How to Resize Online Virtual Machine Hard Disks in Hyper-V 2012 R2

Starting with Windows Server 2012 R2, it is possible to re-size a Virtual Hard Disk for a running Virtual Machine on Hyper-V! It was not possible to do so before for an online Virtual Machine running on Windows Server 2012 and earlier Hyper-V versions.

Let’s have a look at some of the benefits this feature offers and requirements before you dive in and use it.

Benefits

The re-sizing feature allows expanding or shrinking a Virtual Machine hard disk while the Virtual Machine is running. Storage administrators can avoid downtime to perform virtual hard disk maintenance tasks and there is no impact to end users. Users can still access Virtual Machine and its volumes. This feature reduces the maintenance costs associated with downtime of critical Virtual Machines.

There is also a Resize-VirtualDisk PowerShell cmdlet available which can be used to script the re size operation on multiple virtual hard disks quickly. There is no need to use or enable any component to use this feature. This functionality is available out of the box using “Edit Virtual Hard Disk” wizard.

Requirements

Since it is a feature of Hyper-V running on Windows Server 2012 R2, make sure to perform this task on a Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V Server. You must also be using a VHDX format and this must be connected to a SCSI controller before you can expand or shrink a Virtual Hard Disk. However, Disk type can be fixed, differencing or dynamic.

So, let’s see how you actually Expand and Shrink virtual hard disks without powering off Virtual Machines. I’m not going to explain the step-by-step process but provide you the necessary screenshots for your understanding.

How to Expand?

To expand, Right Click on the Virtual Machine and then click on “Settings”. Click on the Virtual Hard Drive you want to extend in the “Settings” page. Note:You cannot extend/compact a Virtual Machine hard drive if a snapshot exists. A warning message will be shown stating that “Edit is not available because checkpoints exist for this Virtual Machine”. This is also shown in the red circle of the below screenshot.

Next click on “Edit” button to launch the “Edit Virtual Hard Disk” wizard as shown below:

Click “Next” to select “Expand” action as shown below:

Specify the size of the virtual hard drive to expand and then click on Finish.

At this point, Virtual Machine hard disk size has been expanded, now you need to launch “Disk Manager” in  Virtual Machine and then use the “Extend the Volume” wizard to make un-allocated space available to the Virtual Machine. When you open “Disk Manager”, you will see the expanded size as un-allocated space as shown in the below screenshot of the Virtual Machine:

Right Click on the volume you want to extend and then select “Extend Volume” wizard as shown in the below screenshot and then follow the on-screen steps to complete the process.

 

How to Shrink?

To shrink the storage capacity, you must first initiate the “shrink” action from within the Operating System of Virtual Machine using “Disk Manager”. Using the “Disk Manager”, Right Click on the volume you want to shrink and then select “Shrink Volume” action as shown in the below the screenshot:

Note: “Extend Volume” action is available only if you have un-allocated space available in the Operating System. Next, specify the amount of space you want to shrink as shown below and then hit “Shrink” button:

Once shrunk from within the Operating System of Virtual Machine, initiate the final shrink action using the “Edit Virtual Machine” wizard. Click on “Edit” button on the Virtual Machine’s setting page to specify the new size for the virtual hard disk as shown in the below screenshot. “Edit Virtual Machine”wizard will not allow you to specify the new size value lesser than the size being used by the Operating System inside the Virtual Machine. As you can see in the below screenshot, the C: volume is about 58.6 GB in size and “Edit Virtual Hard Disk” wizard also specifies the minimum required size which is 60 GB. This is shown in the red circles in the below screenshots:

Once you have specified the size to shrink, click “Finish” button for VMWP.exeto process the change and reduce the size of the VHDX file on the Host storage.

Limitations

• Does not work on virtual hard disks using VHD format.
• The re-sizing feature does not work on Virtual Hard Disks which are attached to IDE Controllers.
• Does not work for Virtual Hard Disks which have snapshots/checkpoints associated.
• Expanding and Shrinking process is not visible to the Virtual Machine Operating System. You must take some extra steps.
• Once the virtual hard disk has been expanded, the extra space is shown as un-allocated in the Disk Manager in the Operating System of the Virtual Machine. You must make the extra space available to Virtual Machine by using the “Extend Volume Wizard” within the Disk Manager of the Virtual Machine.
• Shrinking reduces the storage capacity of the Virtual Hard Disk. If you want to shrink the size, you must use the “Disk Manager” in Operating System of the Virtual Machine. Finally, use the “Edit Virtual Hard Disk” wizard to reduce the size of the virtual hard disk.

How to install the loopback adapter in Windows 8

In earlier versions of Windows, Microsoft included a loopback adapter. This was a virtual network interface that essentially you could use for network testing but without having a physical network card. In Windows 8 this device is a little trickier to install. Let me show you how to install the loopback adapter and how I’m using it in Hyper-V.

Contents of this article

• Starting the Add Hardware Wizard
• Configuring with Hyper-V
• Net results

Starting the Add Hardware Wizard

At first you would think to merely go to Devices under Control Panel and add the adapter. Sadly, no. At least not that I could find. The best approach seems to be to launch the Add Hardware Wizard. Click Windows Key+R and run hdwwiz.

Starting the Hardware Wizard

Click Next.

Manually install hardware

Select the option to manually install hardware and proceed.

Select network adapters

Scroll down to the network adapters section and select it as I did in the screenshot above. Click Next.

Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter

Select Microsoft for the manufacturer and scroll down until you find the Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter. That is the new name in Windows 8.

Install Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter

Click Next to install it. It shouldn’t take very long and not require a reboot.

Loopback Adapter installed

After you finish installing, you should see the new adapter under Network Connections.

Loopback adapter under Network Connections

At this point, you could configure the adapter’s properties to suit your needs.

Configure network adapter

Which brings me to why I even bothered with this.

Configuring with Hyper-V

I run Hyper-V on my Windows 8 laptop for development, testing and training. All my virtual machines are on the same virtual switch exposed to the physical network. In my office I can easily reach virtual machines from the host and vice versa, which I need to be able to do. The challenge is that when I am out of the office, say presenting at a conference, if I don’t have a network connection, my virtual machine networking no longer works the way I need it. Yes, the VMs can still communicate with each other, but I lose the ability (required in my case) to communicate between the host and guest. That’s when I realized the loopback adapter could help.

Originally my Hyper-V virtual switch was connected to my Ethernet port. Now I’m going to connect it to the loopback adapter. In the Hyper-V management console click on Virtual Switch Manager and then selected my virtual switch.

Select virtual switch

From the drop down list I select the loopback adapter and click OK. You might be prompted about brief network interruptions so take that into account when making this change.

At this point, this doesn’t change anything for the virtual machines and makes no difference when I’m connected to a network. However, one downside is that my virtual machines no longer can reach the Internet or my physical work network. So the next step is to bridge.

In Network Connections, using the Ctrl key I click on the Hyper-V adapter and my physical network adapter, then right click and choose Bridge.

Network Bridge

I right-click the Network Bridge and assign it an IP configuration in a range that my virtual machines are expecting.

Net results

If I am following the network paths that I’ve created correctly when I am disconnected from a physical network, the loopback adapter gives me a network interface with an IP address. Because the loopback adapter is bound to the Hyper-V virtual switch, my virtual adapter gives me network access from the host to the virtual machines and vice versa. One other item I have to remember though is that in this scenario Windows considers the network public which means I need to turn the firewall off. But since I’m not connected to any physical network, that’s not a problem. And when I’m in the office on my physical network, the virtual switch is bridged with the physical interface so all of my virtual machines can access the Internet.

I’m certainly not implying that this is the only or best use of the loopback adapter. But if you have the need for a test adapter, it is there in Windows 8.

Thanks to Jeffery Hicks  a multi-year Microsoft MVP for his sharing!

How to Clean up the WinSxS Directory and Free Up Disk Space on Windows Server 2008 R2

Today I wanna share with you the way to clean up the WinSxS Directory and Free Up Disk Space on Windows Server 2008 R2.

The ability to clean up the WinSxS directory and component store on Windows Server 2008 R2 is now available through the following update.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2852386

Pleaese mote that This cleanup needs to be done for Windows server 2008 R2. It is good to know that this has been automated in Windows server 2012.

Not only in this later operating system do we have several mechanisms to automatically cleanup previous versions of Windows Update files like this update does, we even have the ability to more accurately determine the size of the component store (aka the WinSxS directory). 

The command to accurately determine the size of the component store on Windows Server 2012 R2 is as follows: 

Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore.

The Windows 7 version of this fix introduced an additional option to the Disk Cleanup wizard that would cleanup previous versions of Windows Update files. KB2852386 adds a Disk Cleanup option on Windows Server 2008 R2, similar to the Windows 7 update. 

What does this mean for Windows Server 2008 R2? After installing this update and prior to being able to perform the cleanup, the Desktop Experience feature must be installed. Why you ask? Disk Cleanup is not installed by default on Windows Server 2008 R2. It is instead a component installed with the Desktop Experience feature. 

Why was the update not included as a DISM switch like Windows Server 2012 R2? 

This was evaluated, however, due to the amount of changes required and the rigorous change approval process, it was not feasible to back port the functionality this way. Knowing that it would be some time before everyone could upgrade to Windows Server 2012 R2 and based on feedback from an internal survey taken of a subset of enterprise customers, it was determined that this update would still be useful in its Disk Cleanup form, even with the Desktop Experience prerequisite. We hope you agree. However, we are aware that for some of you, the Desktop Experience requirement will be a deal breaker, but decided to release it anyway hoping it will help in some instances. 

How can I get the update?

The update is available on Windows Update. It can also be manually downloaded from the Microsoft Update Catalog. The KB article listed above will also direct you to a download link in the Microsoft Download Center.

Let’s Cleanup those Old Windows Update Files!

First, let’s take a look at our starting point. Looking at my Windows 2008 R2 Server with SP1 installed, according to Windows Explorer, the size of my Windows/WinSxS directory is as follows: 

The size of the WinSxS directory will vary by server. Some of you will have smaller WinSxS directories, some larger.  

Installing the update is just like installing any other update. Just download and double-click on the .msu file: 

Installing the update does not require Desktop Experience to be installed beforehand, but if you check your WinSxS directory again, you’ll see there has been no change to the size. This is expected as we need to run Disk Cleanup in order for this to take effect. It also does not require a reboot to install the hotfix. 

But…we can’t do anything with what we just installed until we get Disk Cleanup which is installed with the Desktop Experience feature. 

When installing Desktop Experience, it does require additional features. Select the button to Add Required Features and click Next and then Install: 

A reboot is required to finalize the install. 

Click Close and Reboot when prompted. 

After we reboot, a Disk Cleanup option can be found under Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> System Tools:

On launch, Disk Cleanup prompts for the drive you want to clean up: 

After clicking Ok, a scan is performed: 

Several options are provided for cleanup, including a new option for Windows Update Cleanup:

Just like the Windows 7 cleanup, mileage will vary. Also like Windows 7, the actual cleanup occurs during the next reboot. After the reboot, taking a look at the WinSxS directory, it has shrunk to the following: 

Nice cleanup!...

Still wanna clean? See my part 2 Article on "

How to Clean Up and Compress WinSxS Folder in Windows 8"