New free tool ..COREFIG from codeplex

I have created a new GUI powershell Hyperv manager called PSHVM .. PSHVM.codeplex.com and I also intergrated it with corefig1.1, check it out or see my post about it http://stephanco.blogspot.com/2013/08/pshvm30-preview-and-it-releases-8162013.html

Corefig 1.1 for Windows Server 2012 Core and Hyper-V 3.0

Building on the foundation provided by the CoreConfig team on Core Configurator 2.0 (http://coreconfig.codeplex.com), Corefig is a PowerShell-based GUI tool to configure the 2012 releases of Server Core and Hyper-V Server.

The application structure remains largely intact from the CoreConfig product but introduces several enhancements and leverages several of the new cmdlets.

Features carried forward:

• Server renaming and domain joining
• Role and feature management
• Service control
• Remote Desktop Host and WinRM configuration
• Windows Update settings
• Display settings configuration
• Windows firewall settings
• Driver installation
• Regional settings (keyboard, date and time)
• Add Programs
• Network card settings, including TCP/IP
• Proxy configuration
• Local group membership
• Share management
• iSCSI Configuration (connecting to remote targets)
• View, start, and stop virtual machines
• Windows Server licensing

I found it to be helpful but not overly so.... I has some weirdness to it that makes it awkward to use and yes it does some things that sconfig (the blue screen menu tool) does not do, it just lacks polish and still does not really get into the creation and management of hyper-v VM's
for that go to pshvm.codeplex.com.

You will need to:

Open Powershell prompt

Type Set-ExecutionPolicy unrestricted and press Enter, answer Yes to allow the change.

This will allow you to run the PS1 files.

Nirsoft freeware Event Viewer.. for those of you wanting to see the server events

This has now been added to pshvm.codeplex.com a free powershell hyper-v manager project.

So windows free core server 2012 has no event viewer built into it that I can find and it was requested that I find something to view the events. I have done just that, a product from Nirsoft called MyEventViewer so easy to use it is scary. No install just download the zip file, unzip it. Map to \\YOURSERVER\C$, create ad directory C:\software\eventviewer,Copy the unzipped files to C:\software\eventviewer\ and then create a shortcut within Codyssey to C:\software\eventviewer\MyEventViewer.exe.

for further information on how to log or create alerts of of event logs go to http://www.howtogeek.com/69551/how-to-create-your-own-windows-event-log-notification-system/  

I am guessing this will require and command line emailer, and there are tons of them out there and I am not going to explain how they work since the website you download one from should have all the explanations you will ever need.

For those of you who wish to view events that and hate the GUI method this is for you.

Export Event Viewer Log from Server Core

1. To query for event log available on server Core to C:\eventlog.txt
wevtutil el > “C:\eventlog.txt”

Above command will give you event viewer name that you can export out. Let say we want to export System Log.

2. Export System Log
wevtutil epl System C:\ExportSystemLog.evtx

3. To Clear System Log
wevtutil cl System

Question was raised about auto starting a vm at boot up

In hyper-v manager it looks like this:

Options are Do nothing? Automatically start it if was running when the server went down or always start the VM and wait X number of seconds before you do so. This last option is if you have a large number of VM's it gives a pause instead of loading them all at once.

In VT Utilities it looks like this:

Options are None = Nothing, Auto start if it was previously running, and always start and hidden under the choices is the startup delay option. So it is the same, just worded different and located in a different tab.

As far as I have been able to tell all the same features or tick boxes are in VT utilities as are in Hyper-v manager they are just worded different or located in a different tab.

NOTE: Unlike VMware where you can use a GUI to set the start up order of your VM's in Hyper-v  you can use the start up delay for each VM in the same manner:

• First VM to start: set Startup delay to 0 seconds in the settings (AKA Domain Controller1)
• Second VM to start: set Startup delay to 60 seconds in the settings (AKA Domain Controller2)
• Third VM to start: set Startup delay to 120 seconds in the settings (DNS, etc)
• Etc.