Recently, I assisted a client that was experiencing an issue/error with SCVMM. The client was using SCVMM 2008 R2. Although the issue eventually was resolved, I took the opportunity to educate the client on some of the enhancement/improvements with the SCVMM 2012 product. One of the best improvements with the product is the ability to patch your Hyper-V hosts (whether they are in a cluster or not).
We’ve all been on that Operations team, where someone will get stuck with the after-hours/weekend task of patching the Hosts; involving the routine of migrating the VMs off the Host, patching/rebooting (maybe even multiple times), then migrating the VMs back over. Lather, rinse, repeat; until the cluster was fully patched. And this would go on, month after month, year after year.
Now, SCVMM 2012 will do this automatically for you! So, let’s show you what you need to setup this up, and how to use it.
Prerequisites
System Centre Virtual Machine Manager
You will first need SCVMM 2012 installed. If you need some guidance on how to install the product, take a look at my SCVMM 2012 SP1 Install & Config Guides to get you started.
Windows Server Update Services
You will also need to have a WSUS server. This can either be the WSUS Server Role installed on the SCVMM server, a dedicated WSUS server, or even share the WSUS server that SCCM uses (if you are using SCCM, and it’s Patch Management).
Install the WSUS Server Role
Log on to the server on which you plan to install the WSUS server role by using an account that is a member of the Local Administrators group.
In Server Manager, click Manage, and then click Add Roles and Features.
On the Before you begin page, click Next.
In the Select installation type page, confirm that Role-based or feature-based installation option is selected and click Next.
On the Select destination server page, choose where the server is located (from a server pool or from a virtual hard disk). After you select the location, choose the server on which you want to install the WSUS server role, and then click Next.
On the Select server roles page, select Windows Server Update Services. Add features that are required for Windows Server Update Services opens. Click Add Features, and then click Next.
On the Select features page. Retain the default selections, and then click Next.
Important: WSUS only requires the default Web Server role configuration. If you are prompted for additional Web Server role configuration while setting up WSUS you can safely accept the default values and continue setting up WSUS.
On the Windows Server Update Services page, click Next.
On the Select Role Services page, either leave the default selections or change “WID Database” to “Database” (if you want to use a SQL Server), and then click Next.
Tip: You must select one Database type. If the database options are all cleared (not selected), post installation tasks will fail.
On the Content location selection page, type a valid location to store the updates. For example, you can create a folder named WSUS_Updates at the root of a drive. Type this directory as the valid location (i.e. D:WSUS_Updates). Then click Next.
If you changed the “WID Database” selection to “Database”, you will then be presented with the Database Instance Selection page. On this page, provide a SQL Server and Instance Name, then click ‘Check Connection‘. Only after a successful connection is made, will you be able to click Next.
The Web Server Role (IIS) page opens. Review the information, and then click Next.
In Select the role services to install for Web Server (IIS), retain the defaults, and then click Next.
On the Confirm installation selections page, review the selected options, and then click Install. The WSUS installation wizard runs. This might take several minutes to complete.
Once WSUS installation is complete, in the summary window on the Installation progress page, click Launch Post-Installation tasks. The text changes, requesting: Please wait while your server is configured. When the task has finished, the text changes to:Configuration successfully completed. Click Close.
In Server Manager, verify if a notification appears to inform you that a restart is required. This can vary according to the installed server role. If it requires a restart make sure to restart the server to complete the installation.
In the next part of this series, we will go through some Additional Configurations required.