Tech Journal ‐ Milestone 6 - Peytonvt/SYS-350 GitHub Wiki

Milestone - 6: Hyper-V Installation & VM Deployment

Overview:

  • Installation of Windows Server 2019 (Desktop Experience) on SuperMicro
  • Installation and Configuration of Hyper-V
  • Creation of Virtual Switches (WAN + Internal)
  • Installation of Windows Admin Center (WAC)
  • Creation of pfSense VM and Windows 11 VM

Bootable USB Creation:

Created a bootable Windows Server 2019 USB using Rufus

  1. Used the Windows Server 2019 ISO from the X: drive
  2. Loaded the ISO into Rufus
  3. Wrote ISO to USB for deployment on SuperMicro server

Install Windows Server 2019:

  1. Connect to the SuperMicro server through IPMI
  2. Launched iKVM via HTML5 console
  3. Booted from the USB drive (F11 boot menu)
  4. Select Windows Server 2019 Datacenter (Desktop Experience)
  5. Delete all existing ESXi partitions

    Ensured only unallocated space remained before installing

  6. Install to the largest unallocated disk
  7. Set static IPv4 settings after installation
  8. If present, configure a second drive as VM/ISO storage via Disk Management

Created a New Simple Volume using default settings

Install Hyper-V Role:

Completed through Server Manager → Add Roles and Features

  1. Select Hyper-V
  2. Enabled management tools
  3. Reboot when prompted

Hyper-V Virtual Switch Configuration:

Switch creation must match physical adapters shown in Control Panel

WAN Switch:

  1. Opened Hyper-V Manager → Virtual Switch Manager
  2. Created a new External switch: HyperV-WAN
  3. Selected correct physical NIC (commonly Ethernet 8 on SuperMicro)

Internal Switch:

  1. Create an Internal switch: LAN-INTERNAL
  2. Leave default MAC and VLAN settings
  3. Rename the host OS adapter created by Hyper-V for clarity

Install Windows Admin Center (WAC):

Must use Chrome — Internet Explorer restrictions require bypassing security prompts

  1. Downloaded WAC from: https://aka.ms/WACDownload
  2. Install locally on the Server
  3. Launched WAC via: 192.168.3.214
  4. Installed extensions through WAC:
  • Virtual Machine Extension
  • Switch Management Extension

Create VMs in Hyper-V:

VM1 – pfSense

VM Config Value
Generation Gen 2
CPU 1
RAM 2 GB
NICs WAN + Internal
Boot Secure Boot Disabled

Steps:

  1. Create a new VM and attach the pfSense ISO from X: drive
  2. Disable Secure Boot (required for BSD)
  3. Add two network adapters:
  • WAN → HyperV-WAN
  • LAN → LAN-INTERNAL
  1. Install pfSense

pfSense Network Setup:

WAN: 192.168.3.24/24 WAN UP: 192.168.3.25 LAN: 10.0.5.2/24

VM2 – Windows 11

VM Config Value
Generation Gen 2
vCPU 2
RAM 4 GB
TPM Enabled
Secure Boot Disabled
Network LAN-INTERNAL

Steps:

  1. Import Windows 11 Hyper-V image from the X: drive
  2. Enable TPM
  3. Disable Secure Boot
  4. Assign VM to LAN-INTERNAL
  5. Confirm Windows 11 received DHCP from pfSense

    Assigned a 10.0.5.x address

Connectivity Testing:

Ping from Windows 11 → pfSense → Internet

On Windows 11 (10.0.5.x):

ping google.com