We are going to rack this up to experience. I was trying to figure out today if I have the Hyper-V Integration Components beta installed, the ones that came with Windows Server 2008 RTM, or if I’d upgraded to the RTM version of these components. Well dummy me, I double clicked on the entry in Add/Remove programs and what I got was the system removed the components lick-it-y split and told me to reboot. What, no confirmation?
In other news, after the reboot the virtual machine Blue-Screened and when I repaired it I got a Windows Activation found an “unauthorized change” and it now needs to be reactivated. Activation on Hyper-V sucks ass. If you are working with virtual machines on Hyper-V be warned that monkey-ing with the Integration Components will force you to activate again.
This is double bad because now I have to activate to use the machine, then I’ll re-install the Integration Components (I need network connection man) and then this weekend I was planning on upgrading my Hyper-V server to the new Windows Hyper-V Server 2008 OS that is free from Microsoft. I’m planning that because I am currently running the RTM of Windows Server 2008 that came with the beta of Hyper-V. I want full RTM software running over there. So what does that mean? Well, as of right now this is what I’m looking at doing:
- Activate Windows
- Install Beta Integration Components
- Activate Windows
- Use the VM until I am ready to get rid of beta
- Remove Beta Integration Components
- Activate Windows
- Install RTM Integration Components
- Activate Windows
With my MSDN licensing on Windows Server 2008 I’ll use 4 of my 10 activations on this one server alone. That sucks. I guarantee I’ll have to call the activation center before Monday.
Update: Turns out I’m hosed. I need to install integration components to use the network. I have to log in to install integration components. I have to activate to log in. I need network connection to activate.
