# Hyper-V virtualization platform

Todo

This is really installation guide material and should probably be moved.

It is possible to use Hyper-V as a compute node within an OpenStack Deployment. The `nova-compute` service runs as `openstack-compute`, a 32-bit service directly upon the Windows platform with the Hyper-V role enabled. The necessary Python components as well as the `nova-compute` service are installed directly onto the Windows platform. Windows Clustering Services are not needed for functionality within the OpenStack infrastructure. The use of the Windows Server 2012 platform is recommend for the best experience and is the platform for active development. The following Windows platforms have been tested as compute nodes:

- Windows Server 2012

- Windows Server 2012 R2 Server and Core (with the Hyper-V role enabled)

- Hyper-V Server

## Hyper-V configuration

The only OpenStack services required on a Hyper-V node are `nova-compute` and `neutron-hyperv-agent`. Regarding the resources needed for this host you have to consider that Hyper-V will require 16 GB - 20 GB of disk space for the OS itself, including updates. Two NICs are required, one connected to the management network and one to the guest data network.

The following sections discuss how to prepare the Windows Hyper-V node for operation as an OpenStack compute node. Unless stated otherwise, any configuration information should work for the Windows 2012 and 2012 R2 platforms.

### Local storage considerations

The Hyper-V compute node needs to have ample storage for storing the virtual machine images running on the compute nodes. You may use a single volume for all, or partition it into an OS volume and VM volume.

### Configure NTP

Network time services must be configured to ensure proper operation of the OpenStack nodes. To set network time on your Windows host you must run the following commands:

    C:\>net stop w32time
    C:\>w32tm /config "/manualpeerlist:pool.ntp.org,0x8" /syncfromflags:MANUAL
    C:\>net start w32time

Keep in mind that the node will have to be time synchronized with the other nodes of your OpenStack environment, so it is important to use the same NTP server. Note that in case of an Active Directory environment, you may do this only for the AD Domain Controller.

### Configure Hyper-V virtual switching

Information regarding the Hyper-V virtual Switch can be found in the Hyper-V Virtual Switch Overview.

To quickly enable an interface to be used as a Virtual Interface the following PowerShell may be used:

    PS C:\> $if = Get-NetIPAddress -IPAddress 192* | Get-NetIPInterface
    PS C:\> New-VMSwitch -NetAdapterName $if.ifAlias -Name YOUR_BRIDGE_NAME -AllowManagementOS $false

Note

It is very important to make sure that when you are using a Hyper-V node with only 1 NIC the -AllowManagementOS option is set on `True`, otherwise you will lose connectivity to the Hyper-V node.

### Enable iSCSI initiator service

To prepare the Hyper-V node to be able to attach to volumes provided by cinder you must first make sure the Windows iSCSI initiator service is running and started automatically.

    PS C:\> Set-Service -Name MSiSCSI -StartupType Automatic
    PS C:\> Start-Service MSiSCSI

### Configure shared nothing live migration

Detailed information on the configuration of live migration can be found in this guide

The following outlines the steps of shared nothing live migration.

1. The target host ensures that live migration is enabled and properly configured in Hyper-V.

2. The target host checks if the image to be migrated requires a base VHD and pulls it from the Image service if not already available on the target host.

3. The source host ensures that live migration is enabled and properly configured in Hyper-V.

4. The source host initiates a Hyper-V live migration.

5. The source host communicates to the manager the outcome of the operation.

The following three configuration options are needed in order to support Hyper-V live migration and must be added to your `nova.conf` on the Hyper-V compute node:

- This is needed to support shared nothing Hyper-V live migrations. It is used in `nova/compute/manager.py`.

      instances_shared_storage = False

- This flag is needed to support live migration to hosts with different CPU features. This flag is checked during instance creation in order to limit the CPU features used by the VM.

      limit_cpu_features = True

- This option is used to specify where instances are stored on disk.

      instances_path = DRIVELETTER:\PATH\TO\YOUR\INSTANCES

Additional Requirements:

- Hyper-V 2012 R2 or Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V role enabled

- A Windows domain controller with the Hyper-V compute nodes as domain members

- The instances_path command-line option/flag needs to be the same on all hosts

- The `openstack-compute` service deployed with the setup must run with domain credentials. You can set the service credentials with:

    C:\>sc config openstack-compute obj="DOMAIN\username" password="password"

### How to setup live migration on Hyper-V

To enable ‘shared nothing live’ migration, run the 3 instructions below on each Hyper-V host:

    PS C:\> Enable-VMMigration
    PS C:\> Set-VMMigrationNetwork IP_ADDRESS
    PS C:\> Set-VMHost -VirtualMachineMigrationAuthenticationTypeKerberos

Note

Replace the `IP_ADDRESS` with the address of the interface which will provide live migration.

### Additional Reading

This article clarifies the various live migration options in Hyper-V:

Hyper-V Live Migration of Yesterday

## Install nova-compute using OpenStack Hyper-V installer

In case you want to avoid all the manual setup, you can use Cloudbase Solutions’ installer. You can find it here:

HyperVNovaCompute_Beta download

The tool installs an independent Python environment in order to avoid conflicts with existing applications, and dynamically generates a `nova.conf` file based on the parameters provided by you.

The tool can also be used for an automated and unattended mode for deployments on a massive number of servers. More details about how to use the installer and its features can be found here:

Cloudbase

## Requirements

### Python

Setting up Python prerequisites

1. Download and install Python 3.8 using the MSI installer from the Python website.

       PS C:\> $src = "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.8.8/python-3.8.8.exe"
       PS C:\> $dest = "$env:temp\python-3.8.8.exe"
       PS C:\> Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $src -OutFile $dest
       PS C:\> Unblock-File $dest
       PS C:\> Start-Process $dest

2. Make sure that the `Python` and `Python\Scripts` paths are set up in the `PATH` environment variable.

       PS C:\> $oldPath = [System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path")
       PS C:\> $newPath = $oldPath + ";C:\python38\;C:\python38\Scripts\"
       PS C:\> [System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("Path", $newPath, [System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::User

### Python dependencies

The following packages must be installed with pip:

- `pywin32`

- `pymysql`

- `greenlet`

- `pycryto`

- `ecdsa`

- `amqp`

- `wmi`

    PS C:\> pip install ecdsa
    PS C:\> pip install amqp
    PS C:\> pip install wmi

### Other dependencies

`qemu-img` is required for some of the image related operations. You can get it from here: http://qemu.weilnetz.de/. You must make sure that the `qemu-img` path is set in the PATH environment variable.

Some Python packages need to be compiled, so you may use MinGW or Visual Studio. You can get MinGW from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/. You must configure which compiler is to be used for this purpose by using the `distutils.cfg` file in `$Python38\Lib\distutils`, which can contain:

    [build]
    compiler = mingw32

As a last step for setting up MinGW, make sure that the MinGW binaries’ directories are set up in PATH.

## Install nova-compute

### Download the nova code

1. Use Git to download the necessary source code. The installer to run Git on Windows can be downloaded here:

   https://gitforwindows.org/

2. Download the installer. Once the download is complete, run the installer and follow the prompts in the installation wizard. The default should be acceptable for the purposes of this guide.

3. Run the following to clone the nova code.

       PS C:\> git.exe clone https://opendev.org/openstack/nova

### Install nova-compute service

To install `nova-compute`, run:

    PS C:\> cd c:\nova
    PS C:\> python setup.py install

### Configure nova-compute

The `nova.conf` file must be placed in `C:\etc\nova` for running OpenStack on Hyper-V. Below is a sample `nova.conf` for Windows:

    [DEFAULT]
    auth_strategy = keystone
    image_service = nova.image.glance.GlanceImageService
    compute_driver = nova.virt.hyperv.driver.HyperVDriver
    volume_api_class = nova.volume.cinder.API
    fake_network = true
    instances_path = C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenStack\Instances
    use_cow_images = true
    force_config_drive = false
    injected_network_template = C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenStack\Nova\etc\interfaces.template
    policy_file = C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenStack\Nova\etc\policy.yaml
    mkisofs_cmd = C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenStack\Nova\bin\mkisofs.exe
    allow_resize_to_same_host = true
    running_deleted_instance_action = reap
    running_deleted_instance_poll_interval = 120
    resize_confirm_window = 5
    resume_guests_state_on_host_boot = true
    rpc_response_timeout = 1800
    lock_path = C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenStack\Log\
    rpc_backend = nova.openstack.common.rpc.impl_kombu
    rabbit_host = IP_ADDRESS
    rabbit_port = 5672
    rabbit_userid = guest
    rabbit_password = Passw0rd
    logdir = C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenStack\Log\
    logfile = nova-compute.log
    instance_usage_audit = true
    instance_usage_audit_period = hour

    [glance]
    api_servers = http://IP_ADDRESS:9292

    [neutron]
    endpoint_override = http://IP_ADDRESS:9696
    auth_strategy = keystone
    project_name = service
    username = neutron
    password = Passw0rd
    auth_url = http://IP_ADDRESS:5000/v3
    auth_type = password

    [hyperv]
    vswitch_name = newVSwitch0
    limit_cpu_features = false
    config_drive_inject_password = false
    qemu_img_cmd = C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenStack\Nova\bin\qemu-img.exe
    config_drive_cdrom = true
    dynamic_memory_ratio = 1
    enable_instance_metrics_collection = true

    [rdp]
    enabled = true
    html5_proxy_base_url = https://IP_ADDRESS:4430

### Prepare images for use with Hyper-V

Hyper-V currently supports only the VHD and VHDX file format for virtual machine instances. Detailed instructions for installing virtual machines on Hyper-V can be found here:

Create Virtual Machines

Once you have successfully created a virtual machine, you can then upload the image to glance using the openstack-client:

    PS C:\> openstack image create \
              --name "VM_IMAGE_NAME" \
              --property hypervisor_type=hyperv \
              --public \
              --container-format bare \
              --disk-format vhd

Note

VHD and VHDX files sizes can be bigger than their maximum internal size, as such you need to boot instances using a flavor with a slightly bigger disk size than the internal size of the disk file. To create VHDs, use the following PowerShell cmdlet:

    PS C:\> New-VHD DISK_NAME.vhd -SizeBytes VHD_SIZE

### Inject interfaces and routes

The `interfaces.template` file describes the network interfaces and routes available on your system and how to activate them. You can specify the location of the file with the `injected_network_template` configuration option in `nova.conf`.

    injected_network_template = PATH_TO_FILE

A default template exists in `nova/virt/interfaces.template`.

### Run Compute with Hyper-V

To start the `nova-compute` service, run this command from a console in the Windows server:

    PS C:\> C:\Python27\python.exe c:\Python27\Scripts\nova-compute --config-file c:\etc\nova\nova.conf

## Troubleshooting

- I ran the nova-manage service list command from my controller; however, I’m not seeing smiley faces for Hyper-V compute nodes, what do I do?

  Verify that you are synchronized with a network time source. For instructions about how to configure NTP on your Hyper-V compute node, see Configure NTP.

- How do I restart the compute service?

      PS C:\> net stop nova-compute && net start nova-compute

- How do I restart the iSCSI initiator service?

      PS C:\> net stop msiscsi && net start msiscsi

this page last updated: 2026-06-10 20:07:09

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