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Beginners’ Guide for Microsoft Hyper-V: What is Hyper-V hybrid and the Best practices – Part 47
An essential part of running Hyper-V environments with guest virtual machines is something called Hyper-V Integration Services. These integration services ensure your Hyper-V host can interact adequately with these guest virtual machines. So what are Hyper-V Integration services? Let’s look at Hyper-V Integration Services for beginners and better understand this critical Hyper-V concept.
What are Hyper-V integration services?
The Hyper-V integration services are sometimes called “guest services” or “integration components” and allow the virtual machines running in Hyper-V to communicate with the Hyper-V host. The Hyper-V integration services are a key component of having a healthy Hyper-V environment where VMs run as expected and perform adequately.
No manual installation on modern operating systems
Modern Windows client and server operating systems install the Hyper-V Integration Services by default. It means you don’t have to manually install the integration services as was previously required in legacy versions of Windows client and server operating systems.
Hyper-V Linux Integration Services (the counterpart to Integration Services for Windows) are installed by default in Ubuntu releases from 12.04 and higher. Depending on the Linux distribution, these may need to be installed on your distribution of choice.
What Hyper-V integration services are available?
Note the following Hyper-V integration services available:
- Hyper-V Heartbeat Service
- Hyper-V Guest Shutdown Service
- Hyper-V Time Synchronization Service
- Hyper-V Data Exchange Service
- Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Requestor
- Hyper-V Guest Service Interface
- Hyper-V PowerShell Direct Service
Below is a screenshot of the Windows 11 Hyper-V Integration Services installed by default. You will also see the extra Hyper-V Host Compute Service, which is related to the Hyper-V role on the computer.
Let’s look at each integration service and see what each does as part of the Hyper-V integration services installation.
Hyper-V Heartbeat Service
Intuitively, the heartbeat service tells the Hyper-V host the virtual machine has an operating system installed and booting correctly in the Hyper-V infrastructure. It allows the Hyper-V host to answer questions like, “did the VM boot correctly and without issues?”
Even when a Hyper-V virtual machine displays that it is “running,” it does not mean the operating system is functioning correctly. After all, you can create a blank virtual machine and power it on in Hyper-V, and the status will show running. We can think of this as a physical server that may not have a hard drive installed and can be powered on.
Hyper-V Guest Shutdown Service
The Hyper-V guest shutdown service is an integration service used for virtual machine shutdown. With this integration service, the Hyper-V host can request the guest operating system to shut down gracefully. You can always power off a virtual machine running on the Hyper-V host without the guest shutdown service. However, this is akin to holding the power button down, on a physical server to force it to power down. In addition, it can leave the guest operating system in an unclean state, which can cause data corruption.
With the Hyper-V guest shutdown service integration service, it can instruct the guest virtual machine to perform a graceful shutdown of the guest operating system to avoid data corruption in the guest operating system.
Hyper-V Time Synchronization Service
Keeping the operating system time synchronized is a critical aspect of system administration. If an operating system time isn’t correct, it can cause applications to fail or lead to other issues. The Hyper-V time synchronization service synchronizes the virtual machine’s system clock with the system clock of the physical Hyper-V host.
Hyper-V Data Exchange Service
The Hyper-V Data Exchange Service (KVP) shares small amounts of data between the Hyper-V host and the guest operating system. It is useful for monitoring and host-side diagnostics. This service shares small amounts of machine information between the virtual machine and Hyper-V host using key-value pairs through the Windows registry.
No network connection is required between the guest virtual machine and Hyper-V host as it uses the Hyper-V VMBus. For interactive data sharing between a guest VM and the Hyper-V host, Microsoft recommends using PowerShell Direct for that purpose.
Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Requestor
The Volume Shadow Copy Requestor integration service is used to capture backups on guest systems, especially servers. Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) is an important part of taking application consistent backups of guest applications, like Microsoft SQL Server or Exchange Server.
The Volume Shadow Copy Requestor integration service allows backup solutions to coordinate backup processes through the Hyper-V host so admins can take application-aware backups.
Hyper-V Guest Service Interface
The Hyper-V Guest Service Interface is disabled by default. However, it is used for copying files to and from the guest using the PowerShell cmdlet, Copy-VMFile.
Hyper-V PowerShell Direct Service
PowerShell Direct functionality enables PowerShell management of a guest virtual machine from the Hyper-V host, regardless of network connectivity or remote management settings. This service makes it much easier for Hyper-V admins to script and automate configuration tasks when bootstrapping virtual machine environments in Hyper-V.
Hyper-V Integration Services FAQs
What are Hyper-V Integration Services?
Hyper-V Integration Services include a special collection of services allowing guest operating systems to interact with the Hyper-V host and vice versa. These services allow guest operating systems to maintain accurate system time, take consistent application-aware backups, and copy files between hosts and guests, to name a few.
Why are Hyper-V Integration Services vital?
These services provide necessary functionality helping to ensure guest operating systems are functioning correctly. In addition, it allows for keeping a pulse on the health of guest virtual machines and monitoring the status of the VM in general. As mentioned, it also enables taking application-aware backups, which are essential for database-driven applications like Microsoft SQL Server and Exchange Server.
Do you need to install Hyper-V Integration Services?
With modern Windows OS’es, Hyper-V Integration Services are installed by default. However, you do need to install them if you are using legacy versions of Microsoft Windows or Linux distributions.
Wrapping Up
Hyper-V Integration Services are a crucial part of a healthy Hyper-V environment. They allow special interactions between the Hyper-V host and the guest virtual machines, allowing effective monitoring, backups, and file copies without network connectivity. Understanding the services and how they are managed is an essential aspect of managing a Hyper-V environment.
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