This is the third in a series of posts about my new dual-Xeon Citrix lab project. This time, we are reviewing the installation and configuration of the host.
More from the Lab!
- Building a Dual-Xeon Citrix Lab: Part 1 – Considerations
- Building a Dual-Xeon Citrix Lab: Part 2 – Hardware
- Building a Dual-Xeon Citrix Lab: Part 3 – Windows and Hyper-V installation
- Lab: Part 4 – Hyper-V Networking
- Lab: Part 5 – NetScaler 11 Architecture and Installation
- Lab: Part 6 – Configure NetScaler 11 High Availability (HA Pair)
- Lab: Part 7 – Upgrade NetScalers in HA
- Lab: Part 8 – Save, Backup and Restore NetScaler 11 configuration
- Lab: Part 9 – Install Microsoft SQL Server 2014 (Dedicated)
- Lab: Part 10 – Citrix Licensing demystified
- Lab: Part 11 – Install XenDesktop 7.6
- Lab: Part 12 – Setup NetScaler 11 Clustering (TriScale)
- Lab: Part 13 – Configure Published Applications with XenDesktop 7.6
- Lab: Part 14 – Citrix StoreFront 3.x
- Lab: Part 15 – Configure SSL in StoreFront
- Lab: Part 16 – StoreFront load balancing with NetScaler (Internal)
- Lab: Part 17 – Optimize and secure StoreFront load balancing with NetScaler (Internal)
- Lab: Part 18 – Secure LDAP (LDAPS) load balancing with Citrix NetScaler 11
- Lab: Part 19 – Configure Active Directory authentication(LDAP) with Citrix NetScaler 11
- Lab: Part 20 – RDP Proxy with NetScaler Unified Gateway 11
- Lab: Part 21 – Secure SSH Authentication with NetScaler (public-private key pair)
- Lab: Part 22 – Ultimate StoreFront 3 customization guide
- Lab: Part 23 – Securing Citrix StoreFront DMZ deployment
- Lab: Part 25 – Upgrade to Citrix StoreFront 3.7
- Lab: Part 26 – Install/Upgrade Citrix XenDesktop 7.11
- Lab: Part 27 – Getting started with Microsoft Azure
- Lab: Part 28 – Getting started with Citrix Cloud
- Lab: Part 29 – Configure XenDesktop And XenApp Service with Microsoft Azure and Citrix Cloud
- Lab: Part 30 – Configure Identity and Access Management in Citrix Cloud with Microsoft Azure AD
- Lab: Part 31 – Configure NetScaler Gateway Service for XenApp and XenDesktop Service in Citrix Cloud
- Lab: Part 32 – Configure MCS with XenDesktop and XenApp Service in Citrix Cloud
- Lab: Part 33 – Configure Azure Quick Deploy with XenDesktop and XenApp Service in Citrix Cloud
- Lab: Part 34 – Configure Site Aggregation for Citrix Workspace in Citrix Cloud with XenDesktop 7.x located on-premises
- Lab: Part 35 – Configure a Hybrid NetScaler MA Service environment in Citrix Cloud
- Lab: Part 36 – Configure ShareFile in Citrix Cloud with StorageZones on-premises
- Lab: Part 37 – Upgrade NetScaler HA pair with NetScaler MA Service in Citrix Cloud
- Lab: Part 38 – How to Configure Full VPN Setup with Citrix NetScaler in CLI
- Lab: Part 39 – Configure Multi-Factor Authentication with Azure MFA Service and Citrix Workspace
- Lab: Part 40 – Getting Started with Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 41 – Configure Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 42 – OS Layer with Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 43 – Platform Layer with Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 44 – Application Layers with Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 45 – Layered Image Deployment with Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 46 – Elastic deployment with Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 47 – User Layers with Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 48 – Windows 10 and PVS with Citrix App Layering
Operating system
In the first post, I’ve explained the reason why I am using Windows instead of VMware ESX. There is three ways to deliver Hyper-V:
- Windows Server
- Datacenter version with included guest virtual machines licenses
- Windows GUI
- Windows Hyper-V Server
- Free
- Separate guest virtual machines licenses
- Hyper-V GUI
- Limited to Hyper-V
- Windows Core
- Separate guest virtual machines licenses
- No GUI
I’ve selected the full version of Windows Server 2012 R2 to host my lab.

Windows Server 2012 R2 Evaluation version is available on the Microsoft website:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-2012-r2
Create USB boot Key
To be able to install the OS, I’ve created a usb bootable key with Rufus from the ISO file downloaded on the Microsoft website.
Download Rufus 2.2.

Install Windows Server 2012 R2
Boot on the USB key previously created and follow the steps as below.

I selected the standard version which was a mistake. Because I will have to convert my installation later to Datacenter.

Select Custom Installation.

Select your partition.

Windows is installing.

Enter a password for the local administrator account.


Windows configuration

Administrator account
I would recommend to disable the default administrator account and to create a new account with administrator privileges.
Open compmgmt.msc, select Local users and groups.

For my lab, I’ve created a new root account with full permissions.

Note: make sure that your new account has administrator rights.
Server name
By default when installing Windows Server 2012 R2, the installer is not asking for a server name and is giving a random name…
To rename the server, go to Server Manager, Local Server and click on the computer name and then on change.
Change the name of the server to the name your want(SRV on my lab), then reboot.

Activate Windows
Internet connectivity is required to activate your host.
How to activate Windows Server 2012 R2 Evaluation
Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter is required to be able to automatically activate guest virtual machines. Follow the procedure below to convert your Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard to Datacenter:
How to activate all Windows Guest virtual machines on Microsoft Hyper-V 2012 R2
IP configuration
There is two Gigabit Ethernet ports on the motherboard, so better use them all.

- Network Adapter 1 (RDP): 192.168.1.12/24(Static IP)
- Dedicated for remote access
- Network Adapter 2 (VM): 192.168.1.10/24(Static IP)
- Dedicated for virtual machines
We are done with the basic IP configuration. We will review later the network configuration for Hyper-V.
RAID Configuration
My storage configuration is below:
- 1x SSD 128 GB (OS)
- 1x SSD 512 GB (VM)
- 2x 640 GB – RAID-0 (TEMP)
- 3x 932 GB – RAID-5 (Software & Files)
To create the RAID-0, open diskmgmt.msc. Right-click on the disks you want to add to the RAID-0 and select Remove the volume. Then select the first disk and select New Striped Volume.


Select the two disks to add to the RAID-0 and click on Add.

Select Finish to complete the wizard.

To create the RAID-5, Remove the volume on the three disks and select New RAID-5 Volume.



Windows will take a few minutes to configure the disks.

Update the server
The first step required is to update the server with Windows Updates. The build installed is from 2013, so there is a lot of pending updates.




Reboot the server.
Drivers
Next, Install Java as required by most software. The nVidia website also requires java to detect the current video card installed.

Then Install the Graphic drivers.


Reboot the server and then install the remaining drivers.

Next step is to install the Intel C621 Chipset drivers.
Download official drivers from supermicro.com:
ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/CDR_Images/CDR-X10/CDR-X10_1.03_noME_for_Intel_X10_platform.iso

C621 Chipset drivers installation
Most components were properly recognized at this time.
I also installed Storage drivers.


That’s all for the drivers.
Additional software
I’ve also installed a few useful software on my Hyper-V host:
- AnyToISO 3.7.0 PRO
Create .ISO file from anything. ($25 @crystalidea.com)

- Virtual CloneDrive
Mount ISO file to the Hyper-V host. (Free @ http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html)

- WinSCP
SFTP, SCP and FTP client for Windows. (Free @ https://winscp.net)

- Internet Download Manager 6.23 PRO ($30 @ internetdownloadmanager.com)
Tool to increase download speeds by up to 5 times, resume and schedule downloads.

- WinRAR 5.10 PRO ($30 @ win-rar.net)
Most popular compression tool.

- ShareX 10.1
Best tool to take screenshots. (Free @getsharex.com)

- Thinfinity Remote Desktop Server 3.0
HTML5 RDP Server. ($80 @cybelesoft.com/thinfinity/remote-desktop/server)

- MobaXterm
SSH Client ($69 @mobaxterm.mobatek.net)

- Notepad++
Best free text editor. (Free @notepad-plus-plus.org)

- Speccy
Fast, cost-effective tool for profiling your IT resources. Speccy gives you detailed reports on every aspect of every PC. ($25 @piriform.com/business/speccy-business-edition)

Install Hyper-V role
Select Add Roles and Features on the Server Manager dashboard.

Click Next until Server Roles then select Hyper-V.

Select Next.

On this screen, select the network adapter assigned to virtual machines.


The next screen is to configure the location of the virtual machines files.
- VM Configuration -> D:\Hyper-V\Configuration
- VM Disks -> D:\VM

Review the configuration


Then start Hyper-V Manager.

In the next post, I’ll review the configuration of Hyper-V.
More from the Lab!
- Building a Dual-Xeon Citrix Lab: Part 1 – Considerations
- Building a Dual-Xeon Citrix Lab: Part 2 – Hardware
- Building a Dual-Xeon Citrix Lab: Part 3 – Windows and Hyper-V installation
- Lab: Part 4 – Hyper-V Networking
- Lab: Part 5 – NetScaler 11 Architecture and Installation
- Lab: Part 6 – Configure NetScaler 11 High Availability (HA Pair)
- Lab: Part 7 – Upgrade NetScalers in HA
- Lab: Part 8 – Save, Backup and Restore NetScaler 11 configuration
- Lab: Part 9 – Install Microsoft SQL Server 2014 (Dedicated)
- Lab: Part 10 – Citrix Licensing demystified
- Lab: Part 11 – Install XenDesktop 7.6
- Lab: Part 12 – Setup NetScaler 11 Clustering (TriScale)
- Lab: Part 13 – Configure Published Applications with XenDesktop 7.6
- Lab: Part 14 – Citrix StoreFront 3.x
- Lab: Part 15 – Configure SSL in StoreFront
- Lab: Part 16 – StoreFront load balancing with NetScaler (Internal)
- Lab: Part 17 – Optimize and secure StoreFront load balancing with NetScaler (Internal)
- Lab: Part 18 – Secure LDAP (LDAPS) load balancing with Citrix NetScaler 11
- Lab: Part 19 – Configure Active Directory authentication(LDAP) with Citrix NetScaler 11
- Lab: Part 20 – RDP Proxy with NetScaler Unified Gateway 11
- Lab: Part 21 – Secure SSH Authentication with NetScaler (public-private key pair)
- Lab: Part 22 – Ultimate StoreFront 3 customization guide
- Lab: Part 23 – Securing Citrix StoreFront DMZ deployment
- Lab: Part 25 – Upgrade to Citrix StoreFront 3.7
- Lab: Part 26 – Install/Upgrade Citrix XenDesktop 7.11
- Lab: Part 27 – Getting started with Microsoft Azure
- Lab: Part 28 – Getting started with Citrix Cloud
- Lab: Part 29 – Configure XenDesktop And XenApp Service with Microsoft Azure and Citrix Cloud
- Lab: Part 30 – Configure Identity and Access Management in Citrix Cloud with Microsoft Azure AD
- Lab: Part 31 – Configure NetScaler Gateway Service for XenApp and XenDesktop Service in Citrix Cloud
- Lab: Part 32 – Configure MCS with XenDesktop and XenApp Service in Citrix Cloud
- Lab: Part 33 – Configure Azure Quick Deploy with XenDesktop and XenApp Service in Citrix Cloud
- Lab: Part 34 – Configure Site Aggregation for Citrix Workspace in Citrix Cloud with XenDesktop 7.x located on-premises
- Lab: Part 35 – Configure a Hybrid NetScaler MA Service environment in Citrix Cloud
- Lab: Part 36 – Configure ShareFile in Citrix Cloud with StorageZones on-premises
- Lab: Part 37 – Upgrade NetScaler HA pair with NetScaler MA Service in Citrix Cloud
- Lab: Part 38 – How to Configure Full VPN Setup with Citrix NetScaler in CLI
- Lab: Part 39 – Configure Multi-Factor Authentication with Azure MFA Service and Citrix Workspace
- Lab: Part 40 – Getting Started with Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 41 – Configure Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 42 – OS Layer with Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 43 – Platform Layer with Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 44 – Application Layers with Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 45 – Layered Image Deployment with Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 46 – Elastic deployment with Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 47 – User Layers with Citrix App Layering
- Lab: Part 48 – Windows 10 and PVS with Citrix App Layering
I am about to purchase this exact processor (dual) for a host that will run Hyperv 2012R2. Would you characterize this processor as adequate for running 8 VMs, lightly equipped? I realize there a ton of factors that can impact performance. This is a single host with RAID 10 (600 IOPS) that will run a DC, File server (for 20 people), SQL Server (for 10 people, an accouting application) – with the other 5 VMs intended for future growth like a small IIS server (one or two static websites), etc. I am new to Hyperv and mainly wondering if this CPU alone is a risk. I understand again there are other factors.
That should do it. With this Dual CPU, you will have 12 cores/24cpu which seems to be enough for your configuration. I don’t have a lot of information about your RAID or the amount of memory you will have.
Thank you! I should have added that my RAID is going to be RAID 10, QTY 12, 2TB 7.2k NLSAS drives. This is on a T630 (64gig RDIMM) with Perc H730 controller an 1gb NV cache. Do you still think this will work? 🙂