Help with my first Hyper-V setup
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Our setup: public library system- 5 staff at HQ-currently using WinServer 2088R2 with AD
Primary use is file storage
We have purchased new hardware and Windows Server 2016 licenses and CALs
new hardware: dell T330, 16 GB ram, 2 TB hard drive, Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1220 v5 @ 3.00GH
Hyper- V server 2016 installed, 5nine manager installed ,Altaro backup installed
Hyper-V manager connecting remotely from Win10Pro desktop
Windows Admin Center connecting remotely from Win10Pro desktop
2 VMS running Windows Server 2016 not activated yet or in use. I can blow this away and rebuild if necessary
My starter questions:
RAm allocation. For instance if each VM got 6B does that leave 4 for the hypervisor? Is there any good rule of thumb?
Hard drive. I have 30GB on C:\ where the Hypervisor OS is installed and most of the rest on F:\ where the virtual disks for the VMs are. Is the 30 too small, too large, about right for Hyper-V OS?
Do checkpoints recover all files or just OS files (kind of like System Restore in desktops)?
I welcome any feedback I am just starting in Virtualization. More questions to follow.Some days my replies will be slow. -
@LJ when you install the drivers into the VM's the hypervisor will be able to manage the RAM allocated to each VM. This way you can over-allocate (to a reasonable degree) and be pretty safe and not have to worry about not allowing enough RAM for Dom0.
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@dustinb3403 Thanks. Dom0 is the Host, right?
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Microsoft's documentation states "plan for at least 4 GB of RAM. More memory is better. You'll need enough memory for the host and all virtual machines that you want to run at the same time."
So even providing less should be fine.
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@lj said in Help with my first Hyper-V setup:
@dustinb3403 Thanks. Dom0 is the hypervisor, right?
Correct, I assume you installed Hyper-V to the hardware, and not Server 2016 and then enabled the Hyper-V role. (seems like you got the setup correct).
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@dustinb3403 Yes, Microsoft Hyper-v Server 2016, not Windows server
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@lj said in Help with my first Hyper-V setup:
@dustinb3403 Yes, Microsoft Hyper-v Server 2016, not Windows server
So yeah, you should be fine the way you've set things up, you're administering the server from Windows 10 (expected). Having only a single disk for your VM's to reside on isn't ideal, but if it's all you can afford then just make sure you have a solid backup plan.
Disks do fail often enough (which is a key benefit to using RAID) protection from bad disks.
As for the space allocation between the hypervisor and your VM storage, honestly, I'd just read the system requirements from microsoft.
Any backup that stays on the host (thus isn't properly detatched) isn't a backup. If you need a free backup, use UrBackupPC and setup a tiny Ubuntu Server VM to run it and use remote storage to save your backups to.
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@dustinb3403 said in Help with my first Hyper-V setup:
@LJ when you install the drivers into the VM's the hypervisor will be able to manage the RAM allocated to each VM. This way you can over-allocate (to a reasonable degree) and be pretty safe and not have to worry about not allowing enough RAM for Dom0.
If using Hyper-V and your VM is running modern Windows Server, you don't need to install any virtualization drivers.
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@dustinb3403 I'm not familiar with UrBackupPC. I'll read about it. We should be getting way faster broadband in the next year and by then I hope to have the old server with Hyper-V installed and have it in a branch that has a locked room available. My current thoughts are to install a Guest OS there and have a scheduled backup of some kind from the new server to the remote one. I have a Dell Rd1000 removable HD built in the new server and Altaro seems to use it ok.
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@lj said in Help with my first Hyper-V setup:
RAm allocation. For instance if each VM got 6B does that leave 4 for the hypervisor? Is there any good rule of thumb?
You can and should use dynamic memory unless you have a scenario where it's better to not... but you'd know it if you did.
You can set the ram (startup memory) for both virtual machines to 4 GB, then let the minimum be 512, and the max be 6 GB like pictured below, (but the numbers I mentioned above):
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@obsolesce said in Help with my first Hyper-V setup:
@dustinb3403 said in Help with my first Hyper-V setup:
@LJ when you install the drivers into the VM's the hypervisor will be able to manage the RAM allocated to each VM. This way you can over-allocate (to a reasonable degree) and be pretty safe and not have to worry about not allowing enough RAM for Dom0.
If using Hyper-V and your VM is running modern Windows Server, you don't need to install any virtualization drivers.
That's good to know, but would you honestly skip the drivers?
They exist for a reason. .
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@lj said in Help with my first Hyper-V setup:
I have 30GB on C:\ where the Hypervisor OS is installed and most of the rest on F:\ where the virtual disks for the VMs are. Is the 30 too small, too large, about right for Hyper-V OS?
If you have room, I'd set that a little larger. To allow for updates, or whatever.
On recommendations here at ML I have been using 80GB as my go-to, but that isn't set in stone.
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@brrabill Thanks. I haven't got there yet but I assume there is a way to change the size of all the drives without starting over.
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@dustinb3403 said in Help with my first Hyper-V setup:
@obsolesce said in Help with my first Hyper-V setup:
@dustinb3403 said in Help with my first Hyper-V setup:
@LJ when you install the drivers into the VM's the hypervisor will be able to manage the RAM allocated to each VM. This way you can over-allocate (to a reasonable degree) and be pretty safe and not have to worry about not allowing enough RAM for Dom0.
If using Hyper-V and your VM is running modern Windows Server, you don't need to install any virtualization drivers.
That's good to know, but would you honestly skip the drivers?
They exist for a reason. .
See this link, there is absolutely nothing you need to do inside a modern Windows VM:
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@dustinb3403 Any reason you would prefer UrBackup over Altaro Free or Veeam free?
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@lj said in Help with my first Hyper-V setup:
Do checkpoints recover all files or just OS files (kind of like System Restore in desktops)?
Checkpoints are snapshots of virtual machines. They are point-in-time snapshots of the VM and the VM's settings.
Useful for making a configuration change or installing an update (in the VM). If something fails, you restore the snapshot. Checkpoints should not linger around for more than a day or two. Use backups for backups.
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@obsolesce Makes sense. Thanks.
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I use Altaro VM Backup (Free Edition) and works great. Free edition allows up to 2 VM which you are currently using anyway. If you will need more, the standard is $515 per host for up to 5 VMs.
https://www.altaro.com/vm-backup/pricing.php -
@black3dynamite I like it so far. I can't remember why I tried it instead of Veeam but to seems to work fine. I haven't tried a restore from it yet.
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@lj said in Help with my first Hyper-V setup:
@dustinb3403 Any reason you would prefer UrBackup over Altaro Free or Veeam free?
A bit more flexibility with open source software compared to free but closed source software is all.
