Table of Contents

At customer events a few years ago, we started handing out one-page "Survival Guides" (printed both sides and laminated) with links to important resources. The wiki versions of the Survival Guides are meant to do the same things without killing trees or using laminating machines. This one is for a new feature available in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, in Beta at the time of this writing.

Things to know:

  • You should read the Deployment Guide on TechNet
  • Windows Server Standard and Web Editions are not supported by Dynamic Memory in the SP1 Beta
  • You cannot use RSAT tools for Windows 7 to manage DM nor Remote FX in the SP 1 Beta. The RSAT tools have not been updated yet (during the Beta).
  • Once you enable a VM with DM (using SP1 Beta) that VM will not work on Windows Server 2008 R2 servers. VMs without DM enabled will work on both R2 and SP1 Beta.
  • Migration of VMs Dynamic Memory enabled to a node that does not have Dynamic Memory support will fail (for example, fo Windows Server Standard or Web Editions for the Beta).
  • Migration of virtual machines that have RemoteFX enabled to a node that does not have RemoteFX enabled will fail. To live-migrate virtual machines that have RemoteFX enabled, all nodes must be capable of supporting RemoteFX, all nodes must use identical graphics processing units, and all nodes must have RemoteFX enabled. For details of the CPU requirements for RemoteFX, see see “Hardware Considerations for RemoteFX” at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=191918

How to Upgrade:

1: Ensure Virtual Machines are ready for the update.

Completely shut down (not save state) your virtual machine and merge snapshots. Saved States are not compatible between different Hyper-V versions. NOTE: merging your snapshots may take some time.

2: Update the host.

Install Service Pack 1 on the parent partition, then click Restart. 

3: Update the Guest Integration Services

  1. VMs running Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: Update the guest operating system with SP1 to upgrade the Integration Services
  2. VMs not running Windows 7 SP1/Server 2008 R2 SP1: (e.g. Windows XP/Vista/7 RTM/2000/2003/2008/2008 R2 RTM)
    1. Start the virtual machine
    2.  Connect to the virtual machine, click the Action Menu
    3. Click Insert Integration Services Setup Disk. Click to run the Integration Services Setup.,then click Restart.

Resources:

Blogs

The product group has the definitive series of blog posts on Dynamic Memory, now available in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta

  1. Part 1: Dynamic Memory announcement. This blog announces the new Hyper-V Dynamic Memory in Hyper-V R2 SP1, including requirements.
  2. Part 2: Capacity Planning from a Memory Standpoint. Details issues to consider for memory capacity planning and why.
  3. Part 3: Page Sharing. Detailed discussion about the TLB, large memory pages, how page sharing works, SuperFetch and more.
  4. Part 4: Page Sharing Follow-Up. Questions answered about Page Sharing and ASLR and other factors.
  5. Part 5: Second Level Paging. Details why should avoid this in a virtualized environment, including Performance impacts.

TechEd Demo: Hyper-V and Dynamic Memory in Depth

See Also