Adding Physical Computers as Hyper-V Hosts in VMM Overview

The operating system image must use a server operating system that supports the boot from virtual hard disk (VHD) option. The operating system choices are as follows:

• If you are using System Center 2012:
  
  Windows Server 2008 R2
  
  Windows Server 2008 R2 with Service Pack 1 (SP1)
  
  
• If you are using System Center 2012 with Service Pack 1 (SP1):
  
  Windows Server 2008 R2
  
  Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1
  
  Windows Server 2012
  
  

For more information, see Understanding Virtual Hard Disks with Native Boot.

To support discovery, the physical computer must have a baseboard management controller (BMC) installed that enables out-of-band management. The BMC must support one of the following out-of-band management protocols:

• Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) versions 1.5 or 2.0
  
  
• Data Center Management Interface (DCMI) version 1.0
  
  
• System Management Architecture for Server Hardware (SMASH) version 1.0 over WS-Management (WS-Man)
  
  

  Note
  If you use SMASH, make sure you are using the latest version of firmware for the BMC model.

Through a BMC, an administrator can access the computer remotely, independent of the operating system, and control system functions such as the ability to turn the computer off or on.

The following sequence describes the workflow and deployment process for converting physical computers to managed Hyper-V hosts.

Note
Links are provided to specific procedures in the last section of this topic.

1. Perform initial configuration of the physical computers. This includes configuring the basic input/output system (BIOS) to support virtualization, setting the BIOS boot order to boot from a Pre-Boot Execution Environment (PXE)-enabled network adapter as the first device, and configuring the logon credentials and IP address settings for the BMC on each computer.
   
   
2. Create Domain Name System (DNS) entries for the computer names that will be assigned to the hosts when they are deployed, and allow time for DNS replication to occur. This step is not required, but it is strongly recommended in an environment where you have multiple DNS servers, where DNS replication may take some time.
   
   
3. Prepare the PXE server environment, and add the PXE server to VMM management.
   
   
4. Add the required resources to the VMM library. These resources include a generalized virtual hard disk with an appropriate operating system (as listed in Operating system requirements, earlier in this topic) that will be used as the base image, and optional driver files to add to the operating system during installation.
   
   
5. Create one or more host profiles in the library. A host profile includes configuration settings, such as the location of the operating system image, and hardware and operating system configuration settings.
   
   
6. Run the Add Resources Wizard to discover the physical computers, to configure settings such as the host group and the host profile to use, to configure custom deployment settings, and to start the operating system and Hyper-V deployment.
   
   
7. During deployment, the VMM management server restarts the physical computers by issuing “Power Off” and “Power On” commands to the BMC through out-of-band management. When the physical computers restart, the PXE server responds to the boot requests from the physical computers.
   
   
8. The physical computers boot from a customized Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) image on the PXE server. The Windows PE agent prepares the computer, configures the hardware when it is necessary, downloads the operating system image (.vhd file) together with any specified driver files from the library, applies the drivers to the operating system image, enables the Hyper-V role, and then restarts the computer.
   
   

The example scenario demonstrates how to convert a bare-metal computer to a managed Hyper-V host. To complete the scenario, you must have one or more physical computers that have a BMC installed, with a supported out-of-band management protocol. Also, the computers must support Hyper-V.

The example assumes that you have already configured the fabric as described in the Preparing the Fabric in VMM topic. If you intend to assign the host a static IP address from a pool that is managed by VMM, a logical network must exist with an associated network site and a configured static IP address pool. If you are using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), you do not need to have a logical network with a static IP address pool configured.

Note
This example uses one bare-metal computer. In a more advanced scenario, you could convert more than one physical computer and then continue on to create a Hyper-V host cluster through the VMM console. To do this, after you complete this scenario, use the procedures in the Creating a Hyper-V Host Cluster in VMM Overview section to cluster the hosts.

The following table summarizes the example resources that are used in this scenario. These example resources are mentioned where they are relevant in procedures in this section, which means they are mentioned in the following topics:

• How to Add a PXE Server to VMM
  
  
• How to Create a Host Profile in VMM
  
  
• How to Discover Physical Computers and Deploy as Hyper-V Hosts in VMM
  
  

Note
The example resource names and configuration are intended to demonstrate the concepts. We recommend that you adapt them to your test environment.

Resource	Resource names
Host names that are assigned to the physical computers	HyperVHost05.contoso.com HyperVHost06.contoso.com (if you want to deploy two hosts that you will then cluster)
Target host group	New York\Tier0_NY Note This host group structure is based on the example that is used in the Preparing the Fabric in VMM section.
PXE server (provided through Windows Deployment Services)	PXEServer01.constoso.com
Run As accounts	PXE Administrator Add Physical Host BMC Administrator
Logical network	BACKEND (for use with a network site that defines a static IP pool) Note You can also use DHCP.
Host profiles	WS08R2Ent Hyper-V Hosts - Static WS08R2Ent Hyper-V Hosts - DHCP

Follow the procedures listed here to discover physical computers and convert them to managed Hyper-V hosts.