Virtualized DC issue with time synchronization

This was a pretty simple mistake but it took me a while to figure out. We were noticing everything on the domain was 10 minutes behind other devices we used and in troubleshooting, I configured my PDC emulator to sync with pool.ntp.org using NTP, and it did, and seconds after, the time would revert back.

Of course, the issue here was that the DC was virtualized and Hyper-V time synchronization was taking preference and syncing to the Hyper-V server's local time which had fallen out of sync. The fix here was either disabling time synchronization on my DC, or enabling NTP pool synchronization for my Hyper-V server. I chose the latter, and moments later all machines were the correct time.

Credit where credit is due:
http://www.aperture.ro/index.php/2009/01/windows-time-sync-hyper-v-enabled-domain-controller-dilemma/

Hyper-V Sidebar app!

Throwing up the new "Why didn't I think of that" label for this one:

Download:
http://mindre.net/post/Hyper-V-Monitor-Gadget-for-Windows-Sidebar.aspx

Very handy app!!

Immediate dbl click RDP to my VM's!

Hyper-V 2008 (free edition) update on usage

Well, uptime is NOT a concern. This is a whitebox build too! Granted a $1400 build, see past posts for specs on the server.

I have three "production" VM's that are essentially providing domain and dhcp/wds to my home network. Everything else there is for play/testing. The ONLY downside to my config is not having a physical DC, so when I do decide to reboot the Hyper-V server, I have to wait a while for DC's to come up and then I can remotely authenticate to Hyper-V again.

I of course, wish I had more than a 8GB ram ceiling already. As seen from VMM, you can see resources are set sparsely.

All in all, I am REALLY happy with it. So far it has outperformed my personal expectations. VMM 2008 helps the experience along quite a bit, though!

My Hyper-V server as seen from VMM 2008!

Spiffy, eh?

$1300 @ newegg + free Hyper-V 2008. Currently has about 6 machines, 2 in "production" meaning I lose DC or DHCP if two of them are offline. Not horrible critical, but annoying if down. But it's a home network, I should be able to take some downtime. We shall see how it goes.

I am working on watching actual RAM usage and monitoring needs so I can maximize the box. Here are the specs (essentially):

I was tempted to go Vmware but neither the motherboard RAID or the rocketraid are supported in ESX. The velociraptor is in my desktop, and the flash cards and USB keys are stocking stuffers :)

Hyper-V - Code 12 on Virtual Machine Bus and Integration Tools not working

Stumbled upon this and found the fix here:

http://blogs.technet.com/jhoward/archive/2008/02/29/vmbus-fails-to-load-device-cannot-find-enough-free-resources-code-12-on-a-windows-server-2008-x86-virtual-machine-under-hyper-v.aspx

(2/29? Yea, so this is OLD news, but a nice fix either way!)

Was getting this error:

Tada!