HVRemote and Remote Administration of Hyper-V from Windows 7

Article
10/08/2009

Last Sunday, I rebuilt my desktop (WOLVERINE) with the RTM build of Windows 7 Ultimate (x64). Previously, I'd been running the RC1 bits and I figured it was about time I got around to "upgrading" to the RTM version. [I say "upgrading" because -- at least it in my experience -- it is typically better in the long run to simply reformat the hard drive and start over when installing a newer version of the operating system. Obviously I don't always stick to this principle. For example, I've upgraded some of my "Production" VMs from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008. However, I've seen a few bugs in my time that only occur in upgraded environments and therefore try to avoid these whenever possible.]

In order to get back to managing my Hyper-V servers from my Windows 7 desktop, I installed the Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 7 and turned on the corresponding Windows feature. However, I found that I still couldn't connect Hyper-V Manager to either of my Hyper-V servers. It was then that I remembered John Howard's blog series on Hyper-V Remote Management that describe the various hoops you have to jump through in order to get remote administration of Hyper-V working. However, this time when I went searching for John's blog posts, I stumbled across the Hyper-V Remote Management Configuration Utility (HVRemote).

Apparently -- quite some time ago -- John scripted the various configuration steps described in his blog series, thus making it much quicker and almost effortless.

Note that in my environment, both the client and server are in the same domain. Therefore, following the "10-second guide" for HVRemote, I created a firewall rule to allow Microsoft Management Console:

C:\NotBackedUp\Public\Toolbox\HVRemote>cscript hvremote.wsf /mmc:enable
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Hyper-V Remote Management Configuration & Checkup Utility
John Howard, Hyper-V Team, Microsoft Corporation.
https://blogs.technet.com/jhoward
Version 0.7 7th August 2009

INFO: Computername is WOLVERINE
INFO: Computer is in domain corp.technologytoolbox.com
INFO: Current user is TECHTOOLBOX\jjameson-admin
INFO: Assuming /mode:client as the Hyper-V role is not installed
INFO: Build 7600.16385.amd64fre.win7_rtm.090713-1255
INFO: Detected Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2 OS
INFO: Remote Server Administration Tools are installed
INFO: Hyper-V Tools Windows feature is enabled
INFO: No TCP rule was found
INFO: No UDP rule was found
INFO: MMC Firewall exception changes OK.
INFO: Are running the latest version

However, when I attempted to connect to Hyper-V Manager to my Hyper-V servers, I encountered errors similar to the following:

Access denied. Unable to establish communication between 'ROGUE' and 'WOLVERINE'.

In addition to enabling the firewall rule, I found that I also needed to allow Anonymous Logon remote DCOM access:

Hyper-V Remote Management Configuration & Checkup Utility
John Howard, Hyper-V Team, Microsoft Corporation.
https://blogs.technet.com/jhoward
Version 0.7 7th August 2009

INFO: Computername is WOLVERINE
INFO: Computer is in domain corp.technologytoolbox.com
INFO: Current user is TECHTOOLBOX\jjameson-admin
INFO: Build 7600.16385.amd64fre.win7_rtm.090713-1255
INFO: Detected Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2 OS
INFO: Remote Server Administration Tools are installed
INFO: Hyper-V Tools Windows feature is enabled

INFO: Obtaining current Machine Access Restriction...
INFO: Examining security descriptor
INFO Granted Remote DCOM Access to Anonymous Logon
WARN: See documentation for security implications
INFO: Are running the latest version

After both of these changes were made, I found that I could once again perform remote administration using Hyper-V Manager.

Kudos to John for simplifying the necessary configuration steps!

HVRemote and Remote Administration of Hyper-V from Windows 7

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