Windows 2008 : Networking Eccentricity

My 2008 Server cannot be seen by any client other than itself.

It only ‘sees’ my Vista instance (and LLTD enabled router) when browsing the mshome workgroup. This was working fine, so maybe my Hyper-V install has messed things up…

On inspecting the Local Area Connection Properties, ‘Client for Microsoft Networks’ was unticked. Weird. Could swear it was enabled! Simply clicking the tickbox worked fine. When I clicked OK however, the following appeared >

" Your current selection will also disable the following features: Client for Microsoft Networks "
" Are you sure you want to disable these feature(s)? "

This makes NO sense at all. I’m trying to ENABLE not disable the client!

A clash with the windows virtualisation clients was my first thought, but disabling those did not improve matters.

I can still establish an RDP session by both ip address and network name, its just the visbility.

After a lot of googling, following multiple sets of instructions and hints (there aren’t too many people playing with windows 2008 right now), I decided to start again.

I uninstalled as much as I could, namely >

Client for Microsoft Networks
File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver
Virtual Machine Network Services (installed by Hyper-V)
Microsoft Virtual Network Switch Protocol (installed by Hyper-V)

And then rebooted.
On startup, I installed them all again, one by one and….. it worked. My xp and 2003 clients appeared.

Update October 2008 >
Another fix is simply to uninstall the network cards, reboot and let Windows sort itself out.
(still have to put the IP config back in).

Update July 2010 >

An easier fix if you can find the advanced properties of the network cards.

Solace : Windows 2008 : Hyper-V - Disappearing Client for Microsoft Networks

Hyper-V : Display support

I have a WSXGA (1650 x 1080) display and during my initial explorations of Hyper-V was getting quite annoyed that i couldnt install drivers for it inside my various VMs.

The maximum resolution from the MS VM drivers is 1600x1200 (UGA) but I could obviously only get to 1280x1024 (SXGA) due to the vertical pitch.

To get round this, connect via RDP. RDP seemingly lets the host handle the video hence providing full resolution.

Another reason to connect to Hyper-V Virtual Machines via RDP is USB support.

Hyper-V : USB Support

If (like me) your use of Hyper-V is for multiple environments on a development box (i.e. not production) you can RDP to your virtual machines to get round the (current) non support for external USB devices on the host.



To do so, edit the properties of your .RDP connection file.

Go to the 'Local Resources' tab.

In 'Local devices & resources' box, click 'more'.

The pop-up that then appears will allow you to select which drives/resources you want to be able to connect to remotely.

Yes, using RDP is not ideal as it takes up more resources, but if you're hardware is fast enough. you really won't notice a difference.



Update: Hyper-V via RDP also helps reach display resolutions not yet supported by Hyper-V.

Hyper-V : Networking

A great explanation - Understanding Networking with Hyper-V
http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2008/01/08/understanding-networking-with-hyper-v.aspx

SQL 2005 : Permissions

A brilliant permissions comparison script posted today by Carley Zepada on SQLServerCentral (Site requires registration).

SQL 2008 Overview

Featured on the April Technet Magazine Site.

Windows Activation Error (0x8007232B)

Code: 0x8007232B
Description: DNS name does not exist.

A brilliant example of an error message and unrelated solution.
I was trying to activate a virtual windows 2008 instance within hyper-v when i got this error.
Networking was correctly configured and the vm could see the physical network and browse the internet.

Turns out all it needed was for me to enter the same MAK key again via the 'change product key' button. The key was exactly as I'd used before. bizarre...

http://forums.microsoft.com/Genuine/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=982073&SiteID=25

Hyper-V : Virtual Machine Connection

Here is the Virtual Machine Connection window, i.e. Windows 2008 Standard running virtualised on Windows 2008 Datacenter.

Hyper-V : Server Manager

A screenshot of Hyper-V Server Manager. I have created 1 virtual machine named 'HyperV-1' and have installed Windows 2008 Standard on it so far.

Hyper-V : Installation on Windows 2008

Keen to try Microsoft's new virtual server offering, Hyper-V is the first port of call on my new server. A small hiccup occurred after adding the Hyper-V role to windows 2008.

The 'Virtual Machine Management' service (aka Hyper V) failed to start and manually attempting to start it, I was greeted with 'Error 87 : The parameter is incorrect'.

Fortunately it is an easy one to get round and is fixed by changing language settings to 'English (United States)'. Go to 'Regional and Language Options' (control panel). On the 'Formats' tab select 'English (United States)' and click apply. Then go to the 'Administrative' tab (new to 2008)and use the 'Change system locale' and 'Copy to reserved accounts' buttons here to ensure the setting is applied to all profiles. I restarted the server to let it take effect and all is fine.

Given Hyper-V is still in a 'pre-release' state, i suppose I can't complain.

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2557702&SiteID=17