Virtualization of SLES 10 SP3 using Hyper-V R2

You may think, why the heck is he trying to virtualize SLES using Hyper-V and not VMWare or comparable? Using Hyper-V could be a cost-effective scenario to virtualize a Data Protector 6.1x Linux Installation Server, in case that a Windows Server 2008 R2 is used as Cell Server OS or if an available Hyper-V-Server is available.

So what is necessary?

Due to the fact that I am trying to install HP Data Protector 6.1x within the Virtual Machine the supported virtualized OS has to be checked. This results in 2 Options.

– SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP3 64Bit

– SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 64Bit

So first I have decided to use SLES 11, but after installing the OS within Hyper-V I have realized that several important functions like mouse and networking support are not functional. So I have checked Technet and found out that the following Integrations are mandatory:

1. Linux Integration Services V2.1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V

While reading the documentation for the Integration Services you may realize, that mouse support is still not possible. But Microsoft is nice and supports the mouse integration as a result of Project Satori, which is the result of a collaborative agreement between XenSource and Microsoft. But there is still a drawback, you may find it reading the several notes within the documentation of the Linux Integration Services… Synthetic Mouse support is not available on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 at this time. Therefore I have decided to virtualize SLES 10 SP3 64Bit, as this version is supported, from the Microsoft side for all needed integrations and also to run a virtualized Data Protector 6.11 Installation Server.

Installation of Linux Integrations Services:

Therefore I have started installing SLES 10 SP3 x64 with default parameters and the following additional configuration:

– Add C/C++ Compiler and Tools

After the reboot during the network configuration skip the network test, as network is until now not available.

Now obtain the Linux Integration Components from the following link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=de&FamilyID=eee39325-898b-4522-9b4c-f4b5b9b64551

Unpack the files and boot the System the first time, then switch to console 2 using ctrl-alt-F2

Log-in as root

pause the VM.

In Hyper-V Manager, configure LinuxIC v21.ISO (located in the directory where you extracted the downloaded files) as a physical CD/DVD drive on the virtual machine.

rerun the VM.

Create a mount point ( mkdir /media/CDROM ) and mount /dev/hdc /media/CDROM

mkdir /tmp/linuxic

cp –rp /media/CDROM/* /tmp/linuxic

cd /tmp/linuxic

and Install the components using the following commands:

make

make install

reboot

The Linux Integration Services now provide support for the modinfo command. To get module information for each installed kernel module, run the following command:

# /sbin/modinfo vmbus

This command can be repeated for all kernel modules (vmbus, netvsc, storvsc, blkvsc).

To verify that all subcomponents are running,, as the root user, issue the following command at a shell prompt:

# /sbin/lsmod | grep vsc

Installation of Mouse Support:

Obtain the Linux Mouse Support files from the Citrix Project Satori:

http://www.xen.org/files/Satori/inputvsc.iso

Copy the contents of the .ISO to the desired directory using the following commands:

mount /dev/hdc /media/CDROM

mkdir /tmp/inputvsc

cp –rp /media/CDROM/* /tmp/inputvsc

Install the mouse support:

cd /tmp/inputvsc

# ./setup.pl inputdriver

reboot

After the reboot the mouse should work fine.

In addition the virtual Ethernet adapter can be configured now using yast.

Please note, this document was created using several sources, as all sources of information available to me are incomplete or incorrect.  These sources are:

– The official Microsoft Documentation of the Linux Integration Services –> Link

– A good Technet Thread regarding the Virtualization of SLES in Hyper-V –> Link

– The documentation of the Project Satori –> Link