Import or Run VM created by HyperV

[AntiMatter]

Hi,

Can you please suggest the recommended practice to run an HyperV VM using Virtualbox?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Perryg]

AFAIK it does not work. Even if you create it in VPC and then open that in HyperV, everything that I have seen here indicates that it does not work after it has been opened in HyperV.
But I would love to be proved incorrect.

[AntiMatter]

Hi,

Microsoft has setup a Sharepoint 2010 Evaluation Dev environment which consists of two HyperV VHDs:
2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine (RTM)

I downloaded the "Virtual Machine-A" (details of what the VM contains are described in the link above). This is a 14 GB download and when uncompressed, we have a file named "2010-7a.vhd" (size=42 GB).

Using Virtualbox 3.18 on a host based on Windows 7 x64 Enterprise. I created a new VM, using existing hard drive which I pointed to the 2010-7a.vhd file above. I gave the VM 2.5 GB or RAM (way below what MS recommends but I want to see if the VM boots) and set the Network mode to Bridged. Disabled audio and USB.

NOTE: make sure the Hard disk controller is IDE, not SATA (will enter an endless cycle of Blue Screen).

Surprisingly, the VHD booted with no problem. It runs very slowly. But I am willing to admit that is because I don't allocate enough RAM. Here is what I could do so far:

- Disabled all the Windows Services related to Hyper-V
- Installed Virtualbox Guest Additions
- Rebooted and activated Windows 2008 Server R2

The Virtualbox Guest Additions seem to work OK: mouse integration, clipboard, dynamic screen resolution. The VM booted OK, Sharepoint 2010 environment started OK, Visual Studio 2010 opened OK, Event Logs didn't show any error related to a system malfunction. I didn't test further, but apparently, I would say that Virtualbox can run a HyperV VHD image right out of the box. And the experience looks very much like if I was running a VDI.

Not sure if this will continue to work reliably under stress or if the VDH would be runnable again under HyperV. For now I would consider that the test is successful. This was so suspiciously easy I wonder if I overlooked something.

EDIT: add reminder, must use IDE Hard disk controler on Hyper-V VHD image.

[Xaphod]

Hi,

I also got both Sharepoint Information Worker Demo A and B running, but I cannot get them to ping each other... how did you solve that?


Host is Windows 7.
VirtualBox v4.0.2 r69518

[BillG]

Ping is not a valid test of network connectivity any more. Many OS firewalls (including Windows Server) disable ICMP echo by default. Can you see a shared file on one server from the other? That is more reliable.

How have you set up the networking? How do the servers get their network config? They need to be in the same network and the same IP subnet to communicate.

[Xaphod]

Hi,

I am very noob with networking issues.
Have not touched anything in the original VHD except adding en entry in the host file to get the original homepage going.
I've tried following the IP config at the bottom of this page: http://mikestechblog.net/?p=48 but no success.

I dont know where to start, what to look for, and what to do?

Any ideas moving this forward is most grateful!

[BillG]

This really doesn't have much to do with VirtualBox. If you are going to network two servers you really need to know the basics of networking.

The fact that they are virtual machines and virtual networks does not change how things work, so this is basically a Windows networking problem, not a VirtualBox problem.

Go to the networking section and put both servers in the same internal network. This is equivalent to plugging two physical machines into the same switch. They should be able to see each other automatically (using APIPA addresses). If you do not know what to do next, post in a Windows Server networking forum.

[Xaphod]

Ok, thanks!