How to Enable Shared ISO Images for Hyper-V Virtual Machines in VMM

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Applies To: Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1

Perform the following procedures to enable virtual machines to share ISO image files stored in the VMM library in a Hyper-V environment that is managed by System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2008 or VMM 2008 R2.

To share the ISO images, you will perform the following tasks:

  1. Specify an Active Directory domain account as the VMM service account on the VMM server.

  2. Configure the required share and NTFS permissions on the VMM library share that stores the ISO image files.

  3. Configure constrained delegation for the Hyper-V host.

  4. Configure the virtual machine to share an ISO image file.

    Note

    You must attach the shared ISO image file to the virtual machine after you create the virtual machine. You cannot attach the file during virtual machine creation.

Note

VMM 2008 does not support shared ISO images for self-service users. Instead, VMM 2008 attaches a copy of the ISO image file to the new virtual machine. VMM 2008 R2 supports shared ISO images for self-service users.

To specify a domain account as the VMM service account

To configure the required share and NTFS permissions for the library share

  1. Copy the image ISO files to a library share in the VMM library. For instructions, see How to Add Files to the Library (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=162799).

  2. Outside VMM, grant the following permissions to the library shares that store the ISO images. You must configure both share permissions and NTFS permissions on the folder.

    • Service account for the VMM Server service: Read access

    • Machine account for each Hyper-V host that will link to the ISO images: Read access

To allow a Hyper-V virtual machine to access an ISO file on a shared folder in a domain environment, you must configure the server running Hyper-V for constrained delegation. In this case, you must configure the computer account of the server running Hyper-V to present delegated credentials for the Common Internet File System (CIFS) service type.

To perform the following procedure, you must be a domain administrator in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS).

To configure constrained delegation for a Hyper-V host

  1. In Administrative Tools, open Active Directory Users and Computers, and then navigate to the machine account for the computer running Hyper-V.

    Note

    If Active Directory Users and Computers is not listed, install the Active Directory Domain Services Tools feature. For instructions, see Installing Remote Server Administration Tools for AD DS (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=140463).

  2. Right-click the computer account for the Hyper-V host, and then click Properties.

  3. On the Delegation tab, click Select this computer for delegation to specified services only, and then click Use any authentication protocol.

  4. To allow the Hyper-V computer account to present delegated credentials for the library servers:

    1. Click Add.

    2. In the Add Services dialog box, click Users or Computers, select each VMM library server that stores ISO image files, and then click OK.

    3. In the Available services list, select the cifs protocol (also known as the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol) for each of the VMM library servers, and then click Add.

Use the following procedure to modify the hardware configuration of a virtual machine to enable the virtual machine to share an ISO image file that is stored in the VMM library. For information about attaching files to a virtual machine, see How to Add a DVD or CD Drive to a Virtual Machine (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=163809).

To configure a virtual machine to share an ISO image

  1. In Virtual Machines view of the VMM Administrator Console, right-click the virtual machine, and then click Properties.

  2. Click the Hardware Configuration tab.

  3. In the left pane, under Bus Configuration, click IDE devices, and then select the IDE device that is being used to capture the ISO image file.

  4. Under Capture mode, select Existing image file, and then use the Browse button to select the shared ISO image file in the VMM library that you want to use.

  5. To share the image file from the VMM library instead of attaching a copy of the image to the virtual machine, select the Share image file instead of copying it check box.

Self-service users also can configure this option on their own virtual machines by using the VMM Self-Service Portal.

See Also

Other Resources

Managing Hyper-V Virtual Machines