Select Create a new virtual machine (2) from the wizard. Step 1 – Right-click on a cluster, or host, and select New Virtual Machine (1). I’ll be using the new vSphere client (HTML5) to create the base VM. Trusted Platform Module (TPM) capabilities to enable encryption features such as BitLocker.UEFI firmware to support secure boot where applicable.With that in mind, consider increasing the resources allocated in accordance with the role(s) assigned to the server and its anticipated workload.
800 MB is the required minimum when installing Windows Server 2016 as a VM.Īs often is the case, the minimum hardware requirements quoted by Microsoft rarely come close to mirror what’s actually needed to run production boxes.
Windows Server 2016 also comes in 3 editions Essentials, Standard, and Datacenter. Nano server has recently been refactored to primarily support and run containers. The latter is Microsoft’s headless server, one that is completely managed remotely with no local logon capabilities making it a perfect solution cloud deployments. Windows Server 2016 comes in 3 flavors Server Core (no GUI), Server with Desktop Experience (with GUI) and Nano Server. For something a little bit more advanced in relation to installing Windows Server on VMware, you can take your pick from the complete list of published posts to date.
This step-by-step how-to install Windows Server 2016 on VMware vSphere guide is aimed at readers who have yet to install a Windows OS on a VMware hypervisor.
Now that I know how to use the Invoke-VMScript commandlet, I’m sure I’ll come up with many more time-saving ideas like this one.In today’s post, I’ll be showing you how to install Windows Server 2016 on VMware ESXi with Desktop Experience on an ESXi 6.5 U1 host managed by a vCSA 6.5 U1 instance. It creates a small DiskPart.txt file on the root of your virtual machine, runs DiskPart using the settings in the DiskPart.txt file, and then deletes the DiskPart.txt file when its done. Note that the script cleans up after itself. Invoke-VMScript -VM $VM -ScriptText "ECHO RESCAN > C:\DiskPart.txt & ECHO SELECT Volume C > C:\DiskPart.txt & ECHO EXTEND > C:\DiskPart.txt & ECHO EXIT > C:\DiskPart.txt & DiskPart.exe /s C:\DiskPart.txt & DEL C:\DiskPart.txt /Q" -ScriptType BAT -GuestUser $GuestUser -GuestPassword $GuestPassword # Run DISKPART in the guest OS of each of the specified virtual machines # PowerCLI-Extend-Disks.ps1 # Must be run in VMware PowerCLI # Written by Jason Pearce,, (2015 June) # Inspiration from Brian Wuchner, Adam Stahl, and of course Luc Dekens (LucD) # BEGIN Variables # vCenter that contains target VMs $vCenter = "" # New hard drive size you want (should be larger than current drive size) $NewCapacityGB = 60 # One or more virtual machines you want to target (modify and uncomment this line) # $VMs=(Get-Cluster -Name "ClusterName" | Get-VM -Name "VM-Prefix-*") # $VMs=("VM1","VM2","VM3") # Virtual Machine Windows Credentials (a local admin account) $GuestUser = "administrator" $GuestPassword = "password" # END Variables # BEGIN Script # Connect to vCenter via PowerCLIĬonnect -VIServer $vCenter # BEGIN foreach loop foreach ( $VM in $VMs ) | Set-HardDisk -CapacityGB $NewCapacityGB -Confirm:$false PowerCLI Set-HardDisk and Invoke-VMScript (plain text version: PowerCLI-Extend-Disks.ps1) Seeking to automate this process, I turned to VMware PowerCLI and learned more about these two commandlets:Īfter finding a few examples and refreshing my memory on how to use DISKPART from a command line, I created this PowerCLI script that successfully increased the size (both in vSphere and Windows) of my targeted virtual machines in just a few minutes.
The normal/painful way to do this would be: Today I decided that I wanted to increase the C: volume of 20 VMware Horizon View parent virtual machines (the source for 1,000s of linked-clone virtual desktops) from 40 GB to 60 GB.