Connect using Server Manager and Hyper-V Manager without domain only WORKGROUP

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Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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While setting up a test Hyper-V lab I have been doing a few steps repeatedly to remotely manage both Windows Server 2012 R2 and Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 machines. Here is the basic setup:

Systems
Windows 8.1 Pro client machine not joined to a domain using WORKGROUP
Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 (Bare Metal) upon initial installation using WORKGROUP - Computer Name for this will be HV2012R2A
Windows Server 2012 R2 (in Hyper-V) using WORKGROUP. This is going to be the domain controller at some point - Computer Name for this will be WS2012R2A

Configuration
WinRM is turned on for both the Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2012 R2 machines
Server Manager and Hyper-V Manager are installed on the Windows 8.1 client

Here are the three major steps required:
1. Open notepad or notepad++ as administrator. Add two host entries with the IP address of each machine e.g.
Code:
192.168.1.69 HV2012A
10.0.3.20 WS2012A
This step makes it so you can resolve host names in the event you cannot. IP addresses should be whatever IP addresses the server has.

2. Open cmd.exe as administrator and add the server(s) as trusted hosts. Here you can comma separate to add multiple machines. Note: keep this in a text file as you will need to update the command and append more machines before you get a domain setup.
Code:
winrm set winrm/config/client @{TrustedHosts="HV2012A,WS2012A"}
3. Now add credentials and make your life easy. Since this is used pre-domain, I am using the Administrator passwords used during setup:
Code:
cmdkey /add:HV2012A /user:ADMINISTRATOR /pass:PasswordA
cmdkey /add:WS2012A /user:ADMINISTRATOR /pass:PasswordA
Those three steps, assuming networking is all OK will get you to be able to remotely manage Windows Server and Hyper-V server hosts using Server Manager and Hyper-V Manager.
 

TangoWhiskey9

Active Member
Jun 28, 2013
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Life saver. Ive used a total of four bookmarks for this and each is like six printed pages of reading.
 

PigLover

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Jan 26, 2011
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Just a note for managing Hyper-V hosts if you have Norton Internet Security on your W8.1 workstation. Norton's firewall will interfere with communication. You need to disable Norton's firewall before you connect Hyper-V manager to the server host. After you've connected it you can re-enable the Norton firewall - its smart-rule learning will add the needed rules and get out of the way.
 

Patrick

Administrator
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Dec 21, 2010
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Wow! PigLover you just posted! That is awesome!

(Node 1 is off now, I think I found the Proxmox server issue)
 

TangoWhiskey9

Active Member
Jun 28, 2013
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I wanted to add my bit here:

If you are using Hyper-V Server 2012 R2 you do not have the firewall gui. The easiest way to create Hyper-V replication for two non-clustered hosts is to use Kerberos authentication. This is easy to do from Hyper-V manager BUT you still need to manually add firewall rules. Totally annoying with no GUI but you can use remote Windows Powershell on the hyper-visor and do:
Code:
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name='HyperVReplication' dir=in protocol=TCP localport=80 action=allow profile=any
That should open up the rules.

Test VM Replication (if this fails, you need to change something with firewalls likely):
Code:
Test-VMReplicationConnection server.domain.name 80 Kerberos
 

PigLover

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Jan 26, 2011
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It appears that this breaks with the upgrade to Windows 10. Using cmdkey to set credentials is still accepted, but Hyper-v manager 10 is using a different method to manage credentials.
 

PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
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It appears that this breaks with the upgrade to Windows 10. Using cmdkey to set credentials is still accepted, but Hyper-v manager 10 is using a different method to manage credentials.
Ah, never mind. When I installed Windows 10 I had to re-install Norton Internet Security from scratch. It lost the "trusted" settings on the HV servers and was blocking DCOM. Reset the network trust and all appears to be well now. HV Manager happily managing HV services remotely on HV Server 2012R2, Server 2012R2 and Windows 10 hosts with Hyper-V running.
 
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