How to Discover Physical Computers and Deploy as Hyper-V Hosts in VMM
Updated: May 13, 2016
Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Virtual Machine Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager, System Center 2012 - Virtual Machine Manager
You can use the following procedure to create a fully-managed Hyper-V host from a physical computer through Virtual Machine Manager (VMM). The physical computer can either be a “bare-metal computer”, which means a computer without an operating system installed, or a computer with an installed operating system that will be overwritten during this process. In this procedure, you use the Add Resource Wizard to do the following:
Discover the physical computer through out-of-band management
Deploy an operating system image on the computer through the host profile or the physical computer profile
Enable the Hyper-V role on the computers
Bring the computer under VMM management as a managed Hyper-V host
Note
As of System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager host profiles are replaced by physical computer profiles. Physical computer profiles are used in the same manner as host profiles to discover physical computers and to deploy them as Hyper-V hosts.
Prerequisites
Before you begin this procedure, make sure that the following prerequisites are met:
The physical computers must be correctly configured, a PXE server must exist and must be added to VMM management, a host profile or (as of System Center 2012 R2) a physical computer profile must exist, and any needed driver files must be added to the library. For more information, see Prepare the Physical Computers in VMM, How to Add a PXE Server to VMM, How to Create a Host or a Physical Computer Profile to Provision a Hyper-V Host in VMM, and How to Add Driver Files to the VMM Library.
Important
As described in Prepare the Physical Computers in VMM, if your environment has multiple Domain Name System (DNS) servers, where DNS replication may take some time, we strongly recommend that you create DNS entries for the computer names that will be assigned to the physical computers, and allow time for DNS replication to occur. Otherwise, host deployment may fail.
If you are running VMM in System Center 2012 and you plan to assign static IP addresses to the hosts, then for each physical computer, obtain and note the MAC address of the network adapter that you want to use for management. The management adapter is the network adapter that the host will use for communication with the VMM management server. Typically, you can obtain the MAC address of the installed network adapters from the BIOS or EFI settings, or from the invoice sheet that you receive from the OEM.
If you are running VMM in System Center 2012, and the computers that you want to deploy as hosts contain multiple network adapters or disk volumes, it is a best practice to collect detailed information about the adapters (for example, MAC addresses) and the volumes (for example, disk sizes) before you begin the deployment process. Collecting this information can help you to create the intended configuration during deployment.
If you are running VMM in System Center 2012 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or in System Center 2012 R2, and the computers that you want to deploy as hosts contain multiple network adapters or disk volumes, you do not have to collect detailed information about the adapters and volumes before beginning the deployment process. Instead, you can view this information during host deployment, through a process called deep discovery.
Although it is not a required prerequisite, you can create a Run As account before you begin this procedure. (You can also create the account during the procedure.) The Run As account must have permissions to access the Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) that is used for out-of-band management on the computers that you want to discover.
For example, create a Run As account that is named BMC Administrator.
Note
You can create a Run As account in the Settings workspace. For more information about Run As accounts, see How to Create a Run As Account in VMM.
To discover the physical computer and deploy it as a managed Hyper-V host
Open the Fabric workspace.
In the Fabric pane, click Servers.
On the Home tab, in the Add group, click Add Resources, and then click Hyper-V Hosts and Clusters.
The Add Resource Wizard opens.
On the Resource location page, click Physical computers to be provisioned as virtual machine hosts, and then click Next.
On the Credentials and protocol page, do the following:
Next to the Run As account box, click Browse, click a Run As account that has permissions to access the BMC, and then click OK.
Note
If you do not already have a Run As account, click Browse, and then in the Select a Run As Account dialog box, click Create Run As Account.
For example, if you created the Run As account that is described in the Prerequisites section of this topic, click the BMC Administrator account, and then click OK.
In the Protocol list, click the out-of-band management protocol that you want to use for discovery, and then click Next.
Note
- If you want to use Data Center Management Interface (DCMI), click Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI). Although DCMI 1.0 is not listed, it is supported.
- If you use SMASH, make sure that you use the latest version of firmware for the BMC model.
On the Discovery Scope page, specify the IP address scope that includes the IP addresses of the BMCs. You can enter a single IP address, an IP subnet, or an IP address range.
If you are provisioning a single computer, you can either specify a single IP address, or specify an IP address range that both starts and ends with the intended IP address. If you specify a single IP address, when you click Next, the computer will be restarted. If you specify an IP address range, when you click Next, information about the computer will be displayed, and you can confirm that you specified the computer that you meant to.
To continue, click Next.
If you specified an IP subnet or an IP address range, the Target resources page will list the discovered computers. Select the check box next to each computer that you want to convert to a Hyper-V host. If you are running VMM in System Center 2012 SP1 or System Center 2012 R2, and you do not need the information that is provided through deep discovery (for example, MAC addresses of network adapters), then you can decrease the time that is needed for deployment by clearing the Skip deep discovery for the selected computers check box.
Warning
If you select a computer that already has an operating system installed, and later in this procedure you select the option to skip the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) check for the computer name, the operating system will be overwritten during the deployment process. Make sure that you select the correct computers. Keep careful records of the IP addresses of the BMCs, or verify the computers by using the System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) GUID or the serial number.
Click Next.
On the Provisioning options page, do the following, and then click Next:
In the Host group list, click the host group that you want to assign as the target location for the new Hyper-V hosts.
For example, click New York\Tier0_NY.
Choose whether the Hyper-V hosts will obtain their network settings through DHCP, or whether to assign static IP addresses from an IP address pool that is managed by VMM. For either option, in the Host profile list, you must select a profile that contains these predefined network settings. Only the profiles with an IP address setting that matches the selected assignment type will appear in the list.
For example, if you want to obtain network settings through DHCP, click Obtain IP addresses and other network settings through a DHCP service, in the Host profile list, click the WS08R2Ent Hyper-V Hosts – DHCP profile, and then click Next. If you want to specify static IP addresses, click Specify static IP addresses and customize deployment settings for each host, in the Host profile list, click the WS08R2Ent Hyper-V Hosts - Static profile, and then click Next.
If you are running VMM in System Center 2012 SP1 or System Center 2012 R2, follow this step. Otherwise, skip to the next step.
Select a computer, allow time for deep discovery, and click items in the list on the left to review information about the computer. As needed, adjust settings.
For example, to configure specific switch or port settings for a network adapter (different from the settings that you configured in the host profile or the physical computer profile), click Network adapters, locate a network adapter in the list, and for that adapter, click the ellipsis button (…). A dialog box with advanced configuration settings opens. For more information about switch and port settings, see the links at the end of this procedure. As another example, to specify the disk volume on which the operating system should be installed, click Disks, and then select the appropriate volume.
As a best practice, with a new or changed host profile or physical computer profile, or new computers, review the information in this wizard page carefully.
Important
If the number of physical network adapters in a computer does not match the number of physical network adapters that are defined in the host profile or the physical computer profile, you must specify any missing information for the adapters. Also, if you decide not to deploy a computer at this time, for example, if it requires physical hardware to be installed or uninstalled on it, you can remove the computer from the list of those that are to be deployed. To do this, select the BMC IP address of the computer that you want to remove, and then click the Remove button.
On the Deployment customization page, the steps vary, depending on whether you selected a profile that uses DHCP or a profile that uses static IP addresses.
Note
Until you type a computer name for each computer, a Missing settings warning appears.
For a profile that uses DHCP: If in step 9b you selected a host profile or a physical computer profile that uses DHCP, do the following:
Click a BMC IP address in the list.
In the Computer name box, enter a computer name for the selected entry. The computer name cannot include any wildcard characters. Also, the computer name must be unique.
For example, enter HyperVHost05.contoso.com.
Decide whether to select the Skip Active Directory check for this computer name check box based on the following information:
If the check box is clear, deployment will fail if the computer account already exists in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). This check helps to prevent you from accidentally overwriting the operating system on an existing computer.
If you select the check box, deployment will continue if the computer account already exists in AD DS.
Warning
If you select the Skip Active Directory check for this computer name check box, and the computer exists in AD DS and has an existing operating system, deployment will overwrite the existing operating system installation.
Note that if there is an existing computer account in AD DS that was created by a user other than the Run As account that was specified in the host profile or the physical computer profile, and you skip Active Directory verification, the deployment process will fail to join the computer to the domain.
If multiple BMC IP addresses are listed, for each one, click the entry, and then enter a computer name.
For example, for a second computer, enter HyperVHost06.contoso.com.
When you complete this step, and there are no more Missing settings warnings, click Next.
Review the warning message, and then click OK to continue.
Note
Until you complete all required settings for a computer, a Missing settings warning or Invalid MAC address error appears.
For a profile that uses static IP addresses: If in step 9b you selected a host profile or a physical computer profile that uses static IP addresses, do the following for each BMC IP address in the list:
In the Computer name box, enter the name of the computer. The computer name cannot include any wildcard characters. Also, the computer name must be unique.
For example, enter HyperVHost05.contoso.com.
Decide whether to select the Skip Active Directory check for this computer name check box based on the following information:
If the check box is clear, deployment will fail if the computer account already exists in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). This check helps to prevent you from accidentally overwriting the operating system on an existing computer.
If you select the check box, deployment will continue if the computer account already exists in AD DS.
Warning
If you select the Skip Active Directory check for this computer name check box, and the computer exists in AD DS and has an existing operating system, deployment will overwrite the existing operating system installation.
Note that if there is an existing computer account in AD DS that was created by a user other than the Run As account that was specified in the host profile or in the physical computer profile, and you skip Active Directory verification, the deployment process will fail to join the computer to the domain.
In the MAC address box, enter the MAC address of the management network adapter on the selected computer.
Note
The management adapter is the network adapter that will be used to communicate with the VMM management server. This is not the MAC address of the BMC.
In the Logical network list, click the logical network that you want to use. The default logical network is what is defined in the host profile or in the physical computer profile. The list of available logical networks matches what is available to the host group that you selected in step 9.
In the IP subnet list, click the IP subnet that you want to use. The list of subnets is scoped to what is defined for the logical network in the associated network sites.
Important
Make sure that you select the correct IP subnet that corresponds to the physical location where you are deploying the hosts. Otherwise, deployment will fail.
To assign an IP address, do either of the following:
To automatically assign an IP address from the selected IP subnet, make sure that the Obtain an IP address corresponding to the selected subnet check box is selected. VMM will assign an IP address from the first available static IP address pool.
Note
If the Obtain an IP address corresponding to the selected subnet check box is selected, the IP range and IP address settings do not apply.
To assign a specific IP address from the selected IP subnet, clear the Obtain an IP address corresponding to the selected subnet check box. In the IP range list, click the IP address range that you want. In the IP address box, enter an available IP address that falls in the range.
Note
The list of IP address ranges is scoped to the static IP address pools that are available for the selected subnet.
When you complete this step, and there are no more warnings or error messages, click Next.
Review the warning message, and then click OK to continue.
On the Summary page, confirm the settings, and then click Finish to deploy the new Hyper-V hosts and bring them under VMM management.
The Jobs dialog box appears. Make sure that all steps in the job have a status of Completed, and then close the dialog box.
To confirm that the host was added, follow these steps:
Open the Fabric workspace.
In the Fabric pane, expand Servers, expand All Hosts, and then expand the host group that you specified in step 9a.
Verify that the new Hyper-V hosts appear in the host group.
Tip
To run any post-deployment scripts on a specific Hyper-V host, right-click the host, and then click Run Script Command.
In the advanced script command settings, note that the Restart the computer or virtual machine if the specified exit code is returned setting is ignored when you run the script on a host.
See Also
Adding Physical Computers as Hyper-V Hosts or as Scale-Out File Servers in VMM Overview
Configuring Hyper-V Host Properties in VMM
Creating and Modifying Hyper-V Host Clusters in VMM