Hyper-V Integration Services and Supported
Operating Systems
When talking about the guest operating system running inside a virtual machine, I
mentioned enlightened operating systems, which are guest operating systems that are
aware that they are running in a virtual environment and can leverage specific virtual
features such as synthetic hardware via the VMBus through special drivers.
Additionally, numerous services between the virtual machine and the Hyper-V host
are enabled when the guest has Hyper-V Integration Services installed. Hyper-V
Integration Services is built into the Windows operating systems for the respective
version of Hyper-V. For example, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 have
Hyper-V 2012 R2 Integration Services built-in, and Windows Server 2012 and
Windows 8 had the Hyper-V 2012 Integration Services built-in. This means that if the
guest operating system is running a version of an operating system older than the
Hyper-V host, you will need to upgrade its version of Integration Services. This is the
first action you should perform when deploying an operating system, and when
creating a VM template, make sure that you update Integration Services prior to
capturing the VHDX for use with the template.
Each Hyper-V host prior to Windows Server 2016 has the latest version of Integration
Services stored at C:\Windows\System32\vmguest.iso. When vmconnect is used to
connect to a virtual machine, an action, Insert Integration Services Setup Disk, is
available in the Action menu that attaches vmguest.iso to the virtual DVD for the
virtual machine. The vmguest.iso file will then launch within the VM and update
Integration Services, which will require a reboot for the guest operating system. While
the version of Integration Services always increased between Windows Server
versions, it may also increment as part of the updates.
Updating Integration Services based on the version of Hyper-V host is not logical in a
world where VMs may move between Hyper-V hosts that may be running different
versions, which can happen in mixed clusters consisting of Windows Server 2012 R2
and Windows Server 2016 hosts. Additionally, VMs may move to a completely
different fabric; for example, out to Azure. Therefore, Microsoft has shifted the
delivery of Integration Services now to be delivered via Windows Update and normal
support channels instead of through the Hyper-V host, which is more in line with the
Linux model. This enables guest operating systems running Windows to be updated
automatically to the latest version of Integration Services, which can work on the
latest version of Hyper-V or earlier versions. Now there is no need to worry about
Integration Service versions, for any OS that is Windows Server 2008 R2/Windows 7
or newer will automatically be updated through whatever patch solution is leveraged.
The Hyper-V console no longer even shows the Integration Services version in
Windows Server 2016, and the version is not shown as an attribute of a VM anymore.
Integration Service updates can be downloaded for offline deployment from
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3071740.