Hyper-V 2008 R2 - Gotcha #1 - How to install Windows Server 2003 SP2 without a network card

jeffl — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:24:00 GMT

Well I am deep into using Hyper-V R2 and I have probably forgotten a dozen things that caught me off guard at the beginning. I have resolved to just blog about them as they come up rather that put them in order of importance.

In order for Hyper-V 2008 R2 Integration services to be installed on Windows Server 2003, SP2 needs to be installed. Now in most circustances this would not be a problem because you could use slipstreamimng to make another ISO image with the SP2 or SP3 install files. For more information on slip streamimng look here: How to integrate software updates into your Windows installation source files.

Having said that, there are instances were you can't slip stream media because of deeper integrations. Just one such case is with SBS 2003 R2. It so happened that I was creating an SBS 2003 VM when I hit this snag. It is one of those catch 22 situations. The network card does not work because integrations services are not installed but you can't install integrations services without SP2 installed and you can't get SP2 on to the VM because you don't have a network connection yet.

So I started thinking through how to get SP2 on the box. My first two thoughts were Pass-Through Disk or Build an ISO. I quckly abandoned those. I started downloading SP2 while I was thinking and that is when VHD support in Wndows 2008 R2 came to mind. Before the download had completed I shutdown the VM with the partially installed SBS 2003. The following is a step by step of how to mount a VHD as a drive in Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2.

Task 1: Attach VHD as Drive on Parent Partition

Click Start > Rick Click on Computer
Select Manage from the right click context menu
Select Storage
Right click Disk Management
Select Attach VHD from the right click context menu
Browse or type the location of your VHD file (In my case it was the OS drive for SBS 2003)
Click OK. Assign a drive Letter (I will assume you selected V: for the rest of the description)
You have now mounted the VHD file as a hard drive and can access it like a regular drive.

Task 2: Add Windows 2003 SP2 to the drive

Right click on the Windows 2003 SP2 installer file you downloaded earlier
Select Send to > V: (V: being the drive letter you assinged to the VHD file)
You have now copied the file to the VHD file on you. You can vaerify this by using Windows Explorer.

Task 3: Dettach the VHD from the Parent

1. Click Start > Rick Click on Computer
2. Select Manage from the right click context menu
3. Select Storage
4. Click Disk Management
5. Right click on Drive V:
6. Select Dettach VHD from the right click context menu
7. You have now detached the VHD file as a hard drive and can start the VM again.

Task 4: Restart SBS 2003 R2 Child Partition and install SP2

Start your Child Partion
After you have logged on
Open windows Explorer and go to the c: drive
Double click the Windows 2003 SP2 installer.
After the installer complete and you have completed the required restarts, insert the Integration Services disk
Once the integration services complete the network card will find its drivers.

So finally I could complete the install of SBS 2003 R2 on Hyper-V 2008 R2.

Hope that helps,

Jeff Loucks
Available Technology

Winrox - Architecture of Acceleration(TM) : Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, Integration Services

Hyper-V 2008 R2 - Gotcha #1 - How to install Windows Server 2003 SP2 without a network card