Multiple Windows Server machine on same machine

[cdsJerry]

Do I need anything special when running multiple Windows Server VMs on Proxmox? In the back of my mind I'm thinking there was something I needed to add or change when I installed my Windows 2008R2 servers years ago because of the virtual environment but it's been too long ago for me to remember. Something about needing a different kernel or something. Does this ring any bells for anyone?

Do I just use the standard Windows Server ISO and do an install as if it was dedicated hardware?

 

[sherminator]

Hey,

in our PVE environment we installed a bunch of Windows Server 2012 R2 so far - nothing special about it. We use the standard Windows Server ISO. For disks and network interfaces we choose paravirtualized VirtIO devices. Therefor you have to give the VirtIO driver ISO to the VM during the Windows Server installation so it can recognize and use the disk(s). Furthermore we use QEMU guest agent and SPICE as graphic interface - no problems so far.

Good luck and many greets
Stephan

 

[cdsJerry]

Thank you. The new hardware should be here next week. I'll have a chance to do the install and upload the ISOs at that time. Hopefully I won't have to delete it all and start over too many times before I figure it out. While I've been running Proxmox for several years now, I had help setting it up. I'm more of a Windows guy so I struggle with some of the Linux items a bit. I'll look for the VirtIO driver ISO in the downloads. Currently I can't seem to get to the downloads at all. My browser just says it's Waiting for promox.com so there must be some sort of issue. Hopefully that gets cleared up.

 

[sherminator]

Yes, www.proxmox.com seems to be down. You can also download the latest Proxmox ISO from here.
The VirtIO driver ISO for Windows you can get here - we normally use "stable", not "latest".
If you need further assistance in planning and installing PVE, just ask!

Greets
Stephan

 

[LnxBil]

Do I need anything special when running multiple Windows Server VMs on Proxmox?

You mean besides throwing down a lot of money into microsoft's licensing throat? No.

In the back of my mind I'm thinking there was something I needed to add or change when I installed my Windows 2008R2 servers years ago because of the virtual environment but it's been too long ago for me to remember.

It may have to do with ballooning so that you can see the correct memory usage from windows in the PVE WebUI. Maybe this is what you remember?

We use the standard Windows Server ISO.

We use VM templates (not PVE templates that cannot be changed), that are manually updated just before the clone and have sysprep on them. Life is too short to wait for all M$ updates to be installed on a freshly installed ISO. You can also have all the drivers already installed and configured beforehand. We normally clone the VM, resize the OS and are good to go. This also depends on how often you do that. For one VM a year, I would not hassle to setup a continous approach.

 

[sherminator]

You mean besides throwing down a lot of money into microsoft's licensing throat? No.

:-D YMMD!
Yes, Microsofts "datacenter licensing" is painful - a little bit less when you go shopping here. But that's really offtopic now, sorry!

 

[Przemo]

We use VM templates (not PVE templates that cannot be changed), that are manually updated just before the clone and have sysprep on them. Life is too short to wait for all M$ updates to be installed on a freshly installed ISO. You can also have all the drivers already installed and configured beforehand. We normally clone the VM, resize the OS and are good to go. This also depends on how often you do that. For one VM a year, I would not hassle to setup a continous approach.

Hey,

I have one question.
Have you tried to promote a domain controller on several VMs?
Why am I asking?
I work at school. With 16 students promoting a domain, we can go play cards. In addition, we run sysprep on 16 more servers.The CPU and RAM in a cluster are doing fine, but SSDs are becoming a bottleneck.
I will add that I use a "linked clone" - I run several servers in a few minutes.
Will using "clone" improve disk performance?