Running a Hyper-V VHD file on Virtual Box

We set-up a hyper-v based server in our office here in Singapore.
From time to time, we do get our free-lancers to manage and configure patches etc-etc-etc.


There is this one case where our dear Bangladeshi partner requires access to the Virtual Machine and for weird reasons, need the entire VHD file to do the necessary configuration.

Well, the overall VHD is 40GB, and it'll take days to get it across the WAN lines even with fiber.
So, we decided to ship it in a 64GB Thumbdrive so that it can be sent over quickly.

My colleague was concerned that it might not run properly once it's sent over, as such, she wanted me to verify if the VHD file and the OS is valid.

My quickest way of verifying the set-up would be to use the Virtual Box, and in this case, a VirtualBox Ver 5.0.6r103037

I simply created a VM, set it to Windows Server 2008r2, I did disable the Audio drivers, set the LAN to NAT... and without much thinking, left the processor settings and disk settings as they are.

Windows did not boot. Blue-screen Error with 0x00000007B

Upon google-ing, I realized it's related to the disk controller -
Proceeded to change the Disk from SATA with AHCI mode to IDE with PIIX4 mode.

That solved the problem Immediately and Windows boot.

I wanted better performance on the VM, as such, I decided to change the following configuration on the:
1) motherboard - unticked the ICH9 and enable I/O APIC
2) acceleration - Paravirtualization Interface (Hyper-V), maintained VT-X and Nested Paging

Done!

The Virtual Machine should be happily making its way to Bangladesh now....

Virtualizing a Windows XP Pro (Server)

Yes, I am not joking...

my client has a Windows XP, running core-2-duo, more than 8-years old system that is running a critical operation on their hotel infrastructure.

the PC simply perform interfacing between their phone, POS and internet accounting systems into the property management system.

well, the idea is that since it's not broken, why fix it... But isn't it concerning to know that there is no RAID, only a simple configuration backup, and the OS is obsolete, to run a critical system?

thus, i decided to take this opportunity to re-arrange their infrastructure a little bit, convert one of their 'free' server to work as a Hyper-V machine!

process is supposedly simple:

1. perform disk2vhd to somewhere outside of C drive on WinXP
2. transfer disk2vhd to host server
3. set-up hyper-v on host server
4. configure vm
5. decommission the old machine
6. run the new virtualized Windows XP

or so I thought..


my REAL process:

1. Installed Hyper-V function on the host server (all was smooth)
2. reboot host server on one wee-hour morning
3. set-up hyper-v environment
4. perform disk2vhd 2.01 conversion of the existing C: of WinXP machine to it's D:
5. transfer 20GB of VHD file (not VHDX) since host server is Windows Server Standard 2008r2 across network to the Host Server D:
6. configure working environment and boot.

Horror 1 - Mouse is not usable

1. what the heck, I just used keyboard. everything was typed!
2. alt-tab, shift-tab and tab were my friends
3. I had to run the VM in full-screen mode for transfer of short-cut keys to work...
4. I needed to be able to send "Windows + U" command to work... that's the most critical!

Horror 2 - Windows XP cannot activate

1. I couldn't activate windows! no LAN drivers activated too!
2. at the windows activation prompt, i had to say YES
3. then run "Windows + U" to run the Windows Narration Toolbar (Prompt)
4. then tab-tab to click on a link to browse internet.
5. Internet Explorer launches and I needed to then run c:\windows\explorer.exe on the address bar.
6. that will allow me to run windows explorer window, so that I can perform any application install/uninstall
7. I had lots of system junk stuff that came with my HP workstation, so i had to uninstall all of them.
8. went on to MSCONFIG and disabled a whole-load of un-helpful start-up items too.
9. shutdown VM
10. Mount VHD to the Host OS... as a new disk
11. Copy the following stuff:
1. 7-zip
2. AntiWAT tool for Windows XP Activation
12. after copying stuff, I then proceed to dismount and boot-up the Virtual Machine again.
13. repeat step 2 to 5, then run the activation of AntiWAT toolkit. Sorry Microsoft.
14. Reboot one more time after the Activation is successful in AntiWAT.
15. VIOLA! no more Windows XP Activation screen! 
16. Proceed to horror-3...

Horror 3 - Hyper-V integration cannot install

1. I thought installing hyper-v integration tool was supposed to be  breeze, well not-for-me.
2. no matter how many times i tried installing them-app, the system reboots after that stating that integration service need to be installed to be running etc-etc.
3. then I realize the root issue, see, when I boot up the system i get this prompt:
   
4. I always chose the Disk2VHD Microsoft Windows XP Professional thinking that it's the right one...
5. I was obviously wrong. After selecting the second option, I could proceed with the installation, and after 2-reboot, the integration services/stuff/ were installed succesfully.
6. But I can no longer boot into the first option... so I really need to go into boot.ini file to remove that line.. or my horror won't stop when the server is unable to start after it's reboot.
7. Attempt to boot with auto-option 1 after integration service is installed proved futile:
   
8. Boot with the second option, and it works!
9. and my mouse works!!!

Horror 4 - what about drivers??

1. Guess what! after horror 3, the installation of the Hyper-V integration tools automatically installed the system driver, the mouse, the LAN and everything is working in-order! 
2. Next, proceed with boot.ini amendments and we're done!

such is how i spent my saturday 12-noon to 4-pm in my office.. :(

Mac OS X (all ver) has issues with DNS resolution IPv6 with SBS-2008

Some time back, the SBS-2008 my client has in their office is causing some DNS resolution issues with IPv6 reverse lookup. As such, some times the MAC OS X'es are unable to resolve DNS entries to get connected to the mail server.

A work-around my colleague gave was to set-up VPN connection as PPTP VPN using RAS gives out a separate IPv4 address, and is able to resolve IPv4 DNS requests without using the IPv6. 

While this is an easy work-around, the easier method is to simply set-up hosts file to perform the mapping.

Unfortunately for him, he was unable to locate the hosts file to edit in the mac os X. I did some search in the web and encounter this blog post... (here) I don't wish to re-invent the wheel, but I thought I'll post it here anyway, with some pictures to guide my readers and my team how to make the changes.

Follow my print-screens below. It should be self-explanatory.

just press CTRL+o (Omega) to save.

press Enter to save the changes.

You are good to go! 

Now for the biggie.. the server needs to be fixed with the IPv6 issue.

This is the issue:

I ensured that all settings are right:

 

After hunting through different blogs, i found one here and I realize this guy faced the similar problem and fixed the issue!

the mistake i made was to create 8.c.2.f.0 where I should have done it like this:

 

 Once added with an AAA record, the PTR can be added.

  

Resolution now works.. but the problem still persists!

Shucks! 

 

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