Install Hyper-V and create a VM

  • 1 minute

Create and configure your virtual machine

In this exercise, you'll create and configure the a virtual machine. This virutal machine will be used to represent our on-premises Active Directory environment.

Diagram that shows a basic Microsoft Entra environment.

Install and configure Hyper-V Manager

The first thing that you'll need to do is, install Hyper-V on the host computer. If you already have Hyper-V installed, you can skip to creating the virtual machine. To install Hyper-V, follow the steps below.

  1. Click the windows icon in the lower left and type Turn Windows features on or off.
  2. Click on Turn Windows features on or off.
  3. Expand Hyper-V and select Hyper-V services Screenshot of Turn Windows features on or off.
  4. Click OK. Click Restart.
  5. Once the computer has restarted, click the windows icon and type Hyper-V Manager. Open it.
  6. In Hyper-V manager, right-click on the computer and select Virtual Switch Manager.
  7. Select New virtual network switch
  8. Select External and click Create Virtual Switch.
  9. Rename it External.
  10. Under External Network, make sure your Ethernet/wi-fi adapter is selected. Screenshot of Virtual Switch Manager.
  11. Click Apply. Click Ok.
  12. If you receive a warning saying, "Pending changes may disrupt network connectivity" click "Yes".
  13. Click Okay to close the virtual switch Manager

Note

If you are having an issue creating the External network, make sure that the host machine can connect to the internet and that the Hyper-V Exensible Virtual Switch is not bound to your Ethernet adapter. If so, checkout the video below for information on how to fix this issue.

Create a virtual machine

In order to get our hybrid identity environment up and running, you'll need to create a virtual machine that will be used as the on-premises Active Directory server.

The PowerShell script below can be used to accomplish this task. The script contains the following variables and these can be changed to suit your environment or preferences.

Variable Description
$VMName The name of the virtual machine as it will appear in Hyper-V
$Switch The external adapter that will allow the virtual machine to reach the internet
$InstallMedia Path and filename of the Windows Server 2019 build
$Path The location the virtual machine will be created in
$VHDPath The location of the virtual hard disk for the virtual machine
$VHDSize The size in bytes of our virtual hard disk

Do the following tasks:

  1. Open up the PowerShell ISE as Administrator.
  2. Copy the script below in to notepad and save it as D:\Scripts\1_CreateVM_LEARN.ps1
 #Declare variables
 $VMName = 'DC1'
 $Switch = 'External'
 $InstallMedia = 'C:\ISO\en_windows_server_2019_updated_aug_2021_x64_dvd_a6431a28.iso'
 $Path = 'D:\VM'
 $VHDPath = 'D:\VM\DC1\DC1.vhdx'
 $VHDSize = '64424509440'

 #Create New Virtual Machine
 New-VM -Name $VMName -MemoryStartupBytes 16GB -BootDevice VHD -Path $Path -NewVHDPath $VHDPath -NewVHDSizeBytes $VHDSize  -Generation 2   

 #Set the memory to be non-dynamic
 Set-VMMemory $VMName -DynamicMemoryEnabled $false

 #Add DVD Drive to Virtual Machine
 Add-VMDvdDrive -VMName $VMName -ControllerNumber 0 -ControllerLocation 1 -Path $InstallMedia

 #Mount Installation Media
 $DVDDrive = Get-VMDvdDrive -VMName $VMName

 #Configure Virtual Machine to Boot from DVD
 Set-VMFirmware -VMName $VMName -FirstBootDevice $DVDDrive
  1. Using a command line, navigate to D:\Scripts, type 1_CreateVM_LEARN.ps1, and hit enter. Screenshot of PowerShell session.
  2. Once this operation completes, you can move to finishing the operating system installation.

Complete the operating system deployment

In order to finish building the virtual machine, you need to finish the operating system installation.

  1. Hyper-V Manager, double-click on the virtual machine
  2. Click on the Start button.
  3. You'll be prompted to ‘Press any key to boot from CD or DVD’. Go ahead and do so.
  4. On the Windows Server startup screen, select your language and click Next. Screenshot of Install windows.
  5. Click Install Now.
  6. Select Windows 2019 Standard (Desktop Experience) and click Next.
  7. Check **I accept the license terms and click Next.
  8. Select Custom: Install Windows Only (Advanced)
  9. Click Next
  10. When prompted, enter a password for the Administrator account.

Check your work

At this point, you should have Hyper-V installed, a new virtual machine created and the Windows Server 2019 operating system installed on it.

To verify this exercise, we'll connect to the virtual machine.

  1. From the start button, select Hyper-V Manager
  2. In the center pane, under virtual machines, right-click the virtual machine and select connect.
  3. Sign-in to the new virtual machine with the password used in the Complete the operating system deployment section.