[Solved] Anyone successful w/WMC 8.1 VM under Hyper-V?

Discussion in 'Virtualization' started by richbutler1, Dec 23, 2015.

  1. richbutler1

    richbutler1 MDL Novice

    Dec 23, 2015
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    #1 richbutler1, Dec 23, 2015
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2015
    Hi everyone, I've searched this forum and others to find steps to properly setup a WMC 8.1 VM in Hyper-V. I've tried to do this, but get hung up in the WMC live TV setup step. Here's my configuration first: Windows Server 2012 R2 running a Hyper-V role. My hardware is an Intel Xeon based server with a dedicated (pass-through) drive for only this VM. It has an Nvidia GT240 card installed with updated drivers. I use HDHomerun Extend network tuners tied to an OTA antenna. I created a generation 2 VM using Win 8.1 w/Media Center. I'm using the Hyper-V Manager to connect to the VM. All installed well, but when I open MC, It did not see the tuners even though I ran HDHR setup successfully prior. I get an error message, "TV Setup - You must set up TV from the Media Center PC. Then, close and restart your Extender session." I don't know how to get the tuners recognized and past this message.

    Anyone successfully get MC running in a Hyper-V VM? I just want to use ServerWMC in the VM, not view live TV. Thanks in advance to a great community. Long time reader, first time poster.

    UPDATE: Changed GPU to Nvidia GT 640. Installed latest drivers. In Hyper-V settings, RemoteFX appeared and selected GPU for this. Went to VM settings and did not see RemoteFX vGPU in Add HArdware options. Closer, but hope it's not literal that I need Win 8 Enterprise as Guest OS in VM to enable RemoteFX and have a shot at WMC VM setup.
     
  2. richbutler1

    richbutler1 MDL Novice

    Dec 23, 2015
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    Bumping to WMC/Hyper-V experts
     
  3. Tito

    Tito Super Mod / Adviser
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  4. richbutler1

    richbutler1 MDL Novice

    Dec 23, 2015
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    Because I have virtualized 2012 Essentials. All of my machines (on the server) are now virtual. I won't list the benefits, but they are many. That being the case, I'm trying to make WMC 8.1 a guest OS in a VM on Hyper-V because I only need to have the WMC install completed to record shows and use ServerWMC/MCE Buddy to handle conversion for Plex.

    Short answer, my usage scenario is completely different from the one you posted, but thank you for your thought and response!
     
  5. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

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  6. richbutler1

    richbutler1 MDL Novice

    Dec 23, 2015
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    Pointless to you, not me. Please keep replies on my original topic. I'm not asking for opinions or alternatives. I'm asking if someone was successful in my use case. I DON'T need a good VGA driver as I WON'T need live tv, just the services running so recording can work from HD Homerun tuners.

    Please, please keep on topic. I can/have run in a physical machine separate from my server, but that eats power. Don't want this and if someone got the install to work on WMC 8.1 Pro in Hyper-V on 2012 R2, that would just be F-ing incredible to hear about.

    I repeat, I've read 'the holy grail', the 'win10 wmc', etc. multiple times, no need to reference them anymore. Sincerely thanks for the ideas, but just want to get the install completed without the errors I see above.
     
  7. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

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    Sorry but I still can't understand the scope. If you don't need the live tv directly, why install it on a VM?

    Just install WMC on bare metal and share the live TV with Dvblink and/or ServerWMC and/or Emby or Plex and your'e done.

    That said yes you need a good vga driver, you need the wlan dlls, you need the bda drivers because w/o them the WMC setup will never run successful. That's why I linked the threads, because they are the result of days of experiment and they contains the results of them in few rows of text.
     
  8. richbutler1

    richbutler1 MDL Novice

    Dec 23, 2015
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    It's all about energy savings. 1 server running 24/7 already. Don't want another PC running. VM portability is a long term plus (for me) versus physical install. Another machine is also more money. Those threads all had installs on physical not VM's, so didn't apply(as far as I had read through them). Still searching for my holy grail, just a simple WMC 8.1 VM install on Hyper-V 2012 R2 box.

    PS: For those curious, I am actually running on a separate spare PC right now, but want to get it off there and virtualize, which is why I picked you great people and this forum category :)
     
  9. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

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    Ok. Just install WMC there. Who talked about a separate machine?

    As I guessed you did't bothered to read what I linked.

    Please recheck the first link. At the time I wrote it there wasn't any WMC port. So it was done virtually. But was done with VMware, because it proved to be the best solution for the task.
     
  10. richbutler1

    richbutler1 MDL Novice

    Dec 23, 2015
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    Dude, I did read it. I don't know why people get defensive and passive/aggressive on threads. I can't go VMWare because I've dedicated my hardware server to Hyper-V. I've even read threads about nesting VMware ESXi within Hyper-V or vice versa. But that is not worth the hoops and complications to try. Please respect me as I did you and don't diss me for looking for help. That's the point of this forum right? What am I doing wrong other than posing my question, use case, full build/environment details, responding to all replies thankfully. I'm just asking to stay on topic with the use case and question I posted. Cool?
     
  11. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

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    #11 T-S, Dec 30, 2015
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2015
    No offence but virtualize everything just because it's trendy or because one can is just stupid (i mean in general, not just the WMC case) the virtualization should be meant to make the life easier not more complicate. (nor to help the memory makers to sell more RAM).

    Virtualizing WMC on Server was a workaround not an improvement, a workaround that was meaningful six months ago because it was the only way. Now that workaround isn't needed anymore.

    You can install WMC and the HyperV role on the same machine, and you can do it in matter of seconds.

    I can't see a single valid reason for doing that.

    That said, you can still use Virtualbox or VMware on systems "tainted" by HV, what you can't do is to install 64bit OSes inside them.

    In our case the problem is nonexistent given WMC is available on 32 bit flavours
     
  12. richbutler1

    richbutler1 MDL Novice

    Dec 23, 2015
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    Now you're calling my need trendy and stupid? Nice. Thanks for that. I want to virtualize to save power. Do you work for big coal or an oil company? I didn't think I'd stir up a hornet's nest here with this one. Keep your panties on Francis. I'll wait for someone with an answer to my question.
     
  13. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

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    No I'm not. I even elaborate more just to avoid that kind of comment. I see it was a futile move.

    I'm still don't get how you will save power virtualizing it instead of make it running on bare metal ON THE SAME MACHINE.

    The only possible explanation is that you are refusing purposely to understand what I've suggested.

    The only wasted thing here was my time trying to help you. So I'm done here.

    You still can re read what I wrote and try to understand why what you want is a pointless waste of (human) energy w/o any gain on electrical power.

    Have a nice day.
     
  14. richbutler1

    richbutler1 MDL Novice

    Dec 23, 2015
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    #14 richbutler1, Dec 31, 2015
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2015
    (OP)
    I'm not purposefully ignoring what you wrote or suggested. My desired architecture is to only run Hyper-V on the physical box and absolutely nothing else alongside for maintenance reasons, stability, migrate-ability(probably not a word, but you get it). If I wanted to keep my build architecture and philosophy, I'd need to put it on a separate machine, which I have (for now). I already have Essentials running in a 2012 R2 VM taking care of my PC backups and remote access, so don't want a second instance w/Desktop experience along with the hacked WMC on it. I want to keep my core server clean with only Hyper-V role on it.

    This is the cleanest and most maintainable setup for me now. I've never written so much to justify the way I want my build to be before. Don't get me wrong, you have a completely logical and valid alternative, but I want a clean, Hyper-V server (physical and other than utilities and monitoring s/w) and a simple install of the WMC on a separate desktop machine, which I have unless I can do what I hope above.

    I do sincerely appreciate your posts, advice. I really did read them before posting and revisiting them after you posted.
     
  15. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

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    I understand your phylosopy, but I don't share your vision.

    WMC is not visual Visual studio or oven office whith their dozens of registry mods and components dll and whatever.

    It's mostly a single folder + few ,net components, which thanks to the great Abbodi's installer can be installed and totally uninstalled in literally less than 5 minutes

    Backing up the WMC is just matter of backing up a single folder in program data and a single registry key, matter of seconds, not minutes.

    So where are the hassles that the HV infrastructure should prevent?

    Use HV for the worth tasks, say an exchange or sql server where the process of reconfiguring them would be way longer than the single file restore needed by the HV approach.


    That said, just for the sake of academical curiosity, I made WMC working (obviously AS BACKEND ONLY), in few minutes just converting the disk of my old WIN 8 WMC VM from the VMware format to VHDX.

    Given everything was already configured, all I had to do were just few minor adjustments to make W8 comfortable inside the new environment.
     
  16. richbutler1

    richbutler1 MDL Novice

    Dec 23, 2015
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    Well now T-S, you are onto something! Actually 2 things. You're making me re-think my philosophy on putting the WMC on the physical box, but your creative workaround of building in VMWare then converting is great! I hadn't thought of that at all. I have a desktop I can try the build/conversion on.

    Thank you very much and have a very Happy New Year!!!
     
  17. richbutler1

    richbutler1 MDL Novice

    Dec 23, 2015
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    UPDATE: Based on T-S's workaround idea, I was able to kludge a workaround for standing up a WMC 8.1 guest OS with tuners and WMC installing completely. My setup is HD Homerun Extend (OTA only), Hyper-V server on 2012 R2.
    1. Download VMWare vSphere Workstation ## trial version (you get 30 days)
    2. install VSphere Workstation, create new virtual machine using your windows iso
    3. ensure your network selection is to use the same physical network as host (Dont recollect exact item, but was topmost) I had some issues getting VM to see the tuners at first
    4. install hd homerun software and setup tuners
    5. open wmc and setup tv signal
    6. allow guide download to finish if you like
    7. power down vm
    8. I am just running a desktop so going though the ESXi server conversion process was a bit much though tried it
    9. Used Starwind Converter to convert the VMware vhd to Hyper-V vhdx
    10. Copy vhdx file to your Hyper-V virtual hard drive folder
    11. Create a new Hyper-V GEN 1 vm, 2 CPU, 4Gb RAM recommended (GEN 1 was key, I thought I would be able to use Gen 2...no go)
    12. Install ServerWMC
    13. Make Public Recorded TV folder public read capable, you may have to turn off login requirement under advanced sharing so that extenders like Plex can access it.
    14. Install MCEBuddy 2.3.13 (latest free version) and install ht tps ://mcebuddy2x.codeplex.com/releases/view/105099
    15. Setup MCEBuddy and Schedule recordings in WMC
    16. DONE: You've got a backend only WMC PVR (OTA Only) that will record (and convert, strip commercials with proper setup) , then move them to your Plex/Media player folder for timeshifted viewing
    17. I have tuners on my TVs for Live TV, so only need a great PVR and Plex to stream them
    18. I hope this helps someone else who want to stand up a Media Center VM and had some trouble like I did
    19. Thanks to T-S for the workaround!
     
  18. T-S

    T-S MDL Guru

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    Yes you need the bridged networking. Otherwise the WM can access the internet but not the LAN (and so no network tuners and so on)

    Nowadays there are a zilion of ways to convert the virtual HDDs, the Virtualbox command line tool is one of them, winimage is another...


    Anyway I tested vmware bacause I had a VHD already prepared.

    Likely the same path can be followed using Virtualbox instead of Vmware given VB can use directly the disks in VHD format, so no conversion will be needed. (vmware is way better if you want to use WMC as frontend, but it isn't your problem).

    If you wan't you can convert the disk (again) from VHD to VHDX, then create a new Gen2 machine and use that disk, should be a pretty strightforward process.

    If you aren't using a cable card, DVBlink is better than Serverwmc given with dvblink you can use WMC as client aside Kodi, the web access, the android native client and so on (they can be used toghether anyway).

    Plexy and Emby can use both DVBlink and ServerWMC as LiveTV source. So no need to use separate tuners on clients everything can be managed by the server.

    That said happy new year to you. ;)