WHS + Hyper-V = Stick it to Microsoft & Nvidia
July 1, 2008
[Disclaimer: This article is not for the technical weak of heart, nor for anyone who is a Nvidia or Microsoft Fan Boy/Girl.]
That’s right, use Microsoft’s own product to stick it to them and a favorite graphics/chipset company all at the same time. How’s that you ask? What’s this rant all about? Enter our contenders…Microsoft and Nvidia in one corner, Windows Home Server and Hyper-V in another.
For anyone who has attempted to install Windows Home Server (WHS) on a RAID knows my pain. Sure, there are slipstream methods for integrating the drivers, however; these methods sometimes work (sometimes don’t ) due to the unique way that Microsoft put the setup together. Let’s explain: Your typical Windows setup has two setup ‘phases’ (as I call it). The first ‘phase’ is usually a DOS (text-based) setup where the initial files are copied to the local HD with minimal interaction. After that is the full GUI setup that finishes the OS installation, requires more interaction for setup questions and such, and then you’re done. (Yes, I am ~greatly~ simplifying the process for the sake of this article.)
So, what’s the problem? Well, setting up WHS has four of these phases total: Text-based, GUI, text-based and then GUI again. Sure, it requires ~less~ interaction then your typical Windows install (minus Vista/08) but due to the ‘unique’ nature in which this setup takes place, it is a HUGE pain in the rear to get drivers integrated into a working WHS install DVD. There are options within the normal install to add drivers, but the hand-off from phase 1 of 4 to phase 2 of 4 never works, thus you’re left with error messages complaining about a driver that should be at path A but it’s really stored in path B . Some may have gotten it to work, but in my 30+ (yes, 30+) installs of WHS I have ~never~ been able to get this to function normally.
Ok — are you still with me? Good…because we’re going to compliment the matter. Woo-Hoo! Alright, so our friends at Microsoft decided to make it all but impossible to run a RAID on a WHS install. On the surface, it makes sense because they developed the ’soft-raid’ that allows you to seamlessly add/remove drives from the WHS, which is great for normal users who don’t want to mess with RAID . Plus, as we all know, standard RAID makes it very difficult, but not impossible (if you’re willing to work at it), to increase the size of a RAID once it’s been initialized and setup. The downside is that even with the new PowerPack being released for WHS you still cannot backup the OS partition on your WHS. What does this mean? If, crazy enough, a HD fails that contains your OS partition then you are (quite frankly) screwed. Even with the PowerPack , you can NOT backup the OS partition nor the backups for the computers on your network. (I’ll post a separate rant about the PowerPack, so check back later this week.) Even if you didn’t already know about the WHS KB article that basically says "your data can be corrupted if you save it on WHS", one might still be inclined to setup WHS on a RAID simply to protect the OS partition in addition to the computer backups stored on the server. Oh, by the way, when I say RAID I’m automatically implying a RAID level (1,5,etc) that allows one or more drive failures without losing data. It would be silly to rant about saving data while trying to setup WHS on a RAID 0, wouldn’t it?
Now we get to the fun part! So you’ve gotten the ‘why’ and what our problem is so far, but it gets better. Remember earlier when I said Microsoft decided to make it ‘all but impossible’ to do RAID? Here’s the funny part about that: Windows Home Server (WHS) is based on Windows Server 2003 (it’s even shown during boot-up) which includes many different RAID drivers by default. However, the WHS install DVD does not ! Sure, it may include some (I have not verified if it does) but I can tell you that Windows Server 2003 will easily install on two of my three RAID controllers without drivers being added at setup while WHS does not recognize ~any~ of those same three RAID controllers. Obviously, the WHS team did not want their product to see the light of RAID.
How does Nvidia fit into all of this? Well, my friend, simply put: the ASUS system board I purchased has an Nvidia chipset and their is no Server 2003 driver support for it. (And, yes, I tried the WHQL XP drivers to no avail.) Notice I don’t include ASUS in the title or the rant — ergo, it’s the chipset not the board, because even at Nvidia’s own site they have jack squat for Windows 2003 support that I could find, regardless of which chipset I selected on their official download page. Boo Nvidia…Server 2003 has been around for quite some time, so why no lovin’ Nvidia? It’s not like we’re asking for Server 2000 or even Win 95/98 support. =)
Solution? Use Hyper-V with Windows Server 2008 x64, of course! After spending many, many hours (wasted) on trying to get one of these other solutions to work and upon blogging about Microsoft’s Hyper-V going RTM (which occurred last Thursday) I saw a perfect chance to fix a problem and test a new product all at the same time. So, I fired up my MSDN account and download the latest Server 2008 x64 DVD and used ImgBurn (mad props, love that program) to make a quick DVD+RW…because I go through too many ISOs to just use +R. You know, save the environment, stuff like that.
Now, here’s the beautiful part: Nvidia has Vista nForce chipset drivers available (which work on Server 2008) and Server 2008 is a nice, normal install that allows an individual to specify a RAID controller driver at setup. In fact, props to Microsoft, it’s not one of those ‘Press F6′ at just the right moment…instead, the setup is paused while it kindly lets you know that it cannot find a hard drive and asks what you would like to do. After a quick setup with Server 2008, downloading patches and then download/installing Hyper-V which, honestly, was pretty painless and took a lot less time than I thought. Now that I think about it, it was only about an hour…wow, how far we’ve come in relation to installing Windows. Floppy disks, anyone?
Back on track: Using Hyper-V , I setup a virtual machine and ran through the normal WHS setup (using an ISO, which was cool) and guess what? I’ve got WHS up and running on RAID with Nvidia drivers that were not written for 2003 Server, with a solution that Microsoft never intended. Well, I can only guess ‘never’, but I’m not privy to what they think so who really knows, right?
Moral of the story: Just because the chipset manufacture and the company who coded your OS don’t want you to do something, doesn’t mean you have to listen to them. So, Microsoft/Nvidia, guess what? I did it my way using a different ’supported’ solution, even if it was just to prove a point, and it works great. Thanks for nothing, but thanks for everything — @#$!^%
=)
Filed under: General Rant |