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- How to install VirtIO drivers — Windows 2008 and Windows 2019 Servers
While we the topic of VirtIO drivers has already been touched in Sarab’s post on Installing Windows VM and VirtIO drivers, we would like to bring two more KBs to your attention.
One is on AHV | How to install VirtIO drivers for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (KB-5666) and the other one is AHV | Nutanix VirtIO drivers for Windows Server 2019 (KB-6495).
N.B! Nutanix does not release or maintain VirtIO drivers for Microsoft Windows Server 2008. However, you can still use stable VirtIO drivers available from Fedora project website.
Nutanix recommends to use the Stable VirtIO-Win drivers.
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Introduction
This is a set of best practices to follow when installing a Windows Server 2008 R2 guest on a Proxmox VE server 2.x (2.3 at time of writing). Right now it’s a work in progress but hopefully soon it will be a comprehensive and reliable document. Please feel free to add to it, even if just to pose a potential best practice.
Install
Prepare
- After clicking «Create VM» enter a Name: for your vm, select your Resource Pool (if you have one) and click Next
- Select Microsoft Windows 7/2008 in the OS tab and click Next.
- Select an ISO Image: for Windows Server 2008 in the CD/DVD tab and click Next.
- Select Bus/Device: IDE, Storage: «your preferred storage» and Cache: Write back in the Hard Disk tab and click Next.
- Select number of Sockets and cores (the default of 1 is mostly sufficient) in the CPU tab and click Next.
- Select Automatically allocate memory and set the Maximum memory to a number you may require in the memory tab and click Next.
- Select Model: VirtIO (paravirtualized) in the Network tab and click Next
- Click finish and go to the Hardware tab of your newly created VM and click Add -> CD/DVD drive
- Select Storage:local and ISO image: virtio-win-x.x.iso and click create.
- To add a temporary disk for installing VirtIO block driver go to the Hardware tab of your newly created VM again and click Add -> Hard Disk
- Select Bus/Device: VIRTIO, Storage: «your preferred storage» and Cache: Write back and click Add
Launch Windows install
- start your newly created virtual machine using the «Start» link in the upper right.
- wait until the vm icon has turned white before you login using the «Console» link in the upper right. (NOTE: Sometimes the java console does not start at the first attempt. Please click refresh/reload in this case)
- Start the server install with «Install Now» and select the Operating System Flavor you like and click next and select «Custom: Install Windows only»
- Wait until Windows is installed and select a Password for the local Administrator account and login to Windows.
Install additional VirtIO drivers
- Start Explorer, Go to CDROM, copy folder WIN7\AMD64 to C:\Program Files\ and rename AMD64 to C:\Program Files\VirtIO
- open Device Manager and right click on Other Devices -> Ethernet Controller and select update driver software
- select «Browse my computer» select folder «C:\Program Files\VirtIO» and click «Install» for Red Hat VirtIO Ethernet Adapter.
- again in Device Manager right click on Other Devices -> PCI Device and select update driver software
- again «Browse my computer» select folder «C:\Program Files\VirtIO» and click «Install» for VirtIO Ballon Driver.
- open a powershell window, cd to «C:\Program Files\VirtIO» and enter: blnsvr.exe -i.
The BallonService that can help free up memory is installed. The BallonService is also responsible for displaying the correct amount of memory in the Proxmox console.
further info
raw vs qcow2
Raw file format provides better performance while qcow2 offers advanced features such as copy on write and snapshots. As of Qemu 1.4 / PVE 2.3 qcow2 is expected to provide superior performance.
virtio drivers
Use virtio dirvers for best performance. More info:
Paravirtualized Block Drivers for Windows
latest iso with virtio drivers :
https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/latest-virtio/
Power settings
- In Windows Server 2008, you need to disable the ‘Shutdown Event Tracker’. This setting in Group Policy. If the server is part of a domain, you need to edit the group policy for the organizational unit with the server. If you’re not using a domain, you can edit the local group policy. This can be accessed by doing the following:
- Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc -> ok -> open «Computer Configuration» then «Policy» then «Administrative Templates» then «System». In the right pane, double click on ‘Display Shutdown Event Tracker’ and select ‘disable’ and OK. To make sure the new group policy is applied. Go to Start -> run -> cmd -> ok and type in ‘gpupdate /force’ without the quotes. Now when you select shutdown, you won’t be promoted with the box asking why you are shutting down the server.
- In order to make Windows 2008 R2 guest shutdown cleanly on the event of a shutdown (power button) on the Proxmox VE host you need make the following changes:
- Control Panel -> System and Security -> Power Options -> Edit Plan Settings -> Turn off the display: Never
See also
Windows 2003 guest best practices
Windows 2012 guest best practices
Hello World,
Today, we will provide a quick how to guide. If you have noticed, Proxmox VE wiki provides a lot of information about how to install Windows XP/Windows 2003 operating systems and how to install virtio drivers. However, you will not see much information about installing/configuring a Windows 7/Windows 2008 (or later) operating system. As I mentioned in other posts, It’s time to move on and start to use and work with the recent operating systems version. This post is a first step in that direction.
1. Preparing your Windows 2008 R2/Windows 7 installation
We assume that you have a running Proxmox VE infrastructure in your infrastructure.
Step 1 – Get Windows 2008R2/Windows 7 and Virtio ISO images
To perform such installation , you will need to upload the following iso images
- Windows 7/windows 2008 R2 Iso image
- Virtio Drivers (can be downloaded from the Fedora project web site : http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/virtio-win/latest/images/bin/)
Step 2 – Upload your ISO Images
To upload the ISO images on your Proxmox VE server, you simply open the web interface. On the navigation menu, in the VM Manager Section (on the left side on your screen, you click on the ISO images. You will be presented with the following screen
Click to Enlarge
You click on the Browse button, you specify the location where you have stored you ISO images and then you click on Upload link. When the upload is completed, at the bottom of the page, you can list the ISO Files that have been loaded
Click to enlarge
Step 3 – Create you Virtual Machine
In this post, we have explained in details how to create a virtual machine. We assume that you have a working experience with the Proxmox VE software and we will simply describe the big steps of creating the virtual machine.
Within the Interface, you click on virtual machine in the left menu. In the virtual machine page, you have to click on the Create tab. The virtual machine creation form will be displayed as shown in the following screenshot
Click to Enlarge
In this page, be sure to select the following options :
- Disk type : Virtio
- Guest Type: Windows 2008
- Network Card: Virtio
- Installation medio : the Windows 2008 or Windows 7 ISO image
Press on the create button. Click then on the List Tab and you will see that your new virtual machine has been created. You are ready to move to the next step : Installation of the operating system
Perform your Windows 2008 R2/Windows 7 installation
We are ready to perform our standard Windows 2008/Windows 7 installation. This post will demonstrate how to install the Windows 2008 Operating System. The procedure should be the same for Windows 7 installation.
Within the Proxmox VE (PVE) web interface, you click on the Virtual machine link (on the menu on the left). Click on the virtual machine you’ve just created in the previous section. In the Virtual Machine Configuration page, click on the Start button. After a short time, you will see a link called Open VNC Console
Note : Do not close you browser, we will need to come back to this screen
Step A – Starting the Windows 2008 Setup routine
Click on the link to access the virtual machine through the console. After sometime, you will see the familiar Windows Setup Wizard starting. Select your settings accordingly and press Next
Click to Enlarge
In the Install Windows Page, Click on Install Now
Click to Enlarge
Select the Correct version of the Operating System you want to install and Press Next
Click to Enlarge
Step B – Upload Drivers
At this stage, you will be presented with the following window. As you can see, there is no disks detected by the Setup routine. We are indeed using VIRTIO drivers. The new Setup routine make it more easy (compared to windows 2003) to specify additional drivers. On this page, you can click on the Load Driver option
Click to Enlarge
You will then be presented with a screen where you will be asked to specify the location of the additional drivers to be used
Click to Enlarge
Before continuing, we will need to go back the PVE Web Interface, in the Virtual Machine Configuration Page and we will need to click on the Hardware Tab. There, we have to load the Virtio ISO image into the CD-ROM Drive. When this is done, we can go back to the Virtual machine and proceed with the installation.
Click to Enlarge
Back on the Virtual Machine, you can browse to the CD-Rom device and select the appropriate drivers
Click to Enlarge
As you can see on the screenshot below, the VIRTIO Drivers are now recognized by the Setup routine and we are ready to install them onto the system. Press Next
Click to Enlarge
At the end of this process, you will see that the installation wizard page is now presenting you 1 or more disks (depending on your configuration).
Click to Enlarge
Step C – Setup Routine Installation Completion
We are almost there. But you will notice that the button Next is greyed out and that a warning message is available at the bottom of the dialog box. You can click on Show details to have more information.
Click to Enlarge
What’s does that means ? Okay, no panic ! This cryptic message simply means that the Windows installation files are not available. We simply need to go back the PVE Web interface and again unload the Virtio drivers and reload the Windows installation iso image into the cdrom of the virtual machine (same procedure as above – Step B)
When the Windows CD is reload into the virtual machine, you will see that you can now indeed click on the next button and that the Windows Setup process will simply continue as it should.
Click to Enlarge
Click to Enlarge
Final Steps
The Setup routine will finalize the installation and the system will reboot automatically. When the virtual machine reboots, you will get a running Windows 2008 R2 virtual machine. However, we haven’t finished yet. If you have a look at your network connections, you will see that no network card are available within your virtual machine.
Click to Enlarge
If you open the Device Manager, you will see that the ethernet controller is there but that no drivers are available for it.
Click to Enlarge
Again, we have to load the Virtio ISO in the virtual machine and install the missing drivers. Simply right-click the Ethernet controller in the device manager and click on Update Drivers. The Wizard will start. You simply specify to the wizard where to look for the needed drivers. During the wizard, you might see a warning message. Simply press Install to authorize installation of the virtio drivers and have your network card installed within Windows operating system.
Click to Enlarge
Note : You might be prompted to reboot your server after installing the driver
At the end of the process, you should see your network card (as shown below). We are done. Now simply configure your virtual machine as you need.
Click to Enlarge
Conclusion
In this post, we explained how to create a Windows 2008R2/Windows 7 Virtual machine using VIRTIO drivers when using a Proxmox VE infrastructure. As you have seen the process is quite straightforward (isn’t it !). Because we are using virtio drivers, you will need to perform some additional operations in order for windows to recognize the storage controller. The process to specify additional drivers within Windows 2008 R2/Windows 7 is far easier than with previous versions.
In the future post, we will see how we can integrate the drivers into your windows installation file
Till then, Stay Tuned
See ya
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SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)
При создании VM внутри proxmox 6.4.4 с осью Windows Server 2008 R2 Ent (из образа) SW_DVD5_Windows_Svr_DC_EE_SE_Web_2008_R2_64Bit_English_w_SP1_MLF_X17-22580.ISO
Если диск выбран Virtio SCSI, то установщик его не видит “No drives were found. Click Load Driver to provide a mass storage driver for installation” выбираю второй привод куда примонтирован образ с драйверами из пакета virtio-win-0.1.185.iso: Browse - CD Drive (EJ virtio-0.1.185.iso) - viostor - 2k8R2 - amd64 и нажимаю OK, но не все так гладко, в ответ получаю ошибку:
No signed device drivers were found. Make sure that the installation media contains the correct drivers, and then click OK.
Странно такого никогда не было, монтирую к VM образ с драйверами, которыми я пользуюсь всегда и составлял образ Windows с применением файлов ответов: virtio-win-0.1.171.iso
VM нужно перезагрузить
Снова дохожу до этапа разметки дисков
и указав путь: virtio-win-0.1.171.iso: Browse - CD Drive (EJ virtio-0.1.171.iso) - viostor - 2k8R2 - amd64 и нажимаю OK, установщик подхватывает указанные драйвера для диска и установка далее проходит успешно:
В дальнейшем установка драйверов на сетевую карту, видеодрайвер, агент успешна если образ драйверов virtio-0.1.171.iso, но если попытаться использовать virtio-0.1.185.iso
Мой компьютер: E:\ запускаю virtio-win-guest-tools.exe и постигает неудача, образ предназначен для VM начиная от Windows 8 и выше, а Windows Server 2008 R2 в этот список не входит.
Поэтому я использую свои наработки и действую только по ним чтобы все было стандартизировано.
На этом практическая заметка завершена, с уважением автор блога Олло Александр aka ekzorchik.