Hyper-v: Detailed step by step installing RedHat 6.1 VM in expert mode with the new Linux Integration Services 3.1

Microsoft released the a new Linux Integration Services, fully tested against RHEL 6.0, RHEL 6.1, and CentOS 6.0

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26837

To Create a RedHat 6 VM

1. Open Hyper-V Manager: Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click
Hyper-V Manager.
2. Create a new virtual machine where you will install Linux: In the Actions menu, click New, and then click Virtual Machine.

Note: if you do not Add a legacy network adapter a this point, the virtual machine will not have network support, until you install the Linux Integration Services.

3. Specify the Linux installation media: Right-click the virtual machine that you created, and then click Settings. In IDE Controller, specify one of the following:
a. An image file in ISO format that contains the files required for installation
b. A physical CD/DVD drive that contains the installation media
4. Turn on the virtual machine: Right-click the virtual machine that you created, and then click Connect.
To Install Redhat Linux 6.1

1. After a short delay, the Welcome to Red Hat Linux 6.1! screen appears. Press <Tab>

2.At the prompt, add the text: append expert and then press <Enter>

3. Press <OK> to check the installation media or <SKIP> to not test check in the next screen

4. Click Next to continue

5. The Choose a Language screen appears. This screen asks you to select the lan­guage to be used during the installation process.  Use the up-or down-arrow key to select alanguage (the system highlights your choice). Click Next

6.The Keyboard Type screen appears asking you to select a keyboard type.  Use the up- or down-arrow key to select a keyboard type (the system highlights your choice). Click Next

7. At the “Devices” screen select Basic Storage Devices to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the following storage devices: hard drives or solid-state drives connected directly to the local system

8. As you selected Basic Storage Devices, anaconda automatically detects the local storage attached to the system and does not require further input.Click Next.

9. Enter the Hostname for your server, select OK

10 If you added the Legacy Network at the creation of the VM, then click Configure Network . At the “Network Configuration” window,  Specify an IP address/gateway. Otherwise, skip this task. You can setup the network later, after installing the Linux Integration Services

Use the IPv4 Settings tab to configure the IPv4 parameters for the previously selected network connection.  Select Start automatically to start the connection automatically when the system boots.

11.Click Next

12. At the “Time Zone Selection” window, highlight the correct time zone. Click Next

13.For Root Password, type and confirm the password. Click Next

14. If no readable partition tables are found on existing hard disks, the installation program asks to initialize the hard disk. This operation makes any existing data on the hard disk unreadable. If your system has a brand new hard disk with no operating system installed, or you have removed all partitions on the hard disk, click Re-initialize drive

15. Select the type of installation would you like and then click Next.

Note: If you chose one of the automatic partitioning options (first 4 options) and selected Review, you can either accept the current partition settings (click Next), or modify the setup manually in the partitioning screen. To review and make any necessary changes to the partitions created by automatic partitioning, select the Review option. After selecting Review and clicking Next to move forward, the partitions created for you by anaconda appear. You can make modifications to these partitions if they do not meet your needs.

If you chose to create a custom layout, you must tell the installation program where to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This is done by defining mount points for one or more disk partitions in which Red Hat Enterprise Linux is installed. You may also need to create and/or delete partitions at this time

Unless you have a reason for doing otherwise, I recommend that you create the following partitions for x86, AMD64, and Intel
64 systems:

• swap partition

• /boot partition

• / partition

Advice on Partitions:

• A swap partition (at least 256 MB) — swap partitions are used to support virtual memory. In other words, data is written to a swap partition when there is not enough RAM to store the data your system is processing. In years past, the recommended amount of swap space increased linearly with the amount of RAM in the system. But because the amount of memory in modern systems has increased into the hundreds of gigabytes, it is now recognized that the amount of swap space that a system needs is a function of the memory workload running on that system. However, given that swap space is usually designated at install time, and that it can be difficult to determine beforehand the memory workload of a system, use the  recommended:

Amount of RAM in the System	Recommended Amount of Swap Space
4GB of RAM or less	a minimum of 2GB of swap space
4GB to 16GB of RAM	a minimum of 4GB of swap space
16GB to 64GB of RAM	a minimum of 8GB of swap space
64GB to 256GB of RAM	a minimum of 16GB of swap space

• The /var directory holds content for a number of applications. It also is used to store downloaded update packages on a temporary basis. Ensure that the partition containing the /var directory has enough space to download pending updates and hold your other content.
• The /usr directory holds the majority of software content on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system. For an installation of the default set of software, allocate at least 4 GB of space.
  If you are a software developer or plan to use your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system to learn software development skills, you may want to at least double this allocation.
• Consider leaving a portion of the space in an LVM volume group unallocated. This unallocated space gives you flexibility if your space requirements change but you do not wish to remove data from other partitions to reallocate storage

16. After finishing creating the partitions, Click Next. The installer prompts you to confirm the  partitioning options that you selected. Click Write changes to disk to allow the installer to partition your hard drive and install Red Hat Enterprise Linux

17.Allow the  installation process to complete. The Package Installation Defaults screen appears and details the default package set for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation

If you select Basic Server, this option will provide a basic installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux for use on a server.

18. Select Customize now to specify the software packages for your final system in more detail. This option causes the installation process to display an additional customization screen when you select Next.  The following screens shows the customized packages selected

Note : The packages that you select are not permanent. After you boot your system, use the Add/Remove Software tool to either install new
software or remove installed packages. To run this tool, from the main menu, select System -> Administration -> Add/Remove Software

19. Click Next to continue the installation. The installer checks your selection, and automatically adds any extra packages required to use the software you selected. The installation process will start. At this point there is nothing left for you to do until all the packages have been installed.

20. Installation Complete: Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation is now complete. select Reboot to restart your Virtual Machine

Now it’s time for the first-boot configuration.

21. First Boot lets you configure your environment at the beginning. Click Forward to proceed

22. Accept the License and Click Forward to proceed

23. Setting up software updates.  Select whether to register the system immediately with Red Hat Network. To register the system, select Yes, I’d like to register now, and click Forward.
Note : it can be registered with the RedHat Entitlement Service later using the Red Hat Subscription Manager tools

24. Create User to use as a regular non-administrative use. Enter a user name and your full name, and then enter your chosen password. Type your password once more in the Confirm Password box to ensure that it is correct.
Note: If you do not create at least one user account in this step, you will not be able to log in to the RedHat Enterprise Linux graphical environment

25. Click Forward to proceed

26. Date and Time. Use this screen to adjust the date and time of the system clock.

27. Click Forward to proceed

28. Kdump. Use this screen to select whether or not to use the Kdump kernel crash dumping mechanism on this system. Note that if you
select this option, you will need to reserve memory for Kdump and that this memory will not be available for any other purpose.

29 Click Finish to proceed.
Done installation and configuration of RedHat Linux 6.1 completed. Not let’s configure the Linux Integration Services.

To install Linux Integration Services Version 3.1

Important Note:  There is an issue where the SCVMM 2008 Service can crash with VMs running Linux Integration Components v3.1 for Hyper-V.
Resolution: Disabling the KVP daemon on the Linux virtual machine will prevent the SCVMM service crash. The command to make this change must be run as root.

#/sbin/chkconfig –level 35 hv_kvp_daemon off

This will prevent the KVP service from auto starting while retaining all other functionality of hv_utils. hv_utils provides integrated shutdown, key value pair data exchange, and heartbeat features. More info : http://blogs.technet.com/b/scvmm/archive/2011/07/28/new-kb-the-scvmm-2008-virtual-machine-manager-service-crashes-with-vms-running-linux-integration-components-v3-1-for-hyper-v.aspx

1. Log on to the virtual machine.
2. In Hyper-V Manager, configure LinuxIC v30.ISO (located in the directory where you extracted the downloaded files) as a physical CD/DVD drive on the virtual machine.

3. Open a Terminal Console ( command line )

4. As the root user, mount the CD in the virtual machine by issuing the following command at a shell prompt:
 #mount /dev/cdrom  /media

4. As the root user, run the following command to install the synthetic drivers. A reboot is required after installation.

For 64-bit versions:
# yum install /media/x86_64/kmod-microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.x86_64
# yum install /media/x86_64/microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.x86_64
# reboot

or if you prefer to use rpm:

# rpm –ivh /media/x86_64/kmod-microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.x86_64.rpm
# rpm –ivh /media/x86_64/microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.x86_64.rpm
# reboot

For 32-bit versions:
# yum install /media/x86/kmod-microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.i686
 #yum install /media/x86/microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.i686
# reboot

or

# rpm –ivh /media/x86/kmod-microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.i686.rpm
# rpm –ivh /media/x86/microsoft-hyper-v-rhel6-60.1.i686.rpm
# reboot

 

DONE! You should now have RedHat 6.1 running as VM on Hyper-V.

Note:

After Linux Integration Services are installed on the virtual machine, Key Value Pair exchange  functionality is activated. This allows the virtual machine to provide the following information  to the virtualization server:

•  Fully Qualified Domain Name of the virtual machine
•  Version of the Linux Integration Services that are installed
•  IP Addresses (both IPv4 and IPv6) for all Ethernet adapters in the virtual machine
•  OS Build information, including the distribution and kernel version
•  Processor architecture (x86 or x86-64)

The data can be viewed using the Hyper-V WMI provider, and accessed via Windows  PowerShell. Instructions for viewing Key Value Pair exchange data are available at these  websites:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/hyper-v-script-to-check-icversion.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2008/11/18/hyper-v-script-looking-at-kvpguestintrinsicexchangeitems.aspx