Here we look at using sysprep to create a base vm image with some example files on the c drive. However, we want to keep the lab uptodate with windows updates. Create new differencing disk for each virtual machine that you plan to install. The differencing disk feature in hyperv for windows server 2012 is a wonderful tool that can be extremely useful when you are in a situation where you need to deploy a bunch of virtual machines.
You have multiple needs for virtual machines based on xp mode in windows 7. Once all of the software is installed, launch an administrative command prompt and browse to c. Parent disk can be write protected, and used as parent for multiple child disks. After you finish updating windows server run sysprep with enter out of box experience oobe, generalize, and shutdown selected, and click ok. Luckily, its not too hard to do once you know how, and ill guide you through the tough parts overall process well be following. Using differencing disk and sysprep image to create hyperv guest on windows server 2008 r2 by dan stolts. You want to use the base xp mode operating system as a reference and create other systems using differencing disks and new virtual machine setup files.
We then created a differencing disk, installed all the applications, etc. It mitigates the problem of altering and removing microsoft validation by creating an image of the source partition prior to running sysprep. Working with differencing disks in virtualbox morgan. I use this technology constantly in my demonstration environments. Sysprep and capture windows 10 with dism askme4tech. Using differencing disk and sysprep image to create hyperv guest on windows server 2008 r2 by dan stolts 1 create the sysprep image if you do not have it.
Then generalize the os for further deployment using sysprep. Using differencing disks in hyperv for quick vm deployment the technology of differencing disks in hyperv was presented by microsoft quite a long time ago in hyperv version for windows server 2008 if im not mistaken. The differencing disk feature in hyperv for windows server 2012 is a. Using hyperv differencing disks for rapid vm deployment. Hyperv use differencing disks tutorials windows 10 forums. Did disk cleanup on differencing drive, and then used merge option to merge base drive and differencing drive, to a new merged drive, and merged drive was 27gb. After have generalize the windows 10 installation its time to capture the image. The differencing disk can be used to create a base image for multiple images from the same base operating system.
Sysprep is a tool for it administrators who want to prepare an installation of windows for duplication, auditing, and customer delivery. Sysprep fails after you remove or update microsoft store. I work with a lot of different customers and needed a way to quickly create new vms ready to go. In the windows world this means running the system preparation tool sysprep. A typical scenario would be for instance to install windows 10 version 1803 on a new virtual machine and use its virtual hard disk file vhd or vhdx as parent to three differencing child disks. Can you update a hyperv parent differencing disk to push updates to all children. In windows server 2012 and windows 8, microsoft added an addition to sysprep called the mode switch mode. Name it vm1 and store it where ever you want to store this differencing disk.
The system preparation sysprep tool is used to prepare a windows machine for delivery to a customer. One cool thing i see is ability to have a base image, then sysprep to a differencing drive, and then merge the base and differencing drive to a new drive. Using sysprep and differencing disks to clone vms in windows. This video demonstrates using sysprep and differencing disks to clone virtual. This is a vhdx file that only stores the differences between the current state and the state of the parent image. Now you can use this disk as the starting point for several new vms and save a lot of disk space. Differencing disks and virtual machines on windows 10 msitpros. I also tried to boot a differencing vhd, but through uefi, only the entry for the parent vhd is shown, even though i know for a fact that the entry for the differencing disk also exists in the efi bcd, and when i try to add the differencing entry to non uefi bcd, i get errors iirc there is an invalid object in the boot configuration data store.
This way, you will have time to copy the windows image before the vm is started. If you use a differencing disk you can build multiple machines with the same parent sysprep image. Windows sysprep tool for virtual machines create new differencing disk. Because we dont have microsoft deployment toolkit we must do it with dism command. For many users, sysprep is time consuming and complex, and sometimes it even goes wrong. I generalize windows with sysprep, restarting to oobe.
One for windows 10 1611 and one for windows server 2012r2. By using it, you dont need to be worried about sysprep. When a hyperv aware backup application targets a virtual machine, hyperv will take a special checkpoint. Using differencing disks for vm deployment in hyperv. The parent disk contains the basic windows installation, and the child disk all user settings, data, customizations and so on. After the operation is complete, you can verify that the hyperv differencing disk has been created by opening the folder where it is expected to be stored. Before we can create any differencing disks, we have to create a parent disk and prepare it. Windows reference images for rapid virtual machine deployment.
Vm is created and weve installed our windows os, we must run sysprep. Sysprep is a system preparation tool that allows you to edit windows images to bring them to a generalized state. The differencing disk expands dynamically as data is written to it and can grow as large as the maximum size allocated for the parent disk when the parent disk was created. Hyperv differencing disks with an answer file by rakhesh is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4. There is a mismatch in the identifiers of the parent virtual hard disk and differencing disk. Differencing disks and virtual machines on windows 10. In the spirit of sharing i thought i would share how i create virtual machines on windows 10 using hyperv using differencing disks. Differential disks are used to create snapshots checkpoints and are widely used by various vm backup systems. The first thing i do is to create some master images or parent vhds if you prefer. To overcome the disk space problems were going to build the environment using differencing disks on hyperv 2012. After sysprep run successful now its time to create a new virtual hard disk as differencing. Using sysprep and differencing disks to clone vms in. By creating a golden vhdx disk with the base operating system, you can then use so called differencing disks, which reference the master vhdx and only save the changes on their disk. When done, i generalize windows with sysprep, restarting to oobe.
So first, lets create a new vm with the new virtual machine wizard in hyperv and set it up according to the specs of the windows os that you plan to deploy. Using sysprep when migrating boot camp twocanoes support. Back to my good old space efficient minitool method. Using differencing disk and sysprep image to create hyper. Now though, i could create a vm using a differencing disk, point it to the sysprep image and boot. Now that the reference iot device has been customized with software and settings, the system will be prepared for mass deployment using sysprep and then captured to a wim using dism. Sysprep is a builtin utility for most current microsoft operating. This message occurs when i power up parent machine, complete activation from sysprep update the os and then execute sysprep one more time on the. Hyperv use differencing disks information a virtual machine using differencing disks is stored on two separate virtual hard disks.
Comments are disabled for this blog but please email me with any comments, feedback, corrections, etc. Virtual lab creating differencing disks voice of the dba. I went to the installation dvd and couldnt find sysprep. Using differencing disk and sysprep image to create hyperv guest on windows server. How to use differencing disks in hyperv data storage. Look into mdt its a gamechanger and free to run on any workstation or server. This article discusses an issue that occurs when you remove or update a provisioned microsoft store app by using the microsoft store and then running sysprep on the computer. All changes are done to the differencing disk and the master disk is left intact. Xp mode and differencing disks, creating multiple virtual. How to use differencing disks in hyperv askme4tech. These are my installations of windows server 2012 r2 standard and core, sysprepd and ready to use.
Creating vm clones in microsoft hyperv anotherwindowsblog. Windows sysprep for virtual machines thomas maurer. This software is present in all windows installations, and it is very important to prepare a system for cloning and distribution on. Learn how to use sysprep system preparation tool to prepare windows 7 for cloning and restoration via a disk image used in windows 7 deployment. While the disk and the state of the virtual machine are frozen in the checkpoint, the backup application can copy the contents without fear that theyll. For most of us, backup software is the most likely source of differencing disks. Using differencing disks for vm deployment in hyperv medium.
This document covers how to use sysprep to prepare a windows installation to migrate between different mac models. You have to deploy the os with the sysprep image afterwards but it would also be much quicker then a normal. The idea in differencing disks is similar to the snapshot feature i used in vmware to do this same process. What is differencing disk a differencing disk is a virtual hard disk vhd or vhdx which store changes made to another vhd or to guest operating system. This video demonstrates using sysprep and differencing disks to clone virtual machines in windows server 2012 r2. Typically all virtualization software is able to use a differencing disk, or delta disk, for each vm. From now on, every new change i make on the child vm is only written to the differencing disk and the parent virtual disk is left completely alone. Discus and support differencing hard disk hyperv in windows 10 virtualization to solve the problem. It does all of the stuff like sysprep for you, and will automate and modularize all of your imaging process. As you can see, the key to making sysprep work with windows 10 is to disconnect the network adapter to prevent any updates from being installed, remove any unwanted apps, and avoid installing any modern applications. Using differencing disk and sysprep image to create hyperv guest on windows server 2008 r2 when you have to create an testlab environment with multiple servers, it is a big job to install all the servers.
We ran sysprep and used the csupload utility to upload the parent vhd image 65gb to the azure storage. However, aomei image deploy makes a real difference. The differencing disk could be on ssd storage rather than low cost storage where the master disk would be. To make more clones, i simply repeat the process of first creating a new differencing disk based on the parent disk, creating a new vm and finally, attaching the differencing disk to it. How to sysprep a windows 7 installation dimitris tonias. Can you update a hyperv parent differencing disk to push. If you are using a nonwindows os, research the sysprep equivalent of that os. When you run sysprep, be sure to choose the option to shut down the pc once sysprep completes.
Differencing disk is good solution to save hard disk space in your. The technology of differencing disks in hyperv was presented by microsoft. There are many great approaches for creating vms, but i prefer this method i am about to describe using differencing disks. Find the article with the instruction how can proceed to run sysprep mode. Create new vms, using the newly created differencing disk. Id like to inject these updates into the parent disk and not have all the updates in the child disks of the various machines. Now you can use the hyperv differencing disk we have just created for vm deployment. Obviously, the merging algorithm is really space inefficient. Using sysprep and differencing disks in windows 8 hyperv. Also it is used to change the windows sid machines security identifier sid and the computers name after disk imaging cloning a preconfigured windows installation configuration to a whole organization. How to create a vm with a hyperv differencing disk.
You install a vm with windows 10 1607 from the official iso, next next finish patch it up, run sysprep and turn it off. To create our differencing disk, we will use the new virtual hard disk wizard in hyperv with the following options. How to use differencing disks to deploy multiple vms. How to sysprep windows server 2008 james kovacs weblog. So when must be create a differencing disk the associated disk must be created first. One weakness dynamics vhds have is they grow as you do updates, but even if you delete stuff using disk cleanup, you cannot physically recover the space even if you use powershell shrink. To use the reference images, we need to create a differencing disk. Using differencing disk and sysprep image to create hyperv. It can pair with wds network booting, network deployment, but does need a windows server to run on.
Use of a differencing vhd can cause the windows azure vm. This enables us to create virtual machines very quickly and correctly with minimal disk foot print. We then ran a powershell script to provision several vm roles based on the differencing disk. How to use differencing disks to deploy multiple vms quickly in hyperv. Boot the workstationlaptop from windows 10 boottable usb that you create to setup your. Hyperv has a very interesting feature that allows to save a lot of space. I was going sysprep a base image of windows server 2008 this morning and followed my own instructions on sysprepping windows. Using hyperv differencing disks for rapid vm deployment nakivo. Although windows users are given many tools to deploy system image remotely, you must prepare the system image using sysprep in windows 10. Information a virtual machine using differencing disks is stored on two separate virtual hard disks.
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