Hyper-V 3 Integration

Hyper-V Abiquo Features Table

Username format

For all versions of Hyper-V, Abiquo only supports the down-level logon name (domain\user) format

One connection to each Hyper-V server

Abiquo cannot make multiple concurrent connections to Windows-based machines.
For Hyper-V, set the Abiquo Configuration Property "abiquo.virtualfactory.openSession" to 1.

Shared datastore disks not deleted by Hyper-V

When you undeploy VMs with a shared datastore, Abiquo 2.6 GA does not delete shared datastore files due to a limitation of WMI that the disks "cannot be found". The VM cannot be deployed again because the deploy fails saying that the disk already exists. You can access the shared datastore to delete the disks directly after you undeploy.

Abiquo deploys virtual machines in Hyper-V in the 'generation 1' format only. Abiquo does not support 'generation 2' to maintain cross platform compatibility for virtual machines. This means that Abiquo supports IDE, Legacy Network adapters and provides more support for additional guest OSs. Note that 'generation 1' format can only support the primary boot disk controller as IDE not SCSI (Microsoft limitation). See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn282285.aspx or http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn282278.aspx#bkmk_generation

 

Hyper-V General Features

Feature	Description
Active Directory Integration	You can log in with an AD user or a local user. In Abiquo 2.6, use an Administrator account. For all versions of Hyper-V, Abiquo only supports the down-level logon name (domain\user) format
High Availability	In Abiquo 2.6, Abiquo HA does not support Hyper-V
VM Live Migration	Abiquo detects live migration of virtual machines. Before moving from Hyper-V manager, check the destination datastore is enabled in Abiquo, or the move will not be detected.   Abiquo uses Msvm_MigrationJob to detect moved VMs. These jobs exist for 5 minutes.   Set the VSM polling interval for Hyper-V to less than 5 minutes or detection cannot be guaranteed.
Storage Live Migration	See Hyper-V Storage Features table below
Templates	Abiquo supports VHD and VHDX templates All VHDX disks can be resized (enlarged) No conversions from VHDX to other formats or vice versa Only VHD templates can be made persistent
Virtual Machine NICs	Abiquo uses the legacy network adapter NIC type There is a limit of 4 NICs per virtual machine See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj680093.aspx
Dynamic Memory	All VMs are deployed using Dynamic Memory as recommended by Microsoft (unless not supported) The hypervisor option is DynamicMemoryEnabled
Remote Access	Remote access through the eye icon is not supported but VM connection details are provided

Hyper-V Storage Features

Feature	Description
Datastores	Local disk SMB share
Disk Controllers	The primary system disk must be mounted on an IDE controller Otherwise Hyper-V will not recognize the system disk By default Hyper-V uses IDE for primary and secondary disks Each IDE controller supports 2 disks In Abiquo 2.6, there is a known bug that may mean you can only use 1 secondary IDE drive Abiquo recommends that you set the configuration property to use the SCSI controller for secondary disks
System Disks
Non-persistent Storage	Auxiliary hard disks on the Hyper-V datastore are always created in VHDX format
Persistent Storage	iSCSI integrated storage Generic iSCSI storage NFS persistent storage is not available on Hyper-V
Persistent Virtual Machines	VHDX VHD By default persistent virtual machine disks are mounted on IDE controllers IDE must be used so that Hyper-V can recognize the boot disk
Storage Live Migration	Storage live migration is not supported in Abiquo 2.6

Configure Hyper-V

Configure Hyper-V for use with Abiquo by following the instructions on Hyper-V Cloud Node Configuration

Hyper-V in the Abiquo Platform

Remote Access

In Hyper-V 3, there is no VNC/RDP access through the eye icon. Abiquo provides RDP connection details for VMs. Users will require access to the hypervisor to connect to VMs.

Abiquo recommends xfreerdp. When you click the eye icon, Abiquo opens a popup displaying the connection details in xfreerdp format.

xfreerdp /d:my.domain.com /u:Administrator /p:abiqu0! /vmconnect:27b6f5f6-7c83-447c-83c3-b4093dc16f14 /v:10.60.10.230

Best Practices

Datastores

Abiquo will allow you to configure a system drive as the datastore. However, this is not recommended because of disk latency or potential disk space problems. You can use a local datastore or an SMB share.

Linux Guests

Linux Integration Services are required for disk controller detection.

Prepare to Add a Hyper-V Hypervisor to Abiquo

Create a virtual switch for use by Hyper-V before you add it to Abiquo, for example, using Hyper-V Manager.

Create a Network Service Type in Abiquo before you add the hypervisor.

Adding Hyper-V to the Abiquo GUI

Create a physical machine with a hypervisor type of Hyper-V.

Enter the User name. It can be an Active Directory login or local user (Abiquo 2.6, use an Administrator account). Ensure that the 'User' information include the is the domain prefix (or machine name if not connected to a domain) as in the example below tau-main\administrator (domain\user).

General Information

Confirm that the information is correct and/or change any specific information as applicable (such as additional information in the description box).

Add the machine to the correct Abiquo 'Rack' in the drop down.

Network Interfaces

Select the network service type for your virtual switch.

Datastore

The datastore must be a mapped drive. It can be:

• local datastore (e.g. D:\)
  
  • Abiquo recommends that you do not use C:\ 
• SMB share (e.g. X: which has the share \\SMB_SERVER\sharefolder mounted)
  
  • this configuration is suitable for a shared datastore

The full datastore path is the root path + directory

SMB shares will display with the name of the SMB share (e.g. \\SMB_SERVER\sharefolder)

When you edit the datastore, you will see the drive name (e.g. X:\)

Configure your network service type before you add the Hyper-V machine to Abiquo.