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General DiscussionHave Comments about Hyper-V? (Do not post questions in this thread)

  • Saturday, October 24, 2009 4:45 PMBetterToday Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    In a Windows 7 Forum , Anthony Mann started a discussion enabling users to give feedback on Windows 7 .

    I found this idea very intriguing and that topic is remarkably well used there.

    I believe there are a couple of features on Hyper-V worth being discussed in public so I'd like to start this same kind of thread here. I know I might not be the right person to do this. But perhaps you find this idea worth participating as well... Or the forum owner might want to adopt this idea here.

    Please use this thread to note any comments that you have about Hyper-V. Do not use this thread for any specific question or issue that you are having - it is just for comments or feedback. For questions/issues that require an answer, create a new thread.
     

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  • Saturday, October 24, 2009 5:24 PMBetterToday Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Bad:

    • First of all Hyper-V very much suffers from the lack of USB support.

      Currently it is not possible to route legacy USB hardware through to a VM - not even using RDP if the host OS running Hyper-V doesn't have a driver for the connected device. There are a couple of virtualization scenarios where servers need to control hardware through USB:

      • fax servers
      • Unified Messaging servers
      • print servers

      (All these examples assume that there are different customers leasing each VM with distinct hardware connected to each.)

      Another valid scenario is running a legacy OS in a VM to continue using legacy hardware which isn't supported by the host OS anymore.

      I'd very much like to suggest to add USB to Hyper-V similar to that implemented into VMware Workstation: It should be possible to route USB devices to a particular VM or the host OS. Whenever a USB device is assigned to a new VM or the host, it should be savely disconnected from the previous OS first.

    • Next, running a VM from Hyper-V Manager lacks many features that would be available through RDP.

      So why not using RDP within Hyper-V Manager in the first place? Why are there two distinct approaches necessary?

      I'd like to suggest to use RDP from within Hyper-V Manager.

    • You can only monitor a single machine from Hyper-V Manager.

      Why isn't it possible to monitor all of them at a glance, like Virtual Server 2005 did?

      I'd like to suggest to improve Hyper-V Monitor to provide a list of all VMs incl. screen thumbsnails.

    • VMs have cryptic GUID file names and folders.

      This makes it very hard to track which VM are obsolete and can be deleted from hard disk.

      I'd like to suggest to use the VM name provided by the user for storing these VM files, just like any other VMM does.

    • VM Hard disk files are stored separately from the other VM files.

      Again this makes it very hard to delete a virtual machine manually. It becomes quite awkward to copy a VM to another storage place, too, while hard disk files are stored separately from the other VM files.

      OK, I know that I can manually store these files into the folder created for the VM. But this is very clumsy, because I don't know the VM folder name when creating the VM.

      I'd like to suggest to store a VM's files, including hard disk files, into a distinct folder created for the VM. Let the VM be a compact package. One that can be easily copied, compressed, e-mailed, restored, whatever...

     
  • Wednesday, October 28, 2009 1:38 AMBetterToday Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Installation of Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 is a pain in the arm on Windows Server 2008 R2:

    • Installation is ridiculously complicated.

      Here's the story:

      After downloading Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 (VMM) for a couple of hours, the installer states that "It is highly recommended that you run the Virtual Machine Manager Configuration Analyzer (VMMCA)".

      So I spent another couple of hours downloading VMMCA.

      After I did that, I tried to install VMMCA... But instead of running, VMMCA prompted me to install another software to be able to install itself: The Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer (MBCA).

      So that day it was the third software I had to download without even beginning to install VMM...

      After I finally did that (and shortly before day #1 was over), VMMCA told me to join or create an Active Directory domain.

      I did that and run VMMAC again, expecting to be able to continue now and go home...

      Instead, VMMAC now told me that another prerequisite isn't met: The IIS role is required... OK, so I installed the IIS role as well.

      Again, I run VMMAC, hoping it would now, finally, accept my configuration. And yes, no more flaws were found.

      The next day I was very confident to install VMM now in order to learn its advantages compared to Hyper-V Monitor. So I started the VMM installer to install VMM Server...

      VMM Server setup told me that all hardware and software requirements were met. Great, I thought...

      But right at the very next page VMM told me that it'd require SQL Server to be able to install!

      I didn't want to install the provided, obsolete, SQL Server 2005 edition, so I aborted this setup again in order to install SQL Server 2008...

      Now, after all these prerequisites are met and after I've now reached the database setup screen in order to have VMM setup create its database..... hitting the [Continue] button doesn't work!!! *aaargh* (The button's not grayed out and there is no hint available explaining why the installer doesn't continue)


      I strongly suggest to update the VMM 2k8 R2 installer to automatically detect all missing requirements at once and to work flawlessly.

    • Why does VMM 2k8 R2 come with SQL Server 2005?

      I suggest to bundle it with SQL Server 2008.

      Who is expected to install this obsolete database engine voluntarily with the latest VMM version?

    • Why is VMM 2k8 R2 necessary at all?

      Why isn't all the functionality implemented into Hyper-V monitor?

     
  • Thursday, November 05, 2009 11:01 AMBetterToday Users MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers MedalsUsers Medals
     
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    Currently Hyper-V cannot be run within a virtual machine.

    I believe this should change. For contractors like me it's absolutely necessary to evaluate and play around with Hyper-V, VMM and other software packages of that family from within a virtual machine.

    Most of the time I'm working mobile. Even at those sparse times when I'm in my own office I can't sacrifice a whole computer workplace just for experimenting with Hyper-V while moving to another workplace for work (which becomes necessary as soon as VMM and its infrastructural requirements come into play).

    I suggest to enable Hyper-V to be able to be run within a virtual machine host (like VMware Workstation, Virtual PC 2007, etc.).

    VMware Workstation is able to do so , hence, IMHO, Hyper-V ought to be able to do that as well.