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Windows Server 2008 R2 will offer Hyper-V V2, the second version of Microsoft's hypervisor virtualization solution.
Among the new features, Hyper-V V2 will feature a new "Dedicated" virtual network type. This will be in addition to the External, Internal, and Private networks currently available in Windows Server 2008.As background, when you create a new virtual network in Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V converts the physical network adapter to a Microsoft Virtual Switch. It also creates a new virtual network adapter attached to the new virtual switch.
In the example above, we see a Hyper-V host with four physical NICs. The first NIC is dedicated to the host, as per best practice, and is attached to the corporate LAN. The other three NICs have been configured as External virtual networks using the Hyper-V Virtual Network Manager.
You will note that there are three disabled virtual NICs at the bottom of the image for the host to use. These virtual NICs were automatically created by Hyper-V when you configure the External virtual network, and are normally enabled by default. I've renamed each NIC and virtual switch on my host server for clarity.
If you're following the best practice of using a dedicated NIC for the Hyper-V host, as above, there normally would be no reason to use these virtual NICs. If you leave them enabled, it can cause a number of problems for the Hyper-V host:
The current recommended way of dealing with this in the Windows Server 2008 version of Hyper-V is to remove all the connections for the new virtual NIC (IPv6, IPv4, etc.) and then disable the virtual NIC. Finally, you should check the network bindings to ensure that the host's NIC is at the top, followed by the virtual switches, and then the disabled NICs.
In Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft introduces the Dedicated virtual network type. When you create a Dedicated virtual network, Hyper-V does not automatically create a corresponding virtual NIC. It simply converts the selected physical NIC to a Microsoft Virtual Switch for the VM(s) to use. No need to disable anything or change network binding orders. Very cool!
Note that you will be unable to create a Dedicated virtual network on a single NIC Hyper-V host. If you did, the host would be unable to connect to the corporate LAN since there would be no NIC (physical or virtual) for it to use.
This new network will be a welcome addition to Hyper-V!
ServerManagerCmd -i Desktop-Experience
bcdedit /default {current}
Now do the following in each Windows OS:
Now Windows will configure the default OS to the current OS whenever the computer starts up. You can also apply this Startup script to all computers in the domain using Group Policy. It will not affect single boot systems.
Thanks to Stephen Rose, the Senior Community Manager for the TechNet Springboard Series for the tips.
Update: I have updated the IPv6Configuration.zip file mentioned below with the new recommendations documented in the article, A 5 Second Boot Optimization If You’ve Disabled IPv6 on Windows Client and Server by setting DisabledComponents to 0xFFFFFFFF.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip6\Parameters\DisabledComponentsNormally, the DisabledComponents value does not exist. If the value does not exist or the value data is 0, IPv6 is enabled on all interfaces.
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Group Policy Management Console |
When viewing a container with a large number of items in ADSIEdit, you may receive the following error:
There are too many items in the folder DC=xxxxxx. Please refine the query parameters or increase the maximum number of items per folder.
The default filter for each container is 10,000 items. To increase the filter, select the parent naming context (Domain, Configuration, Schema, etc.) and click View > Filter in the menu bar. Then enter an appropriate value.