Configuring Windows-based Virtual Machines

After installing a Windows-based virtual machine, configure the additional resources and software necessary for production use, as described in:

• Creating and Initializing a Disk (Windows-based VMs)
• Installing Applications (Windows-based VMs)

If you plan to create VM snapshots (see Managing Snapshots), consider installing the QEMU guest agent and configuring the Microsoft Shadow Volume Copy Service (VSS), as described in:

• Installing the QEMU Guest Agent for Application-Consistent Snapshots (Windows-based VMs)

In addition, ensure that you configure the following settings:

• Change the time zone in the guest operating system to correspond to the time zone configured on the Date and Time preference page in the everRun Availability Console (see Configuring Date and Time); otherwise, the VM’s time zone changes whenever VMs restart or migrate. Network Time Protocol (NTP) is recommended for both the VM and the everRun system.
• Disable hibernation (enabled by default in some cases) to prevent the guest operating system from going into a power-saving state.

• Configure the power button action in the guest operating system to shut down the guest (and not to hibernate it) to allow the Shutdown VM button in the everRun Availability Console to work properly (see Shutting Down a Virtual Machine).

  Note: For Disaster Recovery (DR)-protected VMs, ensure that you configure the power button action in the guest operating system to shut down the guest. If the DR software cannot automatically shut down a VM with the power button action in the event of a DR migration, the operation may be delayed until you log on to the VM console and manually shut down the guest operating system.
• Configure the guest operating system to generate a crash dump file if the operating system crashes. Follow the instructions in the Microsoft article, How to generate a complete crash dump file or a kernel crash dump file by using an NMI on a Windows-based system (Article ID: 927069). Follow the instructions in the More Information section.

Related Topics

Managing Virtual Machines