The layers to Linux on Hyper-V

Recently I have been seeing and getting many questions regarding the Linux Integration Components for Hyper-V virtual machines.

Through a bit of questioning, I have discovered a couple things, and distinct levels to running Linux VMs on Hyper-V.

Note: Since SuSE 10 SP2 is the ‘supported’ distribution, any instructions will be specific to it.

I am assuming that you have obtained the SuSE media and performed a ‘vanilla’ installation into a new Hyper-V virtual machine.

WARNING: Level One can lead to Level Two. And, always perform a backup / export / snapshot before proceeding. All usual disclaimers apply.

Level One – the beginning

This is a simple installation of just the Linux operating system within a Hyper-V virtual machine. The only caveat is that the VM needs a Legacy Network adapter for network connectivity.

In this case you will end up with a working Linux VM. It should auto detect an install an SMB (multi-processor) kernel and it should just work. The performance is not the best that it could be, but it should run.

Level Two – the path to enlightenment

This is the simple installation from above, with the addition of the Hyper-V Linux drivers.

This one is a bit more involved. However, the end result is that you are running the synthetic Network Adapter, and the optimized storage, and display (and other) drivers.

This optimizes drivers, but advanced integration features such as shutdown from the host (or SCVMM) is currently not available.

To obtain driver enlightenment:

a) Obtain the LinuxIC.iso

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=ab7f4983-93c5-4a70-8c79-0642f0d59ec2#tm

b) obtain the inputvsc.iso for the mouse driver

http://www.xen.org/download/satori.html

c) add the kernel-source and gcc-c++ packages

YaST can be used for this, either GUI or command line

Note: if an ISO was previously attached, you may need to detach, pause, then attach the desired ISO for SuSE auto-mount to pick up the change.

If that does not work, make a mount point ( mkdir /media/CDROM ) and mount /dev/hdc /media/CDROM

d) Install the linuxic drivers

a. Open a Terminal

b. attach the downloaded LinuxIC.iso through the Hyper-V manager

c. Create a folder and copy the contents to the folder

d. mkdir /tmp/linuxic

e. cp –rp /media/CDROM/* /tmp/linuxic

f. cd /tmp/linuxic

g. ./setup.pl drivers

e) Install the mouse driver

a. Attach the inputvsc.iso through the Hyper-V manager

b. Create a folder and copy the contents.

c. mkdir /tmp/inputvsc

d. cp –rp /media/CDROM/* /tmp/inputvsc

Note: you may need to mount again: mount /dev/hdc /media/CDROM

e. cd /tmp/inputvsc

f. ./setup.pl

f) Power down the VM, remove the Legacy Network Adapter, add a Synthetic Network adapter, power on the VM (you could also do a shutdown now –hP)

g) Using YaST (or YaST2), configure the newly installed synthetic network adapter.