 hardware is still fully supported, we need to identify when we create the VM which Generation it will be, and this cannot later be changed.

I had forgotten about this, and when I created the script (of which I was quite proud) I did not think of this.  It was only a few hours later, as I was simultaneously installing nine operating systems, that I noticed in the details pane of my Hyper-V Manager that all of my VMs were actually Gen1.

Crap.

Remember when I said a couple of paragraphs ago that the generation level cannot be changed?  I wasn’t kidding.  So rather than living with my mistake I went back to the drawing board.  I found the proper cmdlet switches, and modified my script accordingly.

As there is a lot of repetition in it, I am deleing six of the nine VMs from the list.  You are not missing out on anything, I assure you.

# Script to recreate the infrastructure for the course From Virtualization to the Private Cloud (R2).
# This script should be run on Windows Server 2012 R2.
# This script is intended to be run within the Boot2VHDX environment created by Mitch Garvis
# All VMs will be created as Generation 2 VMs (except the vCenter VM for which it is not supported).
# All VMs will be configured for Windows Server 2012 R2
# System Center 2012 R2 will be installed.

# Variables

$ADM = "Admin"                # VM running Windows 8.1 (for Administration)
$ADMMIN = 512MB                # Minimum RAM for Admin
$ADMMAX = 2GB                # Maximum RAM for Admin
$ADMVHD = 80GB                # Size of Hard Drive for Admin

$SQL = "SQL"                # VM (SQL Server)
$SQLMIN = 2048MB            # Minimum RAM assigned to SQL
$SQLMAX = 8192MB            # Maximum RAM assigned to SQL
$SQLCPU = 2                # Number of CPUs assigned to SQL
$SQLVHD = 200GB                # Size of Hard Drive for SQL

$VCS = "vCenter"             # VM (vSphere vCenter Cerver) (Windows Server 2008 R2)
$VCSMIN = 2048MB             # Minimum RAM assigned to vCenter
$VCSMAX = 4096MB             # Maximum RAM assigned to vCenter
$VCSCPU = 2                 # Number of CPUs assigned to vCenter
$VCSVHD = 200GB                # Size of Hard Drive for vCenter

$VMLOC = "C:\HyperV"            # Location of the VM and VHDX files

$NetworkSwitch1 = "CorpNet"        # Name of the Internal Network

$W81 = "E:\ISOs\Windows 8.1 E64.iso"            # Windows 8.1 Enterprise
$WSR2 = "E:\ISOs\Windows Server 2012 R2.iso"        # Windows Server 2012 R2
$W2K8 = "E:\ISOs\Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.iso"     # Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

# Create VM Folder and Network Switch
MD $VMLOC -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$TestSwitch1 = Get-VMSwitch -Name $NetworkSwitch1 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue; if ($TestSwitch1.Count -EQ 0){New-VMSwitch -Name $NetworkSwitch1 -SwitchType Internal}

# Create & Configure Virtual Machines
New-VM -Name $ADM -Generation 2 -Path $VMLOC -MemoryStartupBytes $ADMMIN -NewVHDPath $VMLOC\$ADM.vhdx -NewVHDSizeBytes $ADMVHD -SwitchName $NetworkSwitch1
Set-VM -Name $ADM -DynamicMemory -MemoryMinimumBytes $ADMMIN -MemoryMaximumBytes $ADMMAX
Add-VMDvdDrive $ADM | Set-VMDvdDrive -VMName $ADM -Path $W81

New-VM -Name $SQL -Generation 2 -Path $VMLOC -MemoryStartupBytes $SQLMIN -NewVHDPath $VMLOC\$SQL.vhdx -NewVHDSizeBytes $SQLVHD -SwitchName $NetworkSwitch1
Set-VM -Name $SQL -DynamicMemory -MemoryMinimumBytes $SQLMIN -MemoryMaximumBytes $SQLMAX -ProcessorCount $SQLCPU
Add-VMDvdDrive $SQL | Set-VMDvdDrive -VMName $SQL -Path $WSR2

New-VM -Name $VCS -Path $VMLOC -MemoryStartupBytes $VCSMIN -NewVHDPath $VMLOC\$VCS.vhdx -NewVHDSizeBytes $VCSVHD -SwitchName $NetworkSwitch1
Set-VM -Name $VCS -DynamicMemory -MemoryMinimumBytes $VCSMIN -MemoryMaximumBytes $VCSMAX -ProcessorCount $VCSCPU
Set-VMDvdDrive -VMName $VCS -Path $W2K8

#Start Virtual Machines
Start-VM $ADM
Start-VM $SQL
Start-VM $VCS

In the script you can see a few differences between my original script (in the article) and this one.  Firstly on all machines that are running Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2 I have set the switch –Generation 2.  That is simple enough.

Adding the virtual DVD was a little trickier; with Generation 1 hardware there was a ready IDE port for you to connect the .ISO file to.  In Gen 2 it is all about SCSI, so you have to use the Add-VMDvdDrive cmdlet, and then connect the .ISO file (Set-VMDvdDrive –VMName <Name> –Path <ISO Path>.  Not only for simplicity but also to demonstrate that you can I have put these two cmdlets on a single line, connected with a pipe (the | key).

I want to thank a couple of colleagues for helping me out with the Generation 2 hardware and DVD issues… especially Sergey Meshcheryakov , who was quick to answer.  The exact cmdlet switches were not easy to track down!

…and remember, if I can learn it, so can you!  Even the great Sean Kearney once did not know anything about PowerShell… and now look at him!

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Creating a New AD Forest in Windows Server Core (Revisited)

/ Mitch Garvis / 1 Comment

Several years ago Steve Syfuhs and I sat down and figured out how to create a new Active Directory forest in Windows Server Core.  It was an interesting experience, and even though I later gave rights to that article to the Canadian IT Pro Team (at the time it was Damir Bersinic) when you search Bing.com for the term ‘Create AD Forest Server Core’ my article still comes up first.

R2 I have gotten a bit more adept with the command prompt of late (especially with my diving into Windows PowerShell recently, but even before), so when I had the need to create a new AD Forest for a courseware environment I am building, I decided to revisit this topic, and see what changes I could make.

In 2009 I had to create an answer file, or at least I believed I did.  It turns out that now I can get away with one command line string, which is as follows:

dcpromo /InstallDNS:yes /NewDomain:forest /NewDomainDNSName:alpineskihouse.com

/DomainNetBIOSName:SKI /ReplicaOrNewDomain:domain /RebootOnCompletion:yes

/SafeModeAdminPassword:P@ssword

For the record I had to break up the text into three lines, but obviously this should all be typed onto a single line.

Warnings:

The first time I ran this command it failed.  I suspect this is because I had a DHCP address assigned.  Before embarking on this trip, I suggest you assign a static IP address to your Server Core box.  While it is simpler to do it with the sconfig text-mode configuration menu tool, you can also use the following netsh command:

netsh interface ipv4 set address name=”Local Area Connection” source=static address=172.16.0.10 mask=255.255.0.0 gateway=172.16.0.1

At this point you should be ready to go… remember that with Windows Server 2012 (and R2) once you have the OS installed it is easy to manage it remotely using either PowerShell or the Server Manager console.  Just make sure you have the right credentials, and you are good to go!

Related articles

Building an IT Camp with PowerShell

/ Mitch Garvis / 2 Comments

I have been telling people for a couple of years that if they want to ensure a good future in the IT field there are two things to learn: System Center and PowerShell.  I unfortunately am quite good with one, but have been referring to myself as a scripting luddite for quite some time.  It is just something that I have not had the chance to learn.  After all, as a trainer and (Virtual) Evangelist I have not really had a lot of opportunity to get my hands on the type of environment where it would come in handy.

Recently I was in a conversation with a colleague who was complaining that he was too busy all of the time, and was really not enjoying his job because he hardly had time to breathe.  I asked him what sort of tasks he did on a regular basis, and when he told me my answer was simple: ‘If you have to do a task only once, do it manually.  If you might have to do it twice or more… automate it.’  In other words, learn PowerShell.

As I walked away from that meeting I realized that I was a hypocrite.  I built the labs for my course, From Virtualization to the Private Cloud, by hand, and every time I had to rebuild the environment I was doing it manually.  Considering the scope of what was involved I was not only being a hypocrite, I was being stupid.

Time is money, and time wasted is money lost.  I was scheduled to teach a four hour seminar on Hyper-V at the end of last week, and I decided that I was going to include some PowerShell management into that session.  I sat down and learned the basics, and that resulted not only in a better for the attendees last Friday, but also in an article titled Managing Hyper-V Virtual Machines with Windows PowerShell.  I started with some basics, how to start and stop VMs, how to check the VM memory, things like that.  I then expanded into creating a virtual machine, and adjusting the settings for it.  I was thrilled to be able to do all of this from the command line.

Okay, that was great, but now I needed to create a script that would really help me.  I knew there wouldn’t be anything on-line that would be exactly what I needed, but I was sure I would find the basics out there.  I found a great article by Neil Tucker on how he builds a couple of virtual machines for his course 50331 (Windows 7, Enterprise Desktop Support Technician).  Neil’s article gave me the basic framework for what I would come up with, including how to set variables for different VMs such as name, memory, and hard drive size.  It even went so far as to attach the proper ISO file to each VM and installs the OS using answer files.  As I already have my hard drives built I didn’t need that… but I was going to take things a little farther than Neil did.

I needed to build a script that would build nine virtual machines, each of which has its own special requirements.  I also needed to ensure that they would be connected to a virtual switch (which I would have to build as well if it wasn’t already there).

Although strictly speaking I do not need my script to create the VHDX files for me, I do want to make sure that each VM will connect to my pre-created virtual hard drive files, so I wrote the script to go through the motion of creating them in the correct place; I can then simply copy over them.

Up to now I have delivered the course on standard laptops (HP EliteBook 8570w with 32GB RAM).  However this likely would not be the case going forward, so it was important that I write the script so that I could easily provision new hardware with the course.

Goals:

  1. Create a virtual switch for the course (check to see that it does not already exist)
  2. Create a repository for all course virtual machines and virtual hard disk files to reside
  3. Create nine virtual machines, each with their own settings for dynamic memory, CPUs.
  4. Connect all virtual machines to the virtual network switch
  5. (For extra credit) attach the appropriate OS DVD to each virtual machine
  6. Start all of the virtual machines.

While I thought about allowing the person running the script to choose their VM names, I decided that this would make it confusing for attendees running the courseware labs, where I have set the VM names appropriately.

Here is what I came up with:

# Script to recreate the infrastructure for the course From Virtualization to the Private Cloud (R2).
# This script should be run on Windows Server 2012 R2.
# This script is intended to be run within the Boot2VHDX environment created by Mitch Garvis
# All VMs will be configured for Windows Server 2012 R2 unless otherwise stated

# Variables

$ADM = “Admin”                # VM running Windows 8.1 (for Administration)
$ADMMIN = 512MB                # Minimum RAM for Admin
$ADMMAX = 2GB                # Maximum RAM for Admin
$ADMVHD = 80GB                # Size of Hard Drive for Admin

$DC1 = “DC1”                # VM (Domain Controller) (Windows Server Core)
$DC1MIN = 512MB                # Maximum RAM assigned to DC1
$DC1MAX = 2048MB            # Maximum RAM assigned to DC1
$DC1VHD = 30GB                # Size of Hard Drive for DC1

$SQL = “SQL”                # VM (SQL Server)
$SQLMIN = 2048MB            # Minimum RAM assigned to SQL
$SQLMAX = 8192MB            # Maximum RAM assigned to SQL
$SQLCPU = 2                # Number of CPUs assigned to SQL
$SQLVHD = 200GB                # Size of Hard Drive for SQL

$STOR = “Storage”            # VM (Storage Spaces, iSCSI Target)
$STORMIN = 512MB             # Minimum RAM assigned to Storage
$STORMAX = 2048MB             # Maximum RAM assigned to Storage
$STORVHD = 30GB                # Size of first Hard Drive for Storage
$STORVHD2 = 100GB            # Size of second Hard Drive for Storage
$STORVHD3 = 100GB            # Size of third Hard Drive for Storage

$VMM = “VMM”                # VM (System Center Virtual Machine Manager)
$VMMMIN = 2048MB             # Minimum RAM assigned to VMM
$VMMMAX = 8192MB             # Maximum RAM assigned to VMM
$VMMCPU = 2                 # Number of CPUs assigned to VMM
$VMMVHD = 100GB                # Size of Hard Drive for VMM

$OM = “OpsMgr”                # VM (System Center Operations Manager)
$OMMIN = 2048MB             # Minimum RAM assigned to OpsMgr
$OMMAX = 8192MB             # Maximum RAM assigned to OpsMgr
$OMCPU = 2                 # Number of CPUs assigned to OpsMgr
$OMVHD = 100GB                # Size of Hard Drive for OpsMgr

$ORC = “Orchestrator”             # VM (System Center Orchestrator)
$ORCMIN = 2048MB            # Minimum RAM assigned to Orchestrator
$ORCMAX = 8192MB             # Maximum RAM assigned to Orchestrator
$ORCCPU = 2                 # Number of CPUs assigned to Orchestrator
$ORCVHD = 100GB                # Size of Hard Drive for Orchestrator

$SM = “SrvMgr”                 # VM (System Center Service Manager)
$SMMIN = 2048MB             # Minimum RAM assigned to Service Manager
$SMMAX = 8192MB             # Maximum RAM assigned to Service Manager
$SMCPU = 2                 # Number of CPUs assigned to Service Manager
$SMVHD = 100GB                # Size of Hard Drive for Service Manager

$VCS = “vCenter”             # VM (vSphere vCenter Cerver) (Windows Server 2008 R2)
$VCSMIN = 2048MB             # Minimum RAM assigned to vCenter
$VCSMAX = 4096MB             # Maximum RAM assigned to vCenter
$VCSCPU = 2                 # Number of CPUs assigned to vCenter
$VCSVHD = 200GB                # Size of Hard Drive for vCenter

$VMLOC = “C:\HyperV”            # Location of the VM and VHDX files

$NetworkSwitch1 = “CorpNet”        # Name of the Internal Network

$W81 = “E:\ISOs\Windows 8.1 E64.iso”            # Windows 8.1 Enterprise
$WSR2 = “E:\ISOs\Windows Server 2012 R2.iso”        # Windows Server 2012 R2
$W2K8 = “E:\ISOs\Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.iso”    # Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

# Create VM Folder and Network Switch
MD $VMLOC -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$TestSwitch1 = Get-VMSwitch -Name $NetworkSwitch1 -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue; if ($TestSwitch1.Count -EQ 0){New-VMSwitch -Name $NetworkSwitch1 -SwitchType Internal}

# Create Virtual Machines
New-VM -Name $ADM -Path $VMLOC -MemoryStartupBytes $ADMMIN -NewVHDPath $VMLOC\$ADM.vhdx -NewVHDSizeBytes $ADMVHD -SwitchName $NetworkSwitch1
Set-VM -Name $ADM -DynamicMemory -MemoryMinimumBytes $ADMMIN -MemoryMaximumBytes $ADMMAX

New-VM -Name $DC1 -Path $VMLOC -MemoryStartupBytes $DC1MIN -NewVHDPath $VMLOC\$DC1.vhdx -NewVHDSizeBytes $DC1VHD -SwitchName $NetworkSwitch1
Set-VM -Name $DC1 -DynamicMemory -MemoryMinimumBytes $DC1MIN -MemoryMaximumBytes $DC1MAX

New-VM -Name $SQL -Path $VMLOC -MemoryStartupBytes $SQLMIN -NewVHDPath $VMLOC\$SQL.vhdx -NewVHDSizeBytes $SQLVHD -SwitchName $NetworkSwitch1
Set-VM -Name $SQL -DynamicMemory -MemoryMinimumBytes $SQLMIN -MemoryMaximumBytes $SQLMAX -ProcessorCount $SQLCPU

New-VM -Name $STOR -Path $VMLOC -MemoryStartupBytes $STORMIN -NewVHDPath $VMLOC\$STOR.vhdx -NewVHDSizeBytes $STORVHD -SwitchName $NetworkSwitch1
Set-VM -Name $STOR -DynamicMemory -MemoryMinimumBytes $STORMIN -MemoryMaximumBytes $STORMAX

New-VM -Name $VMM -Path $VMLOC -MemoryStartupBytes $VMMMIN -NewVHDPath $VMLOC\$VMM.vhdx -NewVHDSizeBytes $VMMVHD -SwitchName $NetworkSwitch1
Set-VM -Name $VMM -DynamicMemory -MemoryMinimumBytes $VMMMIN -MemoryMaximumBytes $VMMMAX -ProcessorCount $VMMCPU

New-VM -Name $ORC -Path $VMLOC -MemoryStartupBytes $ORCMIN -NewVHDPath $VMLOC\$ORC.vhdx -NewVHDSizeBytes $ORCVHD -SwitchName $NetworkSwitch1
Set-VM -Name $ORC -DynamicMemory -MemoryMinimumBytes $ORCMIN -MemoryMaximumBytes $ORCMAX -ProcessorCount $ORCCPU

New-VM -Name $OM -Path $VMLOC -MemoryStartupBytes $OMMIN -NewVHDPath $VMLOC\$OM.vhdx -NewVHDSizeBytes $OMVHD -SwitchName $NetworkSwitch1
Set-VM -Name $OM -DynamicMemory -MemoryMinimumBytes $OMMIN -MemoryMaximumBytes $OMMAX -ProcessorCount $OMCPU

New-VM -Name $SM -Path $VMLOC -MemoryStartupBytes $SMMIN -NewVHDPath $VMLOC\$SM.vhdx -NewVHDSizeBytes $SMVHD -SwitchName $NetworkSwitch1
Set-VM -Name $SM -DynamicMemory -MemoryMinimumBytes $SMMIN -MemoryMaximumBytes $SMMAX -ProcessorCount $SMCPU

New-VM -Name $VCS -Path $VMLOC -MemoryStartupBytes $VCSMIN -NewVHDPath $VMLOC\$VCS.vhdx -NewVHDSizeBytes $VCSVHD -SwitchName $NetworkSwitch1
Set-VM -Name $VCS -DynamicMemory -MemoryMinimumBytes $VCSMIN -MemoryMaximumBytes $VCSMAX -ProcessorCount $VCSCPU

# Configure Virtual Machines
Set-VMDvdDrive -VMName $ADM -Path $W81
Set-VMDvdDrive -VMName $DC1 -Path $WSR2
Set-VMDvdDrive -VMName $SQL -Path $WSR2
Set-VMDvdDrive -VMName $STOR -Path $WSR2
Set-VMDvdDrive -VMName $VMM -Path $WSR2
Set-VMDvdDrive -VMName $OM -Path $WSR2
Set-VMDvdDrive -VMName $ORC -Path $WSR2
Set-VMDvdDrive -VMName $SM -Path $WSR2
Set-VMDvdDrive -VMName $VCS -Path $W2K8

Start-VM $ADM
Start-VM $DC1
Start-VM $SQL
Start-VM $STOR
Start-VM $VMM
Start-VM $OM
Start-VM $ORC
Start-VM $SM
Start-VM $VCS

Please remember that until a little under a week ago I had not written a single script longer than a couple of lines.  While I am sure there are efficiencies that can be improved upon, I don’t think it’s too bad for a first go at it.

So now that I am scripting, what do you think you could come up with?  The way I see it, if I could do it… anyone can!

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Managing Hyper-V Virtual Machines with Windows PowerShell

/ Mitch Garvis / 3 Comments

Warning: The following post was written by a scripting luddite.  The author readily admits that he would have difficulty coding his way out of a paper bag, and if the fate of the world depended on his ability to either write code or develop software then you had better start hoarding bottled water and cans of tuna.  Fortunately for everyone, there are heroes to help him!

I love the Graphical User Interface (GUI).  I use it every day in both the Windows client and Windows Server operating systems.  It makes my life easier on a day to day basis.

With that being said, there are several tasks that administrators must do on a regular basis.  There is no simple and reliable way to create repetitive task macros in the GUI.  Hence we can either work harder, or we can learn to use scripting tools like Windows PowerShell.

Along the way I have gotten some help from some friends.  Ed Wilson’s books have provided a wealth of information for me, and Sean Kearney has been my go-to guy when I need help.  There was a time when I was teaching a class and was asked ‘Can PowerShell do that?’  I replied by saying that if I asked Sean Kearney to write a PowerShell script to tie my shoes, I was reasonably sure he could do it because PowerShell can do ANYTHING.  Well one of my students posted that comment on Twitter, and got the following reply from Sean (@EnergizedTech):

Get-Shoe | Invoke-Tie

It makes sense too…because PowerShell works with a very simple Verb-Noun structure, and if you speak English it is easy to learn.

I may be a scripting luddite, but I do know a thing or two about virtualization, and especially Hyper-V.  So it only stands to reason that if I was going to start learning (and even scarier, teaching) PowerShell, I would start with the Hyper-V module.  As a good little Microsoft MVP and Community Leader, it only makes sense that I would take you along for the ride 🙂

Most of what can be done in PowerShell can also be done in the GUI.  If I want to see a list of the virtual machines on my system, I simply open the Hyper-V Manager and there it is.

Get-GUI

PowerShell is almost as simple… Type Get-VM.

Get-PS

By the way you can filter it… if you only want virtual machines that start with the letter S, try:

Get-VM S*

One of the advantages of PowerShell is that it allows you to manage remote servers, rather than having to log into them you can simply run scripts against them.  If you have a server called SWMI-Host1, you can simply type:

Get-VM –Server SWMI-Host1

Starting and stopping virtual machines is simple…

Start-VM Admin

Stop-VM VMM

Again, your wildcards will work here:

Start-VM O*

This command will start all VMs that start with the letter O.

If you want to check how much memory you have assigned to all of your virtual machines (very useful when planning as well as reporting) simply run the command:

Get-VMMemory *

Get-VMMemory

I did mention that you could use this command for reporting… to make it into an HTML report run the following:

Get-VMMemory * | ConvertTo-HTML | Out-File c:\VMs\MemReport.htm

To make it into a comma separated values (CSV) file that can easily be read in Microsoft Office Excel, just change the command slightly:

Get-VMMemory * | ConvertTo-CSV | Out-File c:\VMs\MemReport.csv

The report created is much more detailed than the original screen output, but not so much so as to be unusable.  See:

Making Changes

So far we have looked at VMs, we have started and stopped them… but we haven’t actually made any changes to them. Let’s create a new virtual machine, then make the changes we would make in a real world scenario.

New-VM –Name PSblog –MemoryStartupBytes 1024MB –NewVHDPath c:\VHDs\PSblog.vhdx –NewVHDSizeBytes 40GB –SwitchName CorpNet

With this simple script I created a virtual machine named PSblog with 1024MB of RAM, a new virtual hard disk called PSblog.vhdx that is 40GB in size, and connected it to CorpNet.

Now that will work, but you are stuck with static memory.  Seeing as one of the great features of Hyper-V is Dynamic Memory, let’s use it with the following script:

Set-VMMemory –VMName PSblog –DynamicMemoryEnabled $true –MinimumBytes 512MB –StartupBytes 1024MB MaximumBytes 2048MB

Now we’ve enabled dynamic memory for this VM, setting the minimum to 512MB, the maximum to 2048MB, and of course the startup RAM to 1024MB.

For the virtual machine we are creating we might need multiple CPUs, and because some of our hosts may be newer and other ones older we should set the compatibility mode on the virtual CPU to make sure we can Live Migrate between all of our Intel-based hosts:

Set-VMProcessor –VMName PSblog –Count 4 –CompatibilityForMigrationEnabled $true

At this point we have created a new virtual machine, configured processor, memory, networking, and storage (the four food groups of virtualization), and are ready to go.

I will be delving deeper into Hyper-V management with PowerShell over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

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NOTE: While nothing in this article is plagiarized, I do want to thank a number of sources, on whose expertise I have leaned rather heavily.  Brien Posey has a great series of articles on Managing Hyper-V From the Command Line on www.VirtualizationAdmin.com which is definitely worth reading.  He focuses on an add-on set of tools called the Hyper-V Management Library (available from www.Codeplex.com) so many of the scripts he discusses are not available out of the box, but the articles are definitely worth a read.  Rob McShinsky has an article on SearchServerVirtualization (a www.TechTarget.com property) called Making sense of new Hyper-V 2012 PowerShell cmdlets which is great, and links to several scripts for both Server 2008 R2 and Server 2012.  Thanks to both of them for lending me a crutch… you are both worthy of your MVP Awards!

Why one should be careful with words…

/ Mitch Garvis / 1 Comment

In my class this morning I was espousing the virtues of PowerShell. I sad that it could do ANYTHING, and that I was pretty sure that if I asked him to, my friend Sean Kearney could write me a PowerShell script that would tie my shoes for me. Later in the day I glanced at my Twitter Feed and saw the following:

@Adam_McDougall: @energizedtech Hey! @MGarvis just told us he is reasonably sure you can write a #powershell script that could tie my shoes…

@Energizedtech: @adam_mcdougall @mgarvis GET-SHOE | INVOKE-TIE

Wow… now I just have to remember to import the proper cmdlets 🙂