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Installing a Second Server : SBS 2011 Essentials & Premium Add on Server Part 2

March 9, 2012 by Robert Pearman Leave a comment

In my other post on this subject, i mused over the pro’s and con’s of Installing the SBS Essentials Connector on the PAO Server in an effort to get it to appear in the RWA, to allow remote users to connect to it.

You can relive that magical post right here.

Anyway, being a man, i do a lot of thinking while in the bathroom, and an idea hit me the other day which i tried out.
Read more of this post

Filed under General, Hyper-V, SBS E, Tips & Tricks Tagged with PAO, RDS, SBS E

Virtualising your server for Migration Preparation

April 22, 2011 by Robert Pearman Leave a comment

With Virtualisation technology and programs becoming increasingly popular, it makes sense to look at Virtualising your server prior to a major upgrade or migration, keeping the source server as a fully reliable backup/roll back.

Using tools like Shadow Protect, you can very quickly take a running server, and turn it into a bootable virtual machine.

The drawback is it is an expensive product, and, for some smaller consultancy’s it may be a ‘nice to have’ but not something that is looked at as a serious option when preparing to migrate a client.

Hopefully we can change that idea.

Using the Sysinternals tool, disk2VHD, we can take our running system and create a VHD from it. Using this VHD and Microsoft’s Free Hyper-V Server, we can build a VM from that VHD and using this we can begin to prepare our migration or upgrade.)

So, to follow me through this article you will need…

A source server ( i am running SBS 2003 R2 Standard)
Some available hardware to host your virtual server (ideally with at least the same amount of ram as your physical server, but remember your server needs to have hardware that supports hyper-v)
The Sysinternals disk2VHD tool
USB/eSata Storage to transfer VHD (or local network access to the source server)
Microsoft’s free Hyper-V server (this is the pre SP1 version)(1.5gb)
Hyper-V Management Tools (Install the update, then use ‘turn windows features on or off’ to activate) (240mb)

Considerations: Make sure your source server is correctly licensed to allow for virtualisation, Keep in mind technically you are moving the server to new hardware, so a typical OEM license would not cover you for this. That being said, I’m sure we can all use our common sense on the licensing front!

Can i just REITERATE – if you are running an OEM install of SBS 2003 (or any OS) it is highly likely your server will require activation when it boots on the virtual hardware. Reactivation will be at Microsoft’s discretion and i can make no guarantees or whatever :p

Also as we are on new hardware, we will need to follow procedures for your particular OS to change NICs.

This article is split into 10 steps…

Step One – disk2VHD

Step Two – Install Hyper-V Server

Step Three – Initial Hyper-V Configuration

Step Four – Hyper-V Network Configuration

Step Five – Connect to Hyper-V Server

Step Six – Configure your VM

Step Seven -VM Network Configuration

Step Eight – Power Up your VM!

Step Nine – Testing your VM

Step Ten- Back to the Future!!

Step One. disk2VHD

So first of all we will run our disk2VHD tool on our source server, the size of your servers disk drive(s) will determine the time it takes for the VHD to be built, luckily on my source server i only have a single C: drive, and the used space is quite low.

Under VHD File name, you can choose the destination VHD path and file name, once you are happy with that simply click on ‘Create’, to start building your VHD.

You will then have a short, or long, period where the volume(s) are snapshotted, and then you will see some progress and a quite accurate ETA for the time the process will complete.

Once this process is completed i can copy the VHD off to removable media, and begin working with it in Hyper-V.

Step Two. Install Hyper-V Server

SO i guess we should get our Hyper-V server ready.

You’ll want to burn that ISO to a DVD or extract to bootable USB media, and boot.

As usual, press the any key to boot…

Windows loads files from your media..

Windows is starting..

Choose your installation language..

Choose your time and date / keyboard preferences..

Confirm your settings, and click next..

Choose ‘Install Now’…

Setup will begin..

Review the license agreement.. If you accept the terms, check the box and click Next..

Choose a ‘Custom’ install..

Here you can choose your disk formatting options, or install raid controller drivers if needed. I just have a single disk in my system and i am not using RAID – this is my lab system remember. If you are doing a real, live, migration you may want to consider the redundancy of your virtual machine. Yes you can always go back to your VHD if you took a copy before you started, but you don’t really want to start again if you can avoid it!

You can click on Drive Options, if you have to partition format the drive in a specific way, or just click Next if you have a blank drive to let the system format and partition the drive for you.

Setup will now run through, copying files, expanding files, installing features etc etc…

Step Three. Initial Hyper-V Configuration

At first boot, you will need to setup a password for your account. Put some thought in to this, i am running my Hyper-V server in a workgroup. My laptop is also in a workgroup. That means to authenticate between the two we need identically named accounts. (Both username and password) For example if i login to my laptop as Administrator with a password of Rob123 i should set the Hyper-V server username to Administrator, and use a password Rob123. However i wouldn’t recommend you use those :p

Enter your password and confirm..

Success!

Now the system will log you on, and you will get your first look at the Hyper-V Core.

So from the home screen, you can get a little bit of info about the server itself, you can see the default hostname, and domain status, you can configure any one of these options by selecting the corresponding number.

First thing i will do is add a new local admin, as stated above we need identically named accounts on our workstation with the Hyper-V tools installed.

So press ‘3’ and Enter.

Type the new account name, and press enter. The screen will switch over to a traditional command prompt, where you are asked to enter the password for the account, and confirm.

If you confirmed correctly, you will be given a congratulatory message!

Now i want to enable the remote management of the Hyper-V server, so press 4 and enter.

You have several options here, we will go through 1-3 in turn. Start with number 1.

You will receive a message to say this has completed..

Next, use option 2 to enable PowerShell.

Once the powershell commands have completed you will need to restart.

Log back in, and go back to option 4 (Enabled Remote Management), to complete the setup, go to option 3 to enable ‘Remote Server Management’.

It will take a few moments for all the commands to run and complete…

Once that has finished, you can press 5 to return to the main menu. (Reminds me of DOS)

Step Four. Hyper-V Network Configuration

If you want to change the system name at all, just press 2, then enter. I am happy to leave mine on the random name assigned by setup.

Let’s have a quick look at our network settings.. press 8 and Enter.

We can see the NIC’s installed, and the current IP Address. If you want to configure the NIC, press the index number that represents that NIC. So i only have 1 NIC so i can press 0 (zero)

You might want to configure a static IP or any other network setting, this is the place to do it. I am going to put my server on a static IP, so i will need to use option 1.

Choosing option 1, prompts me then to use either DHCP (D), Static (S) or to cancel..

Choose S for Static. Then enter your IP details.

When you enter the default gateway you will see the screen refresh and reflect your new address details.

So you can see DHCP is now showing as false (disabled) and my new static IP is displayed

You can press 4 to go back to the main menu.

From testing i know that the firewall configuration can be tricky.

However, as this will not be a production box i have decided on my system to just switch off the firewall.

There is a great little tool called HVRemote.WSF which you can obtain from here… this takes a lot of the pain out of configuring the Hyper-V core, especially when you follow the instructions, which IMHO could be just a little clearer, but nether the less work well.

You run it both from the Hyper-V server, and the Client that will control the Hyper-V server (most commands are run from the client) it even has a great switch for diagnosing connectivity issues between the two!

To disable the firewall..

Exit to the command line (option 15) and then type:

netsh firewall set opmode disable

(If you choose to Disable the firewall, instead of configuring, You will need to run that command each time you reboot the Hyper-V Server)

As you can see in the screen shot, this command is deprecated now and you are told you should use ‘netsh advfirewall’ instead, but since this command still works, why should we bother??

Quick Recap

Now just to recap, at this point we have installed the Hyper-V core, we have configured it for remote management, we have added a like named user to match our workstation/system with the Hyper-V tools running. We have configured our network adapters and turned off the firewall.

Step Five. Connect to Hyper-V Server

Now that your Hyper-V server is up and running, you probably want to add some Virtual Machines, and finish our server virtualisation project?

You will need a machine running the Hyper-V management tools, you can install these as part of the RSAT, or if you already have a server running Hyper-V you can add it as an additional server.

I have a Windows 7 Pro machine running the Hyper-V tools, so i will connect to the Hyper-V Server from there.

Open up the Hyper-V console.

Right click ‘Hyper-V Manager’ and click on ‘Connect to Server’

Choose to connect to ‘Another Computer’ and enter the IP or HOSTNAME of your Hyper-V Server, and click on OK.

After a short delay, you will see your server is added to the console tree. It will display the hostname, whether you added the server by IP or HOSTNAME.

Select your server from the list, to begin working with Hyper-V on that server. You will see that the Hyper-V console is attempting to connect to the Virtual Machine Management service on the remote server..

And hopefully in a few seconds you will see….

Step Six. Configure your VM

Now we will need to copy our VHD across to the Server, and build our VM.

I am going to attempt to copy my VHD across the network firstly, and then i will walk through the process using removable media.

Before you attempt to power up your VM you MUST move the Hyper-V server to a separate network. You cannot run two Servers on the same Subnet with the same name and IP address.

I ran the disk2VHD tool directly on my SBS server, and stored the created VHD there, so from the Server i will attempt to browse to the Hyper-V server.

So, Click Start, then Run in the run box , enter the UNC path to your server, and as we don’t yet have any shares on the server, let’s try to go for the c$ share.

Hopefully you are prompted to login, so enter the administrator username and password.

If you entered the correct credentials you should now see your C: on the Hyper-V server. Add a new Folder to store your VHD file.

Right click, new > folder. Name the folder VHD and press enter.

Now we can just try to drag and drop our VHD file across..

Sit back and grab a coffee, it might take a while!

When the copy has completed we can switch back to our Hyper-V server and configure the VM.

If you want to use removable media instead, copy the VHD to your media from the source server, plug that media into your Hyper-V server, and you can use the xcopy tool from a command line to copy it across. You might want to use DISKPART to identify which Drive letter your Media has been assigned.

From a command prompt, type..

DISKPART <enter>

LIST VOLUME <enter>

This will show you the volumes on your system, their size, and assigned drive letter.

From here you can gauge which drive is your removable media, and it should be simple enough to copy the file across.

Now we need to configure our networking. My Microserver only has one NIC so i am not able to have a dedicated NIC for management and one for the VM.

In the Hyper-V console, load up the ‘Virtual Network Manager’

Our VM will need physical network access, so we will need to create an ‘External’ Network. Click Add.

You will need to enter a name for your network, you may want to add some notes about it’s purpose/function within your Hyper-V setup, you also need to confirm the physical NIC the network will bind to, and whether or not the Host OS will have access to share this NIC. There are also some other settings which we do not need to worry about.

As i said, i only have the one NIC, so i am leaving all of the defaults here.

Enter a name you are happy with, and click on OK to setup the network.

With a single NIC configuration you may have some temporary disruption when you click on OK. You will be prompted to acknowledge this by clicking ‘Yes’ in a warning dialogue box.

Once the server has applied your networking configuration, you can go ahead and run the New Virtual Machine Wizard.

Right click the Server Name, highlight New, then select Virtual Machine.

Review the information on the ‘Before you Begin’ page, even if you have done it before it is always useful to review this type of information.

Click Next when you are ready.

We will need to name our Virtual Machine – this name will be what is shown within the Hyper-V console. You may also choose to move the configuration information to a non default location.

When you are ready, click Next.

Choose your memory allocation. My Physical server had 1GB of Ram, so i am going to allocate 1GB here. You may want to allocate more if your system has the free memory. My Microserver only has 2GB installed, and remember SBS 2003 only supports up to 4GB of RAM.

When you are ready click Next.

Choose your Network from the dropdown menu. I only have the one to choose. Click Next. (You can ignore this step for Windows 2003 as it does not support the Hyper-V synthetic NIC by default)

Next we choose our VHD. We don’t want to create a New VHD here, so choose to ‘Use an Existing VHD’ and type the path information to the VHD file, you ‘may see it auto-completes for you!

When you are happy with the VHD information, click Next.

Review the settings shown, and if you are happy, click on Finish.

Your new Virtual Machine will now be shown in the details pane of the Hyper-V console.

Step Seven. VM Network Configuration

Now, because we are running Windows Server 2003, we will need to use a ‘Legacy Network Adapter’

Right click the VM, and click Settings.

It should open on the ‘add hardware’ screen, select ‘Legacy Network Adapter’ and click Add.

Again, here you need to choose which network to connect the NIC to, and click on Apply.

Click on OK to close down the settings page.

Your NIC is now installed.

Now remember when we startup, it will be like we have replaced the NIC in a physical server, so there will be some configuration required and the SBS BPA can help us with that.

All that is left to do is start it up!

Step Eight. Power Up your VM!

Remember, your Hyper-V Server should now not be located on the same LAN as your source server.

Double click the VM to connect to it, then click on the green Power Button to power on.

You may be prompted for credentials due to the way the VM, and Hyper-V interact with the remote Hyper-V system, simply login with credentials valid on the remote Hyper-V Server.

Once you have logged in you will see the VM at whatever state it has got to in the boot process, it does not wait whilst you enter credentials!

After a short time you will be at the CTRL-ALT-DEL screen and you can login. (CTRL ALT END on Hyper-V) (CTRL ALT LEFT ARROW, to get your mouse focus back to your local pc)

Once logged on, you can see your server is at exactly the point when we made the disk2VHD snapshot.

At this point you should have a booted SBS 2003 system.

Step Nine. Testing your VM

Your next step is to run the SBS BPA and resolve any issues highlighted. Remember your VM functions just like the real thing, so any issues in the registry that pre-existed for example, still exist. The main issue you are likely to see relates to having a new NIC installed on the system when SBS is tied to the other NIC. This error is the result in a change in the ‘LANNIC’ registry value.. the registry key is located here:

HKLM>Software>Microsoft>SmallBusinessServer>LANNIC

The above shows the current value of the GUID for our LANNIC. If that NIC is removed you might experience errors on the system, and services like DHCP may not work as expected.

The solution is to find the GUID of your actual LAN NIC, copy it down, and replace the value shown above, with your actual GUID.

To find the GUID of your NIC, go to, HKLM>System>Services>TCPIP>Parameters>Interfaces

Step Ten. Back to the Future..

No not a direction to sit in front of a DVD, but i needed a good name for the last step.

At this point you should have a fully functional SBS 2003 Virtualised, on Microsoft’s free Hyper-V server. You are now free to test migrations, patches, backups, anything you like, safe in the knowledge that your physical server, is safe from, well, you!

So you are back, where you started, which is, looking to the future… of your network and a server upgrade? ok that was awful but hopefully you get the point!

I hope you have found this useful, if not a little entertaining.

Links..

HP Microserver
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/15351-15351-4237916-4237918-4237917-4248009.html

Hyper-V system Requirements
http://www.microsoft.com/hyper-v-server/en/us/system-requirements.aspx

Disk2VHD
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx

Hyper-V Download
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=48359dd2-1c3d-4506-ae0a-232d0314ccf6&displaylang=en

Hyper-V Management Tools (RSAT Updated for Windows 7 w/SP1)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=7d2f6ad7-656b-4313-a005-4e344e43997d&displaylang=en

ISO Extraction
http://www.magiciso.com/download.htm

USB Bootable Media Guide
http://www.nogeekleftbehind.com/2010/12/22/how-to-install-sbs-2011-with-a-bootable-usb-drive/

HVRemote
http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/HVRemote

Thanks to Tim Barrett, for his awesome editing and ideas!

Filed under Hyper-V, SBS S Tagged with HyperV, SBS S

Installing Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard Part 1

January 9, 2011 by Robert Pearman 2 Comments

Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard has just been released to manufacturing, and is available through Technet and MSDN Subscriptions if your lucky enough to have one; I am, so what follows is my documented installation procedure for SBS 2011.

A couple of things to note before we start, the download from MSDN is over 6gb (just for disc 1) you’re going to need a DUAL LAYER DVD/RW to write this ISO to a DVD – or like me – use Hyper-V to install.

Once you have the Disc or ISO ready, I guess we need to check the Hardware Requirements?

You might want to review the latest info here on the release notes : Technet/SBS

At the time of writing the following is correct:

Processor: Quad core 2 GHz 64-bit (x64) or faster / 1 socket (4 sockets maximum)

Physical memory (RAM): 8 GB Minimum / 10 GB recommended (32 GB maximum)

Storage capacity: 120 GB

DVD ROM drive

Network adapter: One 10/100 Ethernet adapter

Monitor and video adapter: Super VGA (SVGA) monitor and video adapter with 1024 x 768 or higher resolution

Network devices: A router or firewall device that supports IPv4 NAT

Internet connection: Windows SBS 2011 Standard requires that you connect the server to the Internet.

Optional network devices:
1.Device required by your Internet service provider (ISP) to connect to the Internet

2.One or more switches to connect computers and other devices to the local network

Fax modem : Fax services require a fax modem

All set?

Do you have a RAID Controller in your system – Get the drivers now! Download them to a USB pen drive or Floppy disk and have them ready.

What i am not going to cover is how you set your system to boot from the dvd in the bios, or other methods of install like creating a bootable USB pen (very cool deployment method) and then also setting the bios to boot from USB. You can find more info on USB booting on the page i use every time i need to do it, here… Method 6 being my preferred option. Of course in Hyper-V we can just use the ISO which is much more convenient.

Edit – A Fellow MVP and Friend of Mine – Tim Barrett has jumped on the bandwagon and posted a great article about how to make a usb boot disc for SBS 2011 check it out here at NoGeekLeftBehind.com

So whatever your chosen media and boot options, let’s put the ‘disc’ and fire up our server.

You will need to press the ANY key to boot from your DVD, if you cant find it, just press ENTER

You’ll see a screen flash through where windows loads files from the media, and then a screen that looks like the Windows 7 start up splash screen (don’t worry you haven’t downloaded the wrong ISO (well you MAY have done, but you’ll see this on both SBS 2011, and Windows 7)

Our first look up at the setup screen will remind a lot of us of the Vista/2008 era setup screens, we will need to choose the installation language, and confirm your selection.

We only have one option now which is to install. You may want to review the ‘what to know before installing windows’ section, now is your chance.

Setup will now begin…

You will need to review and agree to the license agreement. Note – I’m not telling you to agree to it, you need to READ IT and accept the terms for yourself!

Agreed? Great, lets move on.

You will need to select whether you want an Upgrade or Custom Install. I haven’t actually tested to see what happens if you click Upgrade – suffice to say an upgrade is not a supported migration path from any version of Windows. I am doing a new clean install, so i am selecting Custom.

With any luck setup will auto detect your hard drive. Those using a raid controller may need to install controller drivers at this point.

You can see the load driver option highlighted here, you will just need to browse for the files on your USB drive or floppy disk and install them, once done your disk(s) will appear.

Since i have only one hard drive and i don’t want to do any partitioning, i am going to format this disk and use the full capacity.

Setup will flag up a warning about partitioning the drive, so that all windows features work correctly. This will also partition a small area of disk (about 100mb) that is reserved for use with BitLocker, it also hosts the Boot loader and Windows PE files.

Ok, now that are disk is formatted, we need to move on.

Select the partition you wish you wish to install onto, in my case Disk 0 Partition 2, and click on to Next.

Continued in Part 2

Filed under General, Hyper-V, SBS S

Installing Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard Part 2

January 9, 2011 by Robert Pearman 6 Comments

Windows will now copy files from the media to the server, and start to expand the installation files. This process may take a while so sit back and grab yourself a coffee.

Once the files are expanded, the second phase will complete quite quickly, installing features and updates almost in the blink of an eye!

Your server will reboot and setup will continue after this..

You will see the ‘Setup is preparing your computer for first use’ screen for a few minutes..

You will now be presented with the a screen titled ‘Install Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard’ with the option of whether to perform a clean installation or a server migration. We are performing a clean installation, so leave that selected and click Next to start the configuration process.

The first step of the process is to set the date and time, and verify the time zone settings of the server.

Please make sure to click the Blue text and verify these details.

Once you’re happy with your clock settings, click Next to continue.

The next page is ‘Server Network Configuration’ the server will attempt to automatically detect your local network and give itself an IP address on that network. You can choose to enter your own configuration information instead if you wish.

I have left mine on the default of ‘automatically detect’ and clicked next. When you’re happy with your configuration, click next.

You now have the chance to download updates during the installation process. I have always said no to this. I think Microsoft’s thinking here is good, in that this process should download updates for the installation routine only, fixing any known issues with installations at this point would be a good thing.

However, for a consistent installation process, and to speed the installation up, i choose not to install updates. This is also a view shared by a lot of the other SBS MVP’s so i am not alone. Our advice here may change if a major issue is discovered but for now, click to not get updates.

Click Next to continue.

Setup is now trying to connect to your network, and if you did choose to, will download updates. (Remember if can only download updates if there is valid network configuration information and an internet connection, it isn’t magic)

This process is going to take varying amounts of time, based on the spec, and the choices your entered. Might be time for another coffee?

When you return you will be presented with some familiar screens for those that have worked with SBS before.

Continued in Part 3

on a job well done.

Filed under General, Hyper-V, SBS S

Installing Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard Part 3

January 9, 2011 by Robert Pearman 4 Comments

You should now have the Company Information screen, where you can enter business address and contact details.

The personalise your server and network screen, where you choose your Server name and internal Domain name.

This may be the single most important screen you have to configure in the whole installation. This stuff cannot be changed – ever! so take your time and get it right, no second chances or forgiveness for typo’s!

A tip i picked up in the SBS 2008 era, (in this book) was to use a generic name for both the server and the domain. You should have read that book already so i am not going to repeat it, but suffice to say it makes things a lot easier if you ever want to merge with another network.

Server Name : SBSSERVER

Internal Domain Name: SBS

When you’re happy with your choices, hit next.

We now have the ‘Add a network administrator’ page.

As was the case with SBS 2008, the Administrator account is unavailable for use here, so you must choose a new name and password.

Please enter somethng unique, and not to obvious to guess – Admin – for example is a bit of a waste of time. Another tip for you that we employed was to use the initials of our consultancy and that of the clients company, anyway you choose whatever you want, i am choosing Don Funk (thanks to Justin and Wayne for that one )

You’ll also need to enter a strong password.

Remember this is your Domain Administrator password, it should not be Password1 and it should not be written down and stuck to your monitor!

When you have entered all of this information, Click Next.

You will now see a summary page, this is your chance to confirm and or change anything you are not 100% happy with.

Click Next when you’re ready.

The server will now shutdown and restart, when it boots back up you will have a period of time to wait whilst the server expands and installs the SBS installation. You can choose to sit and wait and read the inspirational messages about how much more efficient your company will be once the install has finished and how the integrated management console will add value to your business, or you can take a break for about 30 minutes and finish that coffee.

Your server will reboot a few times during this period, and with any luck after about 30 minutes you will be presented with a Successful Installation message.

Once your server has finished the installation, you will have several configuration tasks to complete, including configuring the backup, and updating windows adding your users and joining your computers to the domain.

For now, why not congratulate yourself on a job well done.

Filed under General, Hyper-V, SBS S

Installing IPCOP as a Hyper-V Guest – Part 3

December 21, 2010 by Robert Pearman 6 Comments

You will now have the chance to configure your keyboard mapping, time zone, passwords, and additional interfaces.

Select your keyboard layout using the TAB key, and again, TAB down to OK.

Repeat for your Time Zone

Next enter the hostname you would like, and TAB down to OK.

Choose an internal domain name, and TAB down to OK. I am leaving mine on the defaults. IPCOP.localdomain

Now you can configure your ISDN interfaces… what? you don’t have a brook trout ISDN card? Oh, well if your like me, and you DON’T need to use ISDN, i would choose to disable it.

TAB across to DISABLE ISDN and hit SPACE to accept.

Next we need to choose our NETWORK CONFIGURATION TYPE.

If you have followed the above advice you will need to choose GREEN + RED then TAB down to OK.

You will see a screen showing ‘pushing non local network down’

You’re then returned to the Network Configuration Menu.

Select Drivers and Card Assignments.

You will see your TULIP card is assigned to the GREEN NIC, but RED shows as UNKNOWN (UNSET)

We do wish to change these settings, so select OK.

Again you will see a screen showing ‘pushing non local network down’

You will now see a message about an unclaimed NIC, you can assign this NIC to RED, select OK.

All cards are now successfully allocated.

You can now set your address settings for your NICs.

We have already configured the GREEN NIC, so select RED and select OK.

This section will vary dependant on your own lab setup. I have my RED NIC set to use DHCP, and i have a DHCP server on the LAB network handing out an IP to it. Make sure you have a valid address to hand if you want to statically assign this.

I’m setting mine to DHCP.

When you’re ready, select DONE.

If you have selected to use a STATIC configuration on the RED NIC, you will then need to go ahead and enter DNS and GATEWAY information on the next menu.

You can also configure IPCOP to be a DHCP server,but we do not need to do that for this setup. You will be prompted to do this after selecting DONE on the network configuration menu.

When you’re happy with you configuration, select DONE.

On the DHCP Server Configuration menu, leave the defaults and select OK.

Make sure you don’t hit CANCEL at this point like i just did, if you do, i can’t say what your results will be like, so probably best to start over!

If your smart, and you don’t hit cancel, you can now enter your ‘root’ password. This is just used for console access.

As this is a lab system i am going to enter ‘password’ you won’t actually see the characters as you type them, TAB down to confirm, and TAB down to select OK.

Next is the ‘admin’ password – this is used when accessing the web console.

Now enter a password to be used when doing an export of your backup key.

Setup is now complete.

Your IPCOP VM will now reboot, and you will be able to access the web console of your system from a locally connected VM.

Your system will boot and you will see an ‘ipcop login:’ prompt when it has booted up.

The console is not something i have used to configure IPCOP so i will refer you to their documentation for configuration tips.

Update – 10/02/2016 Please see below comments re updated port numbers for IPCOP Login

If you logon to a locally connected VM you can access the console at: http://192.168.16.254:81

You will get redirected to an HTTPS site – so don’t be alarmed if you get a certificate warning.

If you want to get really clever with it, you can then start to use the firewall on the IPCOP to publish services on the ‘internal’ / ‘GREEN’ network, which you can then access from your physical network.

And there you have it, an operational NAT device to separate your Hyper-V guest machines.

Filed under General, Hyper-V

Installing IPCOP as a Hyper-V Guest – Part 2

December 21, 2010 by Robert Pearman 1 Comment

I think i hit the limit for blog entry size – so have had to break this up into several entries.

Before we power it up, we need to add some network interfaces. As mentioned above IPCOP does not support the use of the Hyper-V synthetic NIC, so we need to add a ‘legacy’ network adapter. Well, two to be precise. As this is going to be our NAT device we need both an internal and an external interface.

So, lets go into the settings of our VM, Find your IPCOP machine in your VM list and right click and click settings.

This opens the Add Hardware section of the VM settings, select Legacy Network Adapter, and click Add.

You are now on the Legacy Network Adapter settings page, where you can choose which network this NIC will be connected to, the MAC address settings and the VLAN settings.

I am possibly showing my inexperience with Hyper-V now, but i have chosen to add this NIC to the ‘Private’ VM network i have created (a network just for the vm’s) and i also have mine set to use a dynamic MAC address.

When you’re ready hit ok, and the NIC will be added. Repeat the process so we have one NIC connected to the Private network for VM’s and one connected to the External network.

In my setup, the first NIC i add or rather the first NIC installed into the Hyper-V guest, is the interface IPCOP treats as it’s GREEN interface. More on that in a bit.

Now that we have our NIC’s added we can boot up our VM. Close down the settings window and go back to the Hyper-V management console. Double click your IPCOP VM to open a connection to it, and hit the power button to power it up.

Your VM will start to power up, you will need to press enter when prompted to enter the IPCOP setup.

Choose your installation language.

Select OK to continue the installation.

Since we are using an ISO file as our installation media, it is ok to accept the defaults on CDROM/USB Key

The setup will now probe your hardware.

Select OK for the installation to being formatting and partitioning your virtual hard disk.

This process may take some time, so why not get your self a well earned coffee, or beer?

I mean – this takes a really long time – my system is a Quad Core Xeon, and this VM has 1gb of ram and it takes roughly 25 minutes.

If you hung around by your screen long enough you will have seen a few screens flash up, one saying installing files, another making swap space…

If not, you will have come back to see a screen saying, if you have a backup configuration of IPCOP you can now restore it. I’m assuming you don’t, so we will choose to skip this by selecting ‘Skip’ Press TAB to switch between options, and then press SPACE to select.

TAB down to OK to continue.

The next screen will attempt to PROBE for you NIC. I think that is the first time i have used the word PROBE in an article, and i don’t often use it in every day conversation either. Is it odd I’m enjoying the use of the word probe? I do though…. PROBE.

Sorry, side tracked there slightly.

So we are Probing for our GREEN interface. This is the interface that is considered ‘safe’ and will represent our internal network.

Press space to start Probing.

You will see a list of NICs whizz past, and hopefully it should settle on something. I am not going to say what it will settle on, as i am not sure if it is dependant on what type of Physical NIC you have in your system, mine has chosen – Digital 21x4x Tulip PCI Ethernet card.

Select OK.

We need to enter our Internal IP address now for the IPCOP system. I am a bit of a traditionalist so i keep my SBS boxes on the 192.168.16.x/24 range. So I’ll put the IPCOP on 192.168.16.254