Tony Krijnen

Step by Step: Installing Windows SBS 2008 RC0 on Hyper-V

(This one is in English so more people can leverage the content. Some links are to my Dutch blog posts though).

Last night was a good night to install the Windows Small Business 2008 RC0 DVD's I downloaded. Having a machine with Windows Server 2008 and the RTM of Hyper-V ready I though I might as well install it on there. Here are the steps I took to install SBS 2008 RC0.

1. First install a Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x64 on a machine with at least 4GB of RAM. The Small Business Server Premium version comes as a two server install and the first server requires 4GB of RAM. It will run with less though.
2. Download the Windows Small Business 2008 RC0 DVD's and copy them to a folder on this machine.
3. Install all the updates from Windows Update. The RTM version of Hyper-V will be on there after july 8th. You can also download the RTM version of Hyper-V here: Update for Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition (KB950050).
4. Add the Hyper-V Role using the Windows Server Manager. Once this is installed use the Hyper-V Manager and click  "New" in the Actions pane on the right. Choose "Virtual Machine". 
    
5. On the Wizard for a new Virtual Machine click on Next:
   
6. Enter a name for the Virtual machine (Something with SBS 2008 Server 1)
   
7. Enter the amount of RAM you want to assign. If you have enough RAM in your server give the SBS Server 4096MB of RAM. I have only 4GB so I give it 2GB.
   
8. You probably want to connect the SBS server to the Internet or hook up a client to it. I always connect my Virtual Machines to the physical network cards so I can then leverage a simple router to connect machines.
9. Next we choose a harddisk. Just leave the default, it's fine.
10. On the next page we will change the options a bit so we'll boot from the ISO right away. It's always faster to start from the ISO files than from DVD-Rom because of the thruput. So choose "Install an operating system from a boot CD/DVD-ROM" and select "Image file (.iso).". Click "Browse" and point to the folder you placed the ISO files in step 2.
    
11. On the last screen make sure the check box on "Start the virtual machine once it is created is ticked" and hit the "finish" button. 
12. Double click on the SBS2008 server in your Hyper-V manager. A screen will open up and setup is starting. Select you county / keyboard settings and click Next.
    
13. Click the "Install Now" button.
    
14. Enter the product key, for the first server of Small Business Server 2008 RC0 this is on the product download page (or copy it from this screenshot).
15. Blah blah blah license something for lawyers etc, agree, next.
16. As upgrade is not possible it's greyed out. Select Custom.
17. Select the virtual harddisk, click Next,
    
18. That was the initial setup! Now wait untill setup finishes with the installation.
    
19. After the installation is complete, the Small Business Server will automatically start with an initial configuration wizard. This wizard will fail when you get to the networking part as there is currently no network card installed - The Hyper-V components in the SBS 2008 RC0 don't have any drivers for the virtualized network card. So at the first screen we will press CTRL+ALT+END (Which is sending CTRL+ALT+DEL to the virtual machine).
     
20. This will bring up the options menu and we choose "Start Task Manager".
21. In the Task Manager we click File and then RUN. Type "Explorer.exe" and press OK.
    
22. Now this will bring up a "Computer" window and you'll see the harddisk, virtual DVD Rom, etc. Press CTRL+ALT+Left Arrow. This will release the mouse from the virtual machine and you can click on "Action" and "Insert Integrations Services Setup Disc".
    
23. Note that you can maxime Taskmanager and also type "SYSDM.CPL" to open up the system properties and click Hardware | Device manager there to manual load drivers for other hardware you may have.
    
24. The Autorun of the integration components pops-up. (This wouldn't have popped up if we hadn't started Explorer.exe). Click the "Install Hyper-V Integration Services" link.
    
25. You are now upgrading the existing Hyper-V support services to the RTM version. Click OK.
    
26. Once completed, we want to restart the machine.
    
27. After the reboot we are back where we started!.
    
    If you would press CTRL+ALT+END now and start SYSDM.CPL once more you would now see that all hardware with exclamation marks are now gone and there is a virtual nic driver installed:
    
28. The next step is a warning, as I configured not enough ram for the SBS Server (4GB required). It allows you to continue however so click Next.
    
29. Up next is the date / time / timezone settings.
    
30. Enter the correct time and timezone here.
    
31. It than asks if you want to download updates and continue. Unless you have a DHCP server running on the network the SBS Server is connected to (Which you shouldn't!) you won't have any connection. I recommend that you just pick the second option "Do not download..." and hit next:
    
32. A "connecting your server" dialog appears. Just wait.
    
33. The final steps, enter the information for your company:
    
34. Choose a name for the server (Anything else than SERVER is stupid. It's for Small Business Users. They don't get W2K8SRV1 or such. Make it simple: It's the SERVER. Next one is SERVER2. Think like customers :-)...
    You also choose the name for your domain here. If you have a company that is called Contoso Healthcare then Contoso is fine. Same here, keep it simple. Best practice is to use the same name as your public domain name. You cannot (and shouldn't) use the full public name with the .COM or .NL extension. The name entered here will be the .LOCAL domain.
    
35. Next we choose a name for the Administrator. I always use Superadmin and create a dummy administrator account to keep the simple scriptkiddies busy. Choose a good password (Not one that's in a dictionairy) and click Next.
    
36. That was all, a summary is displayed for your info, click Next.
37. And wait for the wizard to configure your server!
38. Now after this is completed the virtual machine will restart and you will come to the "Succesful installation" page. Click on "Start using the server".
39. This will open the brand new SBS 2008 console! Exciting!! You can start with the tasks on the left to complete the configuration of your server.
    

I hope you found this article usefull,

Thanks,