Create Hyper-V guest instances without NIC

Question

I have windows server 2012 R2 standard edition, i would like to create few guest instances on this . I have Hyper-v installed and configured. I created a internal virtual switch,i should be able to create multiple windows 2012R2 guest instances and they should be able to talk to each other.  I do not want to use the actual NIC ( there is a reason why i don't want to). I need some assistance in how do i configure virtual switch, like how do i set up IP addresses, and then how do i configure ip address on vm instances. Any help is highly appreciated.

Answer 1

This is absolutely possible in Hyper-V Manager using the internal switch you have created- If you have done this right your physical switch will show up under external switch but will be greyed out as External Switch is unchecked.  All you need to do is to use that switch you created in each VM - so they ALL use the same switch. 

If you are using Hyper-V Manager to create VM's just select that switch when you create your VM in the Configure Networking page of the New VM wizard. Repeat this for each VM and they'll be able to talk. They should negotiate a 169.254.XX.XX address but you may wish to assign a static IP inside each VM just as you would on a physical machine, or add in a DHCP role to one of your VMs to do that automatically.

get back to me if us if you need more help or mark this as the answer to help others

Answer 2

as andrew mentioned, you will get an APIPA address by default.

If you want to manually assign IP addresses to your VMs, you do that within the OS of each VM - not through Hyper-V Manager.

Also, an Internal Switch has the Hyper-V Server attached to it.  A Private Virtual Switch is VM to VM only (if you want that extra level of isolation).

---

Brian Ehlert
http://ITProctology.blogspot.com
Learn. Apply. Repeat.