Server 2008 Hyper-V: Managing Hyper-V from Vista, Part I

Windows Vista, even SP1, doesn't have the necessary tool for administering Hyper-V servers. However, it's easy to get: just download KB 952627, known as the "Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Management Tools update for the release version of Hyper-V," code name "Verbose" (I just made up the code name). If you haven't already installed the "Windows Genuine Advantage" IE add-on, you'll be prompted to do so, then you can get the 3MB file. After you install it, the Hyper-V Manager appears in your Administrative Tools folder.

My initial attempt to connect ran into an error message: "You do not have the required permission to complete this task." This wasn't entirely unexpected, as my Hyper-V machine belongs to a workgroup and the Vista machine I was using to access it belongs to a domain. (I was hoping for a simple authentication dialog...which really should be all you need...but it was not to be.)

In an effort to leverage good ol' Windows passthrough authentication, I created an account on my Vista machine and another account with identical credentials on my Server machine... then I fired up Authorization Manager (AZMAN.MSC) on the server, navigated to the Hyper-V store (several layers deep under ProgramData), and added that account to the Hyper-V administrators list. Surely that would do the trick. Alas, still no joy, even after a restart of the server. Apparently this is going to take more research...or, perhaps, actually joining my laptop server to my office domain. But, as I am discovering, nothing in Hyper-V is simple.

Like this? Check out some of my other recent posts:

Server 2008 Hyper-V: VHDMOUNT Follies

Server 2008 Hyper-V: Alternative to VHDMOUNT

Server 2008 Hyper-V: Alternative to VHDMOUNT (Part II)