To change the configuration settings on an existing virtual machine, you right-c lick your virtual machine’s name in the Virtual Machines pane in Hyper- V Manager and choose Settings. You can change settings such as memory allocation and hard drive configuration. All items that you can configure are described in the following list:

Add Hardware Add devices to your virtual machine, such as a SCSI controller, a network adapter, or a legacy network adapter. A legacy network adapter is required if you want to perform a network- based installation of an operating system.

BIOS This is the replacement of the virtual machine’s BIOS. Because you can no longer enter the BIOS during startup, you need to configure it with this setting. You can turn Num Lock on or off and change the basic startup order of the devices.

Memory Change the amount of random access memory (RAM) allocated to the virtual machine.

Processor Change the number of logical processors this virtual machine can use and define resource control to balance resources among virtual machines by using a relative weight.

IDE Controller Add/change and remove devices from the IDE controller. You can have hard drives or DVD drives as devices. Every IDE controller can have up to two devices attached, and by default, you have two IDE controllers available.

Hard Drive Select a controller to attach to this device as well as to specify the media to use with your virtual hard disk. The available options are Virtual Hard Disk File (with additional buttons labeled New, Edit, Inspect, and Browse that are explained in the virtual hard disk section) and Physical Hard Disk. You can also remove the device here.

DVD Drive Select a controller to attach to this device and specify the media to use with your virtual CD/DVD drive. The available options are None, Image File (ISO Image), and Physical CD/DVD Drive Connected To The Host Computer. You also can remove the device here.

SCSI Controller Configure all hard drives that are connected to the SCSI controller. You can add up to 63 hard drives to each SCSI controller, and you can have multiple SCSI controllers available.

Network Adapter Specify the configuration of the network adapter or remove it. You can also configure the virtual network and MAC address for each adapter and enable virtual LAN identification. The network adapter section also allows you to control Bandwidth Management.

Bandwidth Management allows you to specify how the network adapter will utilize network bandwidth. You have the ability to set a minimum network bandwidth that a  network adapter can use and a maximum bandwidth. This gives you greater control over how much bandwidth a virtual network adapter can use.

COM1 and COM2 Configure the virtual COM port to communicate with the physical computer through a named pipe. You have COM1 and COM2 available.

Diskette Specify a virtual floppy disk file to use.

Name Edit the name of the virtual machine and provide some notes about it.

Integration Services Define what integration services are available to your virtual machine. Options are Operating System Shutdown, Time Synchronization, Data Exchange, Heartbeat, and Backup (Volume Snapshot).

Snapshot File Location Define the default file location of your snapshot files.

Smart Paging File Location This area allows you to set up a paging file for your virtual machine. Windows Server 2022 has a Hyper- V feature called Smart Paging. If you have a virtual machine that has a smaller amount of memory than what it needs for startup memory, when the virtual machine gets restarted, Hyper- V then needs additional memory to restart the virtual machine. Smart Paging is used to bridge the memory gap between minimum memory and startup memory. This allows your virtual machines to restart properly.

Automatic Start Define what this virtual machine will do when the physical computer starts. Options are Nothing, Automatically Start If The Service Was Running, and Always Start This Virtual Machine. You also can define a start delay here.

Automatic Stop Define what this virtual machine will do when the physical computer shuts down. Options are Save State, Turn Off, and Shut Down.

Please be aware that only some settings can be changed when the virtual machine’s state is Running. It is best practice to shut down the virtual machine before you modify any setting.

Deleting Virtual Machines

You can also delete virtual machines using Hyper- V Manager. This deletes all of the configuration files, as shown in Figure 2.20.

FIGURE 2.20 Delete Virtual Machine warning window

Make sure you manually delete any virtual disks that were part of the virtual machines to free up disk space. Virtual disks are not deleted when you delete a virtual machine.

Virtual Machine Connection

Similar to the Virtual Machine Remote Control (VMRC) client that was available with Virtual Server 2005 R2 and previous versions, Hyper- V comes with Virtual Machine  Connection to connect to virtual machines that run on a local or remote server.

You can use it to log on to the virtual machine and use your computer’s mouse and  keyboard to interact with the virtual machine. You can open Virtual Machine Connection in Hyper- V Manager by double- clicking a virtual machine or by right- clicking a virtual machine and selecting Connect. If your virtual machine is turned off, you might see a window similar to the one in Figure 2.21.

FIGURE 2.21 Virtual Machine Connection window when the machine is turned off

Virtual Machine Connection not only provides you with functionality similar to that of Hyper- V Manager, such as being able to change the state of a virtual machine, but also provides you with additional features that are especially useful when you want to work with a virtual machine:

File Access Settings or Exit Virtual Machine Connection Change the state of a virtual machine and create or revert a snapshot. Additionally, you have the options to send Ctrl+Alt+Delete to your virtual machine and Insert Integration Services Setup Disk.

Context-S ensitive Buttons Provide Quick Access to Key Features These buttons are available under the menu bar to provide you with fast access to the most important features. It shows the connection of a running VM, but the VM has not had an operating system installed yet, so the figure 2.21 shows the Windows Server 2022 Setup screen.

NIC Teaming

NIC Teaming, also known as load balancing and failover (LBFO), gives you the ability to allow multiple network adapters on a system to be placed into a team. Independent hardware vendors (IHVs) have required NIC Teaming, but until Windows Server 2012, NIC Teaming was not part of the Windows Server operating system.

To be able to use NIC Teaming, make sure the computer system has at least one Ethernet adapter. If you want to provide fault protection, you must have a minimum of two Ethernet adapters. One advantage of Windows Server 2022 is that you can set up 32 network adapters in a NIC team.

NIC Teaming is a common practice when setting up virtualization. This is one way that you can have load balancing with Hyper- V.

NIC Teaming gives you the ability to allow a virtual machine to use virtual network adapters in Hyper- V. The advantage of using NIC Teaming in Hyper-V  is that you can use NIC Teaming to connect to more than one Hyper- V switch. This allows Hyper-V  to still have connectivity even if the network adapter under the Hyper-V  switch gets disconnected.

You can configure NIC Teaming in either Server Manager or PowerShell. NIC teaming can be configured in different configuration models, including Switch Independent or Switch Dependent.

Switch Independent means the switch is unaware of the NIC team and the NIC team is responsible for figuring out how to distribute the traffic without the switches help or knowledge. They can be on the same switch or different switches. They do have to be in the same VLAN/subnet/broadcast domain.

Switch Dependent means that the switch determines how to distribute traffic. They can be on the same switch or in a multichassis switch with a shared ID between the various chassis.

If you use Switch Independent NIC Teaming, your NICs can be on different switches but both switch ports must be on the same subnet.