What's new in Hyper-V on Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview

 

Applies To: Windows Server Technical Preview

This is preliminary content and subject to change.

This article explains the new and changed functionality of the Hyper-V role on Windows Server® 2016 Technical Preview and Microsoft Hyper-V Server® Technical Preview. To use new features on virtual machines created with Windows Server 2012 R2 and moved or imported to a server that runs Hyper-V on Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview, you'll need to manually update the virtual machine configuration version. For important information, see Virtual machine configuration version.

This article covers:

  • Compatible with Connected Standby

  • Discrete device assignment

  • Hot add and remove for network adapters and memory

  • Hyper-V Manager improvements

  • Integration services delivered through Windows Update

  • Linux Secure Boot

  • Nested virtualization

  • Networking features

  • Production checkpoints

  • Rolling Hyper-V Cluster upgrade

  • Storage quality of service (QoS)

  • Shielded virtual machines

  • Virtual machine configuration file format

  • Virtual machine configuration version

  • Windows Containers

  • Windows PowerShell Direct

Compatible with Connected Standby

When the Hyper-V role is installed on a computer that uses the Always On/Always Connected (AOAC) power model, the Connected Standby power state is now available.

Discrete device assignment

This feature lets you give a virtual machine direct and exclusive access to some PCIe hardware devices. Using a device in this way bypasses the Hyper-V virtualization stack, which results in faster access. For details on supported hardware, see "Discrete device assignment" in System requirements for Hyper-V on Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview. For details about this feature, including how to use it and considerations, see the post "Discrete Device Assignment -- Description and background" in the Virtualization blog.

Hot add and remove for network adapters and memory

You can now add or remove a network adapter while the virtual machine is running, without incurring downtime. This works for generation 2 virtual machines that run either Windows or Linux operating systems.

You can also adjust the amount of memory assigned to a virtual machine while it's running, even if you haven’t enabled Dynamic Memory. This works for both generation 1 and generation 2 virtual machines.

Hyper-V Manager improvements

  • Alternate credentials support – You can now use a different set of credentials in Hyper-V Manager when you connect to another Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview or Windows 10 remote host. You can also save these credentials to make it easier to log on again.

  • Manage earlier versions – With Hyper-V Manager in the Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview and Windows 10, you can manage computers running Hyper-V on Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1.

  • Updated management protocol – Hyper-V Manager has been updated to communicate with remote Hyper-V hosts using the WS-MAN protocol, which permits CredSSP, Kerberos or NTLM authentication. When you use CredSSP to connect to a remote Hyper-V host, you can do a live migration without enabling constrained delegation in Active Directory. The WS-MAN-based infrastructure also makes it easier to enable a host for remote management. WS-MAN connects over port 80, which is open by default.

Integration services delivered through Windows Update

Updates to integration services for Windows guests are distributed through Windows Update. For service providers and private cloud hosters, this puts the control of applying updates into the hands of the tenants who own the virtual machines. Tenants can now update their Windows virtual machines with all updates, including the integration services, using a single method. For information about integration services for Linux guests, see Linux and FreeBSD Virtual Machines on Hyper-V .

Important

The ISO image file vmguest.iso is no longer needed to update integration components. It isn't included with Hyper-V on Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview.

Linux Secure Boot

Linux operating systems running on generation 2 virtual machines can now boot with the Secure Boot option enabled.  Ubuntu 14.04 and later, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 and later, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 and later, and CentOS 7.0 and later are enabled for Secure Boot on hosts that run Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview. Before you boot the virtual machine for the first time, you must configure the virtual machine to use the Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority.  You can do this from Hyper-V Manager, Virtual Machine Manager, or an elevated Windows Powershell session. For Windows PowerShell, run this command:

Set-VMFirmware vmname -SecureBootTemplate MicrosoftUEFICertificateAuthority

For more information about Linux virtual machines on Hyper-V, see Linux and FreeBSD Virtual Machines on Hyper-V.

Nested virtualization

This feature lets you use a virtual machine as a Hyper-V host and create virtual machines within that virtualized host. This can be especially useful for development and test environments. To use nested virtualization, you'll need:

  • At least 4 GB RAM available for the virtualized Hyper-V host.

  • To run at least Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 4 or Windows 10 build 10565 on both the physical Hyper-V host and the virtualized host. Running the same build in both the physical and virtualized environments generally improves performance.

  • A processor with Intel VT-x (nested virtualization is available only for Intel processors at this time).

For instructions and more details, see Nested Virtualization.

Networking features

New networking features include:

  • Remote direct memory access (RDMA) and switch embedded teaming (SET). You can set up RDMA on network adapters bound to a Hyper-V virtual switch, regardless of whether SET is also used. SET provides a virtual switch with some of same capabilities as NIC teaming. For details, see Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) and Switch Embedded Teaming (SET).

  • Virtual machine multi queues (VMMQ). Improves on VMQ throughput by allocating multiple hardware queues per virtual machine. The default queue becomes a set of queues for a virtual machine, and traffic is spread between the queues.

  • Quality of service (QoS) for software-defined networks. Manages the default class of traffic through the virtual switch within the default class bandwidth.

For more about new networking features, see What's New in Networking in Windows Server Technical Preview.

Production checkpoints

Production checkpoints allow you to easily create “point in time” images of a virtual machine, which can be restored later on in a way that is completely supported for all production workloads. Backup technology inside the guest is used to create the checkpoint, instead of using saved states. For Windows virtual machines, the Volume Snapshot Service (VSS) is used. For Linux virtual machines, the file system buffers are flushed to create a file system consistent checkpoint. If you'd rather use checkpoints based on saved states, you can still do that by using standard checkpoints. For details, see Choose between standard or production checkpoints.

Important

New virtual machines use production checkpoints as the default.

Rolling Hyper-V Cluster upgrade

You can now add a node running Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview to a Hyper-V Cluster with nodes running Windows Server 2012 R2. The cluster continues to function at a Windows Server 2012 R2 feature level until you upgrade all of the nodes in the cluster and you upgrade the cluster functional level with the following Windows PowerShell cmdlet, Update-ClusterFunctionalLevel.

Important

After you update the cluster functional level, you can't downgrade it back to Windows Server 2012 R2.

When the Hyper-V Cluster has a mix of both Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview nodes, you can still move virtual machines between all of the nodes in the Hyper-V Cluster.

When the cluster functional level is Windows Server 2012 R2, the following applies to the Hyper-V Cluster:

  • You should manage the cluster, Hyper-V, and virtual machines from a node running Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview or Windows 10.

  • You can't use new Hyper-V features until all of the nodes run Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview and you upgrade the cluster functional level.

  • The virtual machine configuration version for existing virtual machines aren't upgraded. You can only upgrade the configuration version after you upgrade the cluster functional level.

  • Virtual machines that you create will be compatible with Windows Server 2012 R2, virtual machine configuration level 5.

After you upgrade the cluster functional level to Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview, the following applies:

  • To enable new virtual machine features, you need to manually upgrade the virtual machine configuration level of the virtual machines using the Update-VmConfigurationVersion cmdlet.

  • You can enable new Hyper-V features.

  • You can't add a node to the Hyper-V Cluster that runs Windows Server 2012 R2.

Note

Hyper-V on Windows 10 doesn't support failover clustering.

For more information, see the Cluster Operating System Rolling Upgrade section in What's New in Failover Clustering.

Shielded virtual machines

Shielded virtual machines use several features to make it harder for datacenter administrators and malware to inspect, tamper with, or steal data and the state of these virtual machines. Data and state is encrypted, Hyper-V administrators can't see the video output and disks, and the virtual machines run only on known, healthy hosts, as determined by a Host Guardian Server. For details, see the Shielded VMs and Guarded Fabric Validation Guide for Windows Server 2016.

Storage quality of service (QoS)

You can now create storage QoS policies on a Scale-Out File Server and assign them to one or more virtual disks on Hyper-V virtual machines. Storage performance is automatically readjusted to meet policies as the storage load fluctuates. For more information, see the Storage Quality of Service section in What's New in Storage Services.

Virtual machine configuration file format

Virtual machines have a new configuration file format. The format helps make the reading and writing of configuration data more efficient. It also helps make data corruption less likely if a storage failure occurs. The new configuration files use the .VMCX file extension for virtual machine configuration data and the .VMRS file extension for runtime state data.

Important

A file with the .VMCX file extension is in binary format. Directly editing a file with a .VMCX or .VMRS file extension isn't supported.

Virtual machine configuration version

When you move or import a virtual machine to a server that runs Hyper-V on Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview from Windows Server 2012 R2, the virtual machine’s configuration isn't automatically updated. This means you can move the virtual machine back to a server that runs Windows Server 2012 R2. But, this also means you can't use the new virtual machine features until you manually update the version of the virtual machine configuration.

The version represents the compatibility of the virtual machine’s configuration, saved state, and snapshot files with the version of Hyper-V. Virtual machines with version 5 are compatible with Windows Server 2012 R2 and can run on both Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview. Virtual machines with version 6 are compatible with Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview, but won't run in Hyper-V on Windows Server 2012 R2.

How do I check the configuration version of the virtual machines running on Hyper-V?

From an elevated Windows PowerShell command prompt, run:

Get-VM * | Format-Table Name, Version

How do I upgrade the configuration version of a virtual machine?

Shut down the virtual machine. Then, from an elevated Windows PowerShell command prompt, run one of these commands:

Update-VMVersion vmname

Or

Update-VMVersion vmobject

Important

  • After you update the version, you can't move the virtual machine to a server that runs Windows Server 2012 R2.

  • You can't downgrade from version 6 back to version 5.

  • The Update-VMVersion cmdlet is blocked on a Hyper-V Cluster when the cluster functional level is Windows Server 2012 R2.

Windows Containers

Windows Containers allow many isolated application to run on one computer system. They build fast and are highly scalable and portable. Two different types of container runtime are included with the feature, each with a different degree of application isolation. Windows Server Containers achieve isolation through namespace and process isolation. Hyper-V Containers encapsulates each container in a light weight virtual machine. 

Here are additional features introduced with Windows Containers:

  • Nano server can host both Windows Server and Hyper-V Containers

  • Container data management capabilities are enabled with container shared folders

  • Container resource restrictions can be implemented

For more information, including quick start guides, see the Windows Container documentation.

Windows PowerShell Direct

There is now an easy and reliable way to run Windows PowerShell commands inside a virtual machine from the host operating system. There are no network, firewall requirements, or special configuration. It works regardless of your remote management configuration. To use it, you must run Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview on the host and the virtual machine guest operating systems.

To create a PowerShell Direct session, use one of the following commands:

Enter-PSSession -VMName VMName

Invoke-Command -VMName VMName -ScriptBlock { commands }

Today, Hyper-V administrators rely on two categories of tools to connect to a virtual machine on a Hyper-V host:

  • Remote management tools such as PowerShell or Remote Desktop

  • Hyper-V Virtual Machine Connection (VMConnect)

Both of these technologies work well. But each have trade-offs as your Hyper-V deployment grows. VMConnect is reliable, but can be hard to automate. Remote PowerShell is powerful, but can be difficult to set up and maintain.

PowerShell Direct provides a powerful scripting and automation experience with the simplicity of VMConnect. PowerShell Direct runs between the host and the virtual machine. So you don't need a network connection or to enable remote management. You do need guest credentials to log into the virtual machine.

Here's what's required to use PowerShell Direct:

  • You must be connected to a Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview host with virtual machines that run Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview as the guest operating system.

  • You need to be logged in with Hyper-V administrator credentials on the host.

  • You need user credentials for the virtual machine.

  • The virtual machine that you want to connect to must run locally on the host and be booted.

See also

What's new in Hyper-V on Windows 10

What's New in Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 4