Setting up test lab with Hyper-v

RoyalTech

Quick question or three. It is possible to use Hyper-v to manage virtual machines located on other physical machines, correct? I plan on having a physical server and then a second machine which will house the virtual machines. I'm doing it this way because the box I'm putting the VMs on has 4 times as much RAM and is much more capable of handling a larger number of VMs. Is it pretty straight forward when you are setting up the each virtual machine? I assume it is but I haven't seen much documentation on doing it this way. Most things I have seen talk about setting up the VMs on the same machine that the physical Hyper-v server is on. Thanks in advance.

Essendon

Yep, my test lab for Hyper-v was setup like that. As long as the two physical machines can speak with each other, you're going to be okay. Setting up VM's is pretty straightforward too, plenty of tutorials on the web to help ya. So you are going to be using the standalone version of Hyper-v or adding the Hyper-v role? Either way, enable Virtualization in the BIOS of that machine.

RoyalTech

Thanks, I'm pretty good on the other stuff you mentioned. I actually used virtual box for a little while a couple weeks ago. I was waiting to officially set up my test lab until I finished my new build. I built that box with the intent of holding the VMs of the test lab. At least for now, I will run the evaluation version of 2008R2. I may end up buying my own version of 2012 when my evaluation time runs out for 2008 and 2012.

My new system has 32GB of RAM & an i7 3820, while my other machine has dual Xeon 5472s and 8GB of DDR2. That's why I'm setting things up like this.

One thing I'm not sure how I will do is since I am running my person system on the new PC, I will want to keep the test lab network and the house's network separate. I've got two ethernet ports on the old system but only one on the new system. I'm sure I'll figure that out when the time comes. I suspect it is running the test lab is isolation mode or something like that. I just don't know how to connect the two computers in there own network while having my own OS connected to the house network with only one ethernet port.

jibbajabba

Unless you got a switch which supports VLANing - you could simply use different IP ranges and add additional IPs to the server. So a single NIC can be 192.168.1.0/24 and the other 192.168.2.0/24 for example.

I am not good with Hyper-V - but doesn't it require a dedicated NIC for the virtual network ? If that is the case then it might not work that particular dirty way ...

Might be worth to get an additional network card really ..

RoyalTech

A second NIC is not required as far as I know but it is recommended from what I have read. Situations such as these may be the times where a second NIC becomes necessary

I think it all has to do with whether or not you need to keep your test lab separate from your production/home network

jmritenour

Hyper-V supports 3 different types of networks.

External - uses a physical NIC on the host, allows VMs to access the outside world as well as other hosts on the network.
Internal - does not use a physical NIC, but allows the VM to talk to the host
Private - VMs can only talk to other VMs

So if you only have one physical NIC, you could just use that for remote management, then setup a bunch of Internal networks - which will create virtual network interfaces on the host, and then install RRAS and have the Hyper-V host act as a router so the other physical box can also access the VMs.

RoyalTech

Thanks! That was good info. I remember the three types of networks for Hyper-V now that you mention it. The other part of your post was very informative for me. That will help when it comes to setting things up. That is the answer to my main issue with setting up my test lab.

BTW, I do have two physical NICs on the machine that will host the server and Hyper-V. I don't know if that would allow for another option or not. I'm sure I'll have more questions about your suggestion when I actually set things up.