Assigning a virtual switch to a virtual machine
After a virtual switch type is selected, it functions as an object
that can be assigned to one or more virtual machines. Further, each
virtual machine has a virtual hardware inventory in which each network
adapter can be assigned a virtual switch. Virtual machines can have
multiple network adapters and exist on multiple virtual
switches. A number of additional features, such as bandwidth
management, MAC address assignment (if an address other than the
00-15-5D-xx-xx-xx format is required), and VLAN identification, can be
set as properties of the virtual machine. The virtual
switch selection can be done as part of the virtual machine creation
process or afterward as a task of editing the settings, as shown in Figure 6. The virtual switches are a configuration item and property of the host, to which VMs can be assigned.
Assigning storage to a virtual machine
A virtual machine can be assigned storage in a number of ways. The
Virtual Fibre Channel feature of Hyper-V provides virtual machines with
access to a storage network directly, such as to run a storage
management tool. In most situations, a Hyper-V
virtual machine running on Windows 8 uses the VHDX or VHD virtual disk
format. The VHDX file is the Hyper-V virtualization format that
encapsulates a hard drive for a virtual machine. Virtual machines can
also access a pass-through disk,
which is a physical hard drive on the computer running Windows 8 with
the Hyper-V feature enabled that a virtual machine uses exclusively.
The pass-through configuration is not very transportable or scalable,
so in most situations, VHDX and VHD virtual disk files are recommended.
Each Hyper-V virtual machine can have virtualized I/O controllers to provide storage resources (Figure 7), including IDE and SCSI
controllers. Both these controllers can provide virtual disks in the
VHDX or VHD format, and the virtual IDE controller can provide a
virtualized optical drive for CD/DVD ISO files. Like the physical IDE
and SCSI controllers in computers, these virtualized controllers have addresses. For example, the IDE
controllers can provide a virtual machine with individual VHDX or VHD
files on IDE Controller 0 and IDE Controller 1 and, within that, on
address 0 or 1. This is much like a physical controller in many PCs.
The Hyper-V virtual SCSI controller can address positions from SCSI ID 0 up to 63 and assign devices to virtual machines.
Individual Hyper-V virtual machines can have both virtual IDE and SCSI
controllers and can have multiple controllers. The virtual switches are
a configuration item and property of the host, to which virtual
machines can be assigned.
Windows 8 storage considerations for Hyper-V
The VHDX and VHD files associated with a VM have to reside on a disk
resource that the Windows 8–based computer with the Hyper-V feature
enabled can access. This can be fixed local disk resources (SATA, USB,
Thunderbolt, and so on), a network resource with the new SMB 3.0
support from Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 8 as a block
storage resource. The block storage resource can be an iSCSI target
formatted as an NTFS file system and assigned directly to the computer
running Windows 8 with the Hyper-V feature enabled. A Fibre Channel logical
unit number (LUN) can also be deployed to a computer running Windows 8
and formatted. This is different from the Virtual Fibre Channel
technology that can place a virtual machine on the storage network in
that the LUN would
be assigned to the Windows 8–based computer with the Hyper-V feature
enabled and then formatted as NTFS. After the iSCSI or Fibre Channel
LUNs are formatted, virtual machines can reside on these storage
resources.
Note
WINDOWS 8 STORAGE SHOULD BE SIMPLE
Although Windows 8 with the Hyper-V feature enabled has the
same rich storage options as Hyper-V on Windows Server 2012, virtual
machines running on local storage
and removable media are a popular choice for most Windows 8 users. If
SAN storage infrastructures are deployed, consider using the free
Hyper-V hypervisor, Hyper-V Server 2012. This is much like a core
installation of Windows Server with the Hyper-V role, but it is free.
