Hyper-V RC0 and Integration Components Workaround

If you've upgraded to RC0 of Hyper-V, you can run into a problem creating a new VM that is based on Server 2008 RTM, since the Integration Components (IC's) are out of sync. This means you won't have the drivers for the new synthetic NIC, for example. And if you're working over an RDP session to the parent partition, you'll have major mouse problems in the VM as well. So, the workaround is to get the new IC's loaded into the VM as quickly as possible. To do that, you have two choices:

  • Create the VM with a legacy NIC so you can connect to a network share where you've stored the Windows6.0-KB949219-x64.msu file (or the x86 version if this is a 32-bit VM)
  • Create an ISO file with the .msu inside the ISO and then mount the ISO for the VM.

You can use your favourite tool to create the ISO - we generally use MagicISO, but unfortunately it's currently somewhat broken in Vista SP1 or Server 2008 - you can't activate it.

Now, as soon as Server 2008 has finished the basic install and you have logged in to the initial GUI session, press Shift-F10 to open a command window. Connect to the network share if you're using the first method, or change directory to the DVD drive letter if you're using the second. Run the appropriate MSU file (Windows6.0-KB949219-x64.msu for 64bit). This will install the IC's and you can finish configuring your installation. A bit of a kludge, but this should all get sorted by the time we get to RTM. Or at least I hope so.

Charlie.

Published Mon, Mar 31 2008 7:05 by Charlie Russel
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Comments

Monday, April 14, 2008 9:25 PM by Aaron Marks

# re: Hyper-V RC0 and Integration Components Workaround

Thank you very much for this helpful blog post.  After installing a Windows Server 2008 RTM host and then immediately updating it off of my WSUS, I was completely lost as to how to get my Windows 2008 VMs to use the ICs.

It didn't even occur to me that RTM came with a beta/CTP of HV while the updated/Retail 2008 comes with RC0.  After I downloaded the mentioned KB and put it into ISO format using NERO and then everything worked great. Thank you!