SUSE virtual machines on Hyper-V

Updated: December 12, 2014

Applies To: Hyper-V Server 2012, Hyper-V Server 2012 R2, Microsoft Hyper-V Server Technical Preview, Windows 10 Technical Preview, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server Technical Preview

The following is a feature distribution map that indicates the features in each version. The known issues and workarounds for each distribution are listed after the table.

Table legend

Built in – LIS are included as part of this Linux distribution. The Microsoft-provided LIS download package does not work for this distribution, so do not install it. The kernel module version numbers for the built in LIS (as shown by lsmod, for example) are different from the version number on the Microsoft-provided LIS download package. A mismatch does not indicate that the built in LIS is out of date.
√ - Feature available
(blank) - Feature not available

Feature	Windows Server operating system version	SLES 12	SLES 11 SP3	SLES 11 SP2	Open SUSE 12.3
Availability		Built-in	Built-in	Built-in	Built-in
Core	2012 R2, 2012, 2008 R2	√	√	√	√
Networking
Jumbo frames	2012 R2, 2012, 2008 R2	√	√	√	√
VLAN tagging and trunking	2012 R2, 2012, 2008 R2	√	√	√	√
Live migration	2012 R2, 2012, 2008 R2	√	√	√	√
Static IP Injection	2012 R2, 2012	√ Note 1	√ Note 1	√ Note 1	√ Note 1
vRSS	2012 R2	√
TCP Segmentation and Checksum Offloads	2012 R2, 2012, 2008 R2	√
Storage
VHDX resize	2012 R2	√	√
Virtual Fibre Channel	2012 R2	√	√
Live virtual machine backup	2012 R2	√ Note 2, 3, 8	√ Note 2, 3
TRIM support	2012 R2
Memory
Configuration of MMIO gap	2012 R2	√	√	√	√
Dynamic Memory – Hot Add	2012 R2, 2012	√ Note 4, 5, 6	√ Note 4, 5, 6
Dynamic Memory – Ballooning	2012 R2, 2012	√ Note 4, 5, 6	√ Note 4, 5, 6		√ Note 4, 5, 6
Video
Hyper-V-specific video device	2012 R2, 2012, 2008 R2	√	√
Miscellaneous
Key/value pair	2012 R2, 2012, 2008 R2	√	√ Note 7	√ Note 7	√ Note 7
Non-Maskable Interrupt	2012 R2	√	√	√	√
PAE Kernel Support	2012 R2, 2012, 2008 R2	√	√	√	√
File copy from host to guest	2012 R2	√
Generation 2 virtual machines
Boot using UEFI	2012 R2	√ Note 9
Secure boot	2012 R2

Note
Static IP injection may not work if Network Manager has been configured for a given Hyper-V-specific network adapter on the virtual machine. To ensure smooth functioning of static IP injection please ensure that Network Manager is turned off completely or has been turned off for a specific network adapter through its ifcfg-ethX file. If there are open file handles during a live virtual machine backup operation, then in some corner cases, the backed-up VHDs might have to undergo a file system consistency check (fsck) on restore. Live backup operations can fail silently if the virtual machine has an attached iSCSI device or direct-attached storage (also known as a pass-through disk). Dynamic memory operations can fail if the guest operating system is running too low on memory. The following are some best practices: Startup memory and minimal memory should be equal to or greater than the amount of memory that the distribution vendor recommends. Applications that tend to consume the entire available memory on a system are limited to consuming up to 80 percent of available RAM. Dynamic memory support is only available on 64-bit virtual machines. If you are using Dynamic Memory on Windows Server 2012 operating systems, specify Startup memory, Minimum memory, and Maximum memory parameters in multiples of 128 megabytes (MB). Failure to do so can lead to Hot-Add failures, and you may not see any memory increase in a guest operating system. In Windows Server 2012 R2, the key/value pair infrastructure might not function correctly without a Linux software update. Contact your distribution vendor to obtain the software update in case you see problems with this feature. VSS backup will fail if a single partition is mounted multiple times. Generation 2 virtual machines have secure boot enabled by default and Generation 2 Linux virtual machines will not boot unless the secure boot option is disabled. You can disable secure boot in the Firmware section of the settings for the virtual machine in Hyper-V Manager or you can disable it using Powershell: Copy Set-VMFirmware –VMName "VMname" -EnableSecureBoot Off

Note

Static IP injection may not work if Network Manager has been configured for a given Hyper-V-specific network adapter on the virtual machine. To ensure smooth functioning of static IP injection please ensure that Network Manager is turned off completely or has been turned off for a specific network adapter through its ifcfg-ethX file.
If there are open file handles during a live virtual machine backup operation, then in some corner cases, the backed-up VHDs might have to undergo a file system consistency check (fsck) on restore.
Live backup operations can fail silently if the virtual machine has an attached iSCSI device or direct-attached storage (also known as a pass-through disk).
Dynamic memory operations can fail if the guest operating system is running too low on memory. The following are some best practices:
- Startup memory and minimal memory should be equal to or greater than the amount of memory that the distribution vendor recommends.
- Applications that tend to consume the entire available memory on a system are limited to consuming up to 80 percent of available RAM.
Dynamic memory support is only available on 64-bit virtual machines.
If you are using Dynamic Memory on Windows Server 2012 operating systems, specify Startup memory, Minimum memory, and Maximum memory parameters in multiples of 128 megabytes (MB). Failure to do so can lead to Hot-Add failures, and you may not see any memory increase in a guest operating system.
In Windows Server 2012 R2, the key/value pair infrastructure might not function correctly without a Linux software update. Contact your distribution vendor to obtain the software update in case you see problems with this feature.
VSS backup will fail if a single partition is mounted multiple times.
Generation 2 virtual machines have secure boot enabled by default and Generation 2 Linux virtual machines will not boot unless the secure boot option is disabled. You can disable secure boot in the Firmware section of the settings for the virtual machine in Hyper-V Manager or you can disable it using Powershell:
Copy
Set-VMFirmware –VMName "VMname" -EnableSecureBoot Off

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