Nested Virtualization and Powershell Direct in Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V Host

This blog will show on how to enable Nested virtualization as well as using Windows Powershell Direct which are both new features in Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V Host.

Windows PowerShell Direct create remote sessions and run windows powershell cmdlets on a remote host. It can only be used from the host to the virtual machine

Requirements:

·         The host must be running Windows Server 2016 or Windows 10

·         The guest must be running Windows Server 2016 or Windows 10

·         Windows PowerShell must be running as administrator

·         You must use credentials to authenticate to the virtual machine

Nested Virtualization enables a hyper-V guest virtual machine to be a Hyper-V host as well.

Requirements:

·         At least 4GB of static memory

·         MAC address spoofing enabled

·         Virtual machine configuration version 8.0

For this blog, I will use pre-created VM that is already in configuration version 8.0 I will show how to set it up.

NOTE: To upgrade configuration version of your VM from version 5 to 8.0, First, turn off your virtual machine and then, right click your virtual machine and click upgrade configuration version.

Host Detail:

Name - VINCE

OS Version - Windows Server 2016

Virtual Machine Details:

Name – Powershell-Direct-G1

OS Version – Windows Server 2016

Configuration Version – 8.0

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First, Enable Expose Virtualization Extension so that applications that require hardware virtualization can run on virtual machines without binary translation. In Windows Powershell type the following commands and press enter:

Set-VMProcessor –VMName Powershell-Direct-G1 –ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true

Then, Enable MAC Adddress Spoofing. It allows virtual machines to change the source MAC address in outgoing packets to one that is not assigned to them.

NOTE: You can run nested virtual machine without enabling MAC address spoofing. But you might encounter some issues when it comes to network traffic.

Get-VMNetworkAdapter –VMName powershell-direct-g1 | Set-VMNetworkAdapter –MacAddressSpoofing On

Lastly, Set Memory Startup Bytes to at least 4GB. Remember that 4GB is the minimum static memory required to run nested virtual machine.

Set-VM –VMName powershell-direct-g1 –MemoryStartUpBytes 4GB

Now, Let’s test the virtual machine if we can now install Hyper-V feature.

On windows Powershell,enter a command:

Start-VM –VMName powershell-direct-g1

You should see that the Virtual machine starts.

Use Windows Powershell to remotely manage virtual machine.

Enter-PSSession –VMName powershell-direct-g1

You should see that you must enter the credentials for virtual machine

You can see the virtual machine name on the powershell windows which means that you are now connected to remote session

Next, Install Hyper-V feature in virtual machine and restart it to apply the installation

Install-WindowsFeature -Name Hyper-V -IncludeAllSubFeature -IncludeManagementTools -Restart

After the installation, It will automatically restart

After the virtual machine restarts, Re-connect to windows powershell direct session

Enter-PSSession -VMName powershell-direct-g1

then supply credentials required.

once connected again, check if Hyper-V feature is installed.

in Powershell windows enter this command:

Get-WindowsFeature -Name Hyper-V

You can see that it is now installed.

Hope it helps a lot.

If you have any concerns/questions, just comment and i will respond as soon as i can.

Thank you!