Hyper-V Review by a Database Administrator/Developer
April 13, 2016
Hyper-V Review by a Database Administrator/Developer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Hyper-V
Hyper-V is used across R&D, IT, and support. Each department has their own Hyper-V server but can use VMs from another department's server if need be. We create Virtual Machines in Hyper-V for testing and quality control purposes and to recreate issues from clients in order to track down the proper fix for that issue. The business problem it addresses is having to recreate so many different environments for testing, quality assurance and support. We can test upgrades, patches, configuration setting, etc., with little overhead costs.
Pros
- Make creation of VMs simple with a wizard that will walk you through each step. A brand new user to Hyper-V should be able to open Hyper-V and create a VM in a matter of minutes. Creating and using the VM are different but creating the actual VM is simple.
- Taking snapshots of VMs is simple. Just choose the VM and choose to create a snapshot. The snapshots are easy to manage and are shown in a graphical 'tree' to show how they are related and what the order of their creation is.
- Changing VM setting and configurations are simple within Hyper-V settings. You can change everything from the amount of RAM to the size of the hard drive along with how many processors a VM is allocated from the Hyper-V host. You can also add network 'cards' and drives to mimic different RAID and networking setups.
Cons
- Migrating files from one Hyper-V host to another can be tricky if the VM has snapshots. In testing environments most VMs will have snapshots and it can be a headache to move a VM from one host to another.
- Export/Import process is a bit clunky. There are various options when exporting and Hyper-V doesn't do the best job describing them for new users. Once you have done this a few times it is easier but the first few times may be more difficult.
- Cloning VMs causes issues. This is more of an issue with Windows and the system ID that Windows has but cloning a VM is not as easy as just copying the files and pasting them in another folder. The VM setting will clone just fine but the VM hard drive (VHD or VHDX) could cause issues.
- It allowed us to automate our VM creation process using PowerShell which cut our VM creation time down from 8+ hours to under 2 hours. This allowed us to respond to clients faster and get testing done in a much quicker manner.
- Negative impact was setting up and testing the VM creation automation process took multiple months. Part of this was because we developed a .NET interface that was used for VM data collection (name, HD size, RAM, etc) and creating and testing that application took time but getting the remote PowerShell command syntax correct and tested did take time.
I have never managed another virtual server environment so I cannot comment on how it compares.
Hyper-V Feature Ratings
Using Hyper-V
5 - Research and Development, IT, support. R&D deals with production systems, testing environments, and client environments for Issue resolution. IT utilizes Hyper-V for most of the shared drives for the company and also for specific short term needs of department members. Support uses Hyper-V to have multiple release levels of our software available at one time since our clients release level ranges over multiple releases and to properly assist and track client issues we need environments available immediately to test and reproduce their problems to troubleshoot and diagnose.
3 - Database Administrators and IT Support. Database Administrators create and manage many of the VM's in the company for testing, QA, and client issue resolution. IT supports Hyper-V by supporting the physical machines in the server room and ensuring that they are performing optimally.
- QA environments at different release and version levels to test released and in-development software code.
- Shared drive locations across the company that can be backed up and snapshot at specific intervals to ensure proper record keeping.
- Client configured environments to help with Client defect tracking and resolution.
- To create a bank of test environments for testers to use and to easily create different snapshots at release levels to avoid needing 10+ physical machines to test in.
- To create on demand environments for all the various needs from clients, qa, testing, etc.
Evaluating Hyper-V and Competitors
- Prior Experience with the Product
- Vendor Reputation
- Existing Relationship with the Vendor
- Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
Aderant is a Gold partner with Microsoft and we use primarily all Microsoft products so this was a no brainer as it is consistent with their other software base and can be integrated using tools such as PowerShell.
We wouldn't since we are a Gold partner and we use Windows and many other Microsoft products. Having that consistency and integration possibility is of great value to us. Plus we already have the knowledge, skills and abilities to use Hyper-V and its' tools.
Hyper-V Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Change management was minimal - We have been using Hyper-V for over 8 years now so there was very minimal change management. Also the team that manages Hyper-V is small and thus there isn't a large amount of people who are affected when we change versions/releases. The biggest part of Implementing a new release or version is to test a VM on it before mass migrating VM's to the new host. This is simple and Hyper-V contains export/import options to assist with moving VM's.
- There were no Hyper-V related issues. The only issue we had was reconnecting the secondary data drive to the server and configuring the RAID level on the machine.
Hyper-V Training
- Online training
- In-person training
- Self-taught
Yes, it has a very intuitive graphical interface that allows a new user to immediately get down and dirty with making and managing a virtual environment. This is a good approach in my opinion as there are few things you can do in Hyper-V that would affect someone else since it is virtual and things can be rolled back or deleted without much consequence.
Configuring Hyper-V
Don't use dynamic memory. You can end up in a black hole of sorts where the memory demands and supply get complex and you start having machines time out and shut down to save memory on the Hyper-V host. Some VM's also may not relinquish RAM the way they should depending on the OS that is on that VM so you can run into issues with RAM not being used by a VM that Hyper-V can't take back for other resources.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
We used some custom network connection setting to test certain client issues and we also utilized certain security features to replicate what client servers did or to test certain setting within on own software code. These were more VM based than the entire Hyper-V server though.
Hyper-V Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
Our team had an issue with snapshots becoming corrupt and we were unable to delete the snapshots to make room on the server hard drive. This became an issue as we had to have larger and larger VM's to test certain client issues that had large databases on the VM's. We had to call support to find a way to get rid of these files because Hyper-V would tell us the file was in use and even after restarting Hyper-V server the file still said it was in use so we had to find certain actions in the Windows Server management tools to find the file locks and manually delete those locks and then manually delete the snapshot files. Then we had to restart the Hyper-V servers to be able to realize the space savings.
Using Hyper-V
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using | None |
- Creating a VM using the Hyper-V wizards.
- Editing the settings and configuration of a VM
- Takings snapshots of VM's and managing the different levels is a simple 'tree' structure.
- Exporting and Importing VM's and their settings can be hard for new users.
- Cloning VM's can sometimes cause issues when starting either of the VM's (VM being cloned or that was cloned)
- Moving or migrating VM's from one VM host to another.
Hyper-V Reliability
Integrating Hyper-V
- PowerShell
- Command Prompt
- .NET
Fairly simple since Windows Server 2012 R2 has Powershell commands that are specifically for Hyper-V. .NET also has functionality to work with remote servers and send remote commands so you can put a GUI with the Hyper-V abilities.
- Team Foundation Server
- Visual Studio Test Manager
Not that I am aware of. I'm not sure how the integration would work with these as the purpose of the integration would be to automate testing of development software but deploying that software would be interesting.
I have not used any of these. The only ones I have integrated were other Microsoft products for managing Hyper-V and it's Virtual Machines.
If you have issues then use the Microsoft TechNet resource for previous users experience and knowledge. Also being familiar with PowerShell commands helps as you can manage Hyper-V solely from PowerShell if desired (this is actually required if you use the Windows Server 2012 R2 non-GUI install).
Relationship with Microsoft
I was not present for this negotiation.
Ensure that your needs are stated in a complete manner so that you know what you are and aren't getting. Also find out about previous implementations and user experiences with similar organizations or implementations.
Upgrading Hyper-V
Yes - We upgraded from Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2012 R2. The upgrade process was simple and straightforward and we just had to do the normal Windows upgrade and then go into the servers features and add the Hyper-V feature to access the Hyper-V management console. We then migrated our VM's to the host and began using the new Hyper-V features from Windows Server 2012 R2.
- Faster services. The new server version is faster and the wizards are just as easy to use.
- The ability to change certain settings and configurations using live VM's which kept us from having to shut down VM's causing down time to the organization.
- The ability to use PowerShell 4.0 to it's full extent in Server 2012 R2 which offers built-in Hyper-V commands which make managing VM's and Hyper-v much easier when you know the commands.
- Live migration of VM's from one host to another.
- Live cloning of VM's to be able to recreate a VM that is in production and can't be changed. This would add the ability to test changes without affecting a Production machine while ensuring that the setting and configuration variables are exactly the same.
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