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I am trying to convert a physical SBS 2008 to virtual with Hyper-V 2012.

Everything seems fine (the VM boots quickly - 5 minutes) until I reach the welcome screen asking me to press CTRL-ALT-DEL. Then, I can't do anything:

  • If I connect on the VM from Hyper-V manager, the keyboard is non responsive and the mouse doesn't move.

  • I cannot connect with remote desktop or ping the virtual machine. According to the Hyper-V manager, it doesn't have an IP.

To setup my VM, I did the following:

  • Created a VHD file with disk2vhd

  • Created a VM with the default settings

  • Removed the SCSI adapter from the VM

  • Replaced the Virtual Network Adapter with a legacy one. It is connected to a virtual switch with external connectivity.

I have tried many things like changing the settings of the virtual switch, disabling dynamic memory or leaving the virtual machine running 1.5h (maybe it is doing something in the background, who know ?).

But, still, my virtual SBS is mocking me: it even switches to the screensaver after a few minutes!!! (the one with the windows logo on a black background).

Does anyone have an idea of what I am doing wrong here? It is driving me crazy!!

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Don't expect the legacy network adapter to pick up the same static IP that was originally configured on your SBS 2008 server - it will appear as a new adapter by default and get an address via DHCP. So first, try to see if it connected to the network that way, it may just work! If not, try giving it a synthetic (non-legacy) network adapter. Windows Server 2008 should have a driver for the synthetic network adapter in 2012, and again, it should get an IP via DHCP by default.

Under Hyper-V manager, does the ctrl-alt delete work? Can you press this button and cause the log-in prompt to appear?

Virtual Machine Connection window with a red arrow pointing to the button that sends a ctrl-alt-delete to the virtual machine

Once that's done, you should be able to click in the window and see that your keyboard is being captured here by the depressed keyboard icon in the bottom right corner:

Virtual Machine Connection window with a red arrow pointing to the icon indicating the keyboard is being captured

With this done, you should be able to log in. And again, check DHCP and see that your machine is not coming up with a new IP address, you should be able to remote desktop into it. Finally, once you're connected, don't forget to install the latest integration services through Hyper-V manager by going to "Action" "Insert Integration Services Setup Disk" or pressing Ctrl-I:

Virtual MAchine Connection window with the action menu open, showing the insert integration services disk option

That attaches a disk to the VM's cd-rom drive containing all the windows update packages necessary to update the integration services for your current version of Hyper-V.

If all else fails, boot the VHD using VirtualBox or VMWare and use the integration services disk on the server located at "C:\Windows\system32\vmguest.iso" to install the latest integrations.

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By default the standard Windows key combinations do not get sent to the virtual machine, unless you are in full screen mode.

maximize the virtual machine console screen window and then click the action menu, ctrl-alt-del

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