Running CentOS 5.x on Hyper-V

I’m running Linux in Hyper-V VM’s since the launch of the Windows Server 2008 RTM. But in the beginning it was quite complex to get real performance and support for the network drivers.

But recently with the launch of R2 there are also new Linux Integration Components which also work for Windows Server 2008 RTM. So here is the list of steps to install CentOS with the integration components.

Download the latest CentOS distribution from http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/isos/ (I use the x86_64 version).

Create a VM

I suggest >400MB memory

Add a Legacy Network Adapter (connect to network)

Add a Network Adapter (connect to network)

Mount the CDROM and install CentOS (I used a minimal setup)

After the installation is done make certain you’re up to date

yum update

Install the required components for the Linux Integration Components

yum install gcc make gnupg kernel-devel

Reboot into the latest kernel

Download the Linux Integration Components

Mount the CDROM

mkdir -p /mnt/cdrom

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

cp -rp /mnt/cdrom /opt/linux_ic

umount /mnt/cdrom

Build the drivers

cd /opt/linux_ic

./setup.pl drivers

If you get the message “No kernel-xen-devel or kernel-source package installed. You must install this package before installing the drivers.”

Edit the setup.pl file and change the following

-$kernel = `rpm -q kernel-xen-devel`;

+$kernel = `rpm -q kernel-devel`;

If everything went OK you can now see a new nic called seth0 using ifconfig

You can now remove the Legacy Network Adapter.

Remember, every time you update the kernel you have to run the setup.pl drivers command.