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Updating Integration Services with SCVMM

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As a Hyper-V program manager, I am very familiar with the process for upgrading virtual machines using Hyper-V.  But I also often get questions about how you do this through System Center Virtual Machine Manager – and why the experiences are different.

How you do it is easy enough – right click on the virtual machine and select Install Virtual Guest Services.  But there are some key things to know that catch some people off guard.

The biggest one is this:  you cannot update the integration services with SCVMM while the virtual machine is running.

Here you can see that I have bought up the contextual menu on a running virtual machine, and the install virtual guest services option is disabled:

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If I shutdown the virtual machine first, and try again – you will see that the option is enabled:

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If I select to install virtual guest services at this point in time, SCVMM will go ahead and do so with no further input from me.

But why does SCVMM require that the virtual machine is off (when Hyper-V does not)?  The short answer is because the in-box Hyper-V tools and SCVMM were designed for very different users.

The in-box Hyper-V tools do not require you to turn off the virtual machine in order to update the integration components, which is nice, but they do require you to login to the virtual machine in order to complete the installation process.  This makes sense when you are managing a handful of virtual machines on a single server – but it does not scale to hundreds of virtual machines across multiple physical servers.

SCVMM handles integration component update by mounting the virtual hard disk and performing an offline installation of the integration components.  While this does require that the virtual machine is turned off first, it makes it much easier to perform on large sets of virtual machines.

Cheers,
Ben

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 21, 2014
    Thank you Benjamin

  • Anonymous
    February 23, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 21, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 21, 2014
    Found it: Set-SCVirtualMachine –InstallVirtualisationGuestServices $true

  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2014
    Hi Ben, Just some ideas: Why not ask the administrator for the required credentials and do an online upgrade? Or have a mechanism where the integration services checks for updates itself? Or provide upgrades through WSUS? If its really about scale, the current implementation is also no option because we now have to contact every VM owner that his/her VM will be shutdown for the upgrade. Or have them do it themselves but they don't... Cheers, Roland

  • Anonymous
    August 20, 2014
    Hi Ben, I am using SCVMM 2012 R2, powered off the VM and the "install virtual guest service" is still inactive. Any advise?

  • Anonymous
    December 29, 2014
    If you've come here because you are getting SCVMM / VMM errors like "Error 1735 Virtual Guest Services are not installed", it is an easy fix - no downgrade / upgrade / uninstall / reinstall needed.  By default / design on the latest operating systems Guest Services are not running (technet.microsoft.com/.../dn798297.aspx) - so your new SCVMM / VMM VM templates, virtual machines, clones etc might not be working as expected. There are a number of ways to turn Guest Services on e.g. Powershell or Hyper-V Manager (yep, bypassing SCVMM / VMM management console).  I used the GUI because the penny didn't drop for me that Guest Services is a subset of Integration Services until it all started working - then a big quiet "duh"; I blogged this to help just in case you are in the same boat.

  • Anonymous
    December 29, 2014
    blogs.technet.com/.../why-r2-guest-services-in-windows-server-2012-r2-hyper-v.aspx

  • Anonymous
    October 07, 2016
    Hi, one question.My Hyper-V Hosts have the Integration Services version "6.3.9600.18398"If i update the VM using the Hyper-V console, i install the version "6.3.9600.18398".But, if i do the same over the SCVMM 2012R2 console (Install virtual guest services), i can't install the version "6.3.9600.18398"SCVMM still use the the old Integration service version "6.3.9600.16384.Whats wrong?Kind regardsRolf

    • Anonymous
      January 03, 2017
      Excellent question. I've had the same issue. I'm installing from a host running “6.3.9600.18398” but the VM continues to report 6.3.9600.16384 after the reboot. What is the cause?