How to Deploy a Virtual Machine

  • Article

Applies To: Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1

Use the following procedure to deploy a virtual machine that is stored in the library.

Note

To successfully migrate a virtual machine that is in a saved state, or to deploy the virtual machine from a library server to a host, the processor architecture on the two hosts must be compatible.

If you deploy a virtual machine to a host on a perimeter network, you cannot later migrate the virtual machine back off the perimeter network.

To deploy a virtual machine

  1. In the VMM Administrator Console, in Library view, in the navigation pane, navigate to the library server on which the virtual machine is stored, and then expand VMs and Templates.

  2. In the results pane, select the virtual machine.

  3. In the Actions pane, under Virtual Machine, click Deploy to launch the Deploy Virtual Machine Wizard.

  4. On the Select Host wizard page, select a host to deploy the virtual machine on. In the list of hosts, all available hosts are given a rating of 0—5 stars based on their suitability to host the virtual machine. The ratings are recommendations. You can select any host that has the required disk space, even if the host has a zero host rating. For more information, see How Virtual Machine Manager Rates Hosts (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=116302).

    Network optimization   If a host has network optimization enabled, a green checkmark appears in the Network Optimization column. VMM 2008 R2 allows you to take advantage of network optimization capabilities that are available on Hyper-V hosts that are running Windows Server 2008 R2. For information about network optimization and the hardware that supports it, see the Windows Server 2008 R2 documentation. After a virtual machine is deployed, this feature is displayed only for virtual machines that are deployed on a host that is running Windows Server 2008 R2.

    Highly available virtual machines   To make a virtual machine a highly available virtual machine (HAVM), you can migrate the virtual machine to a host that is in a host cluster, even if the virtual machine has not been configured as highly available. The wizard also allows you to migrate a highly available virtual machine to a non-clustered host. Because of the resulting change to the virtual machine’s highly available setting, either of these actions requires confirmation.

    Note

    For more information about environmental factors and settings that affect virtual machine placement in VMM, see Placing Virtual Machines on Hosts (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148962).

    • To get additional information about the host, select the host, and view the tabs in the details area.

      Details—Indicates the status of the host, the operating system, and the type and status of virtualization software. Lists the virtual machines on the host.

      Rating Explanation—If a host received a zero rating, lists the factors that resulted in a rating.

      SAN Explanation—Lists factors that make a SAN transfer unavailable.

    • To change the host rating criteria for the current virtual machine, click Customize Ratings. You can change the placement goal as well as the relative importance placed on the availability of CPU, memory, disk I/O capacity, and network capacity for the current virtual machine. For more information, see How to Customize Host Ratings for a Virtual Machine.

  5. On the Select Path wizard page:

    1. In Save Path, click Browse, navigate to the folder in which you want to store the configuration files for the virtual machine, and then click OK.

      In VMM 2008 R2, if the target host is a Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V host that is part of a failover cluster that has Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) enabled, you can store the virtual machine on a CSV LUN that is already in use by other highly available virtual machines (HAVMs). With CSV, multiple HAVMs can share the same LUN, and migrating one HAVM does not affect others that are sharing the same LUN. VMM also supports multiple HAVMs per LUN for VMware environments configured with VMware VMFS LUNs.

    2. If you selected a path other than a default virtual machine path, and you would like to store other virtual machines on that path, select the Add this path to the list of host default paths check box to add the path to the default paths on the host. For information about configuring default virtual machine paths, see How to Set Placement Defaults for Virtual Machines.

    3. If SAN transfers are enabled for this deployment, the virtual machine by default is transferred to the host over the SAN. If you do not want to perform a SAN transfer, select the Transfer over the network even if a SAN transfer is available check box. If SAN transfers are not available for this deployment, the field is not available.

  6. On the Select Networks wizard page, modify the networks and attach them to None or to any of the virtual networks that are found on the selected host.

    Note

    VMM uses the network location and tag specified for the virtual network adapter in the hardware configuration to determine the network availability of a virtual machine on a host. In VMM 2008 R2, if you are deploying the virtual machine to a VMware ESX Server host, you can select from the VMware port groups that are available for virtual switches. The Select Networks page will default each virtual network adapter to an equivalent virtual network, based on the same rules.

  7. On the Summary wizard page, review your settings. To change settings, click Previous.

    To start the virtual machine after deploying it, select the Start the virtual machine immediately after deploying it to the host check box.

    Note

    Use the View Script button to display the Windows PowerShell - Virtual Machine Manager cmdlets that will perform the conversion. All administrative tasks in Virtual Machine Manager can be performed at the command line or scripted. For more information, see Using the Windows PowerShell - VMM Command Shell.

  8. To begin deploying the virtual machine, click Deploy.

    To review the progress and results of the operation, display the Jobs window. The window is opened by default when the wizard closes. To view this window at any time, click the Jobs button on the taskbar in the console's main window.

See Also

Concepts

How to Set Placement Defaults for Virtual Machines
Using the Windows PowerShell - VMM Command Shell