Welcome to the ITFreeTraining video on Enhanced Session mode in Hyper-V. Enhanced Session
Mode allows a virtual machine running in Hyper-V to access resources on the local computer.
For example, you are now able to access devices like USB flash drives, making it easier to
transfer files from the local computer to the virtual machine.
Previously in Hyper-V, the administrator using the virtual machine connection window could
use mouse, keyboard and limited copy and paste functionality. To get additional resources,
the administrator would use a remote desktop connection to access the virtual machine;
however, this requires both the virtual machine and the administrator computer to be connected
to the same network.
Enhanced session mode essentially allows the virtual machine to access additional resources
on the local administrator’s computer, that previously were not available. Let’s consider
a virtual machine. An administrator using the host computer running Hyper-V or a remote
computer will want devices on the local computer available to the virtual machine. The administrator
will access the virtual machine through the Virtual Machine Connection Window.
When Enhanced Session mode is enabled, this gives the virtual machine access to the following.
Local hard disks on the server or the administrator’s computer. USB devices like USB Flash drives.
Local printers. Audio devices allowing the virtual machine to play sound previously not
available. Clipboard access between the virtual machine and the local computer. Previously
there was only limited access to the clipboard. Access to smart cards. Access to plug and
play devices. Lastly the ability to access display configuration. This allows the administrator,
when accessing the virtual machine, to decide the resolution that they want to use.
In order to do this, enhanced session mode uses the VMBus. The VMBus is used by Hyper-V
for high speed communication between virtual machines. The VMBus is installed when you
install Hyper-V Integration Services on the virtual machine. This essentially means that
it does not require any additional networking or other services to be installed. All you
need to do is install integration services and make sure that enhanced session mode is enabled.
In order to start using Enhanced Session Mode, you need to meet a few requirements. For the
host and client you need to be running Windows Server 2012 R2 or Windows 8.1. At this stage
there is no support for alternative operating systems like Linux. This unfortunately limits
the virtual machines you can run to Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1.
If you are running Hyper-V on Windows 8.1, enhanced session mode will be enabled by default.
If you are running Hyper-V on Windows Server 2012 R2, enhanced session mode will be disabled
by default and will need to be enabled before you can start using it.
I will now change to my computer running Windows 8.1 to have a look at how you would use Enhanced
Session Mode with Hyper-V.
In this demonstration I will use Windows 8.1 to connect to a Windows Server 2012 R2 computer.
I have done it this way as this is the most likely way that most administrators will perform
day to day activities using Hyper-V.
To start with, I will open the Hyper-V manager by right clicking the start menu and then
selecting the option “search”. From the search dialog I will enter in Hyper and then
select Hyper-V Manager when it appears.
Once Hyper-V Manager has opened, the next step is to right click “Hyper-V Manager”
and then select the option “Connect to Server”. Next I need to enter in the computer that
I want to connect to, which, in this case, is my server running Windows Server 2012 R2
with the Hyper-V role installed and configured.
Once connected, the next step is to enable enhanced session mode. To do this I will select
the option on the right hand side “Hyper-V settings”. From Hyper-V settings select
the section “Enhanced Session Mode Policy”. To enable, it is as simple as ticking the
option “Allow enhanced session mode”. On Windows Server 2012 R2 this is not
ticked by default. On Windows 8.1 this will be ticked by default.
The section that I will look at is “Enhanced Session Mode” that is found under the user
settings. This has the option “Use enhanced session mode”. This will mean that enhanced
session mode will be used automatically when connecting to a virtual machine. In a moment
we will see how this works.
I will now press o.k. and save the settings that I just configured. This is the server
settings configuration, but a setting also needs to be configured on the virtual machine.
To do this, I will right click the virtual machine and select the option “settings”.
Once the settings have opened, I next need to select “Integration Services”. Enhanced
Session Mode requires that “Guest services” be ticked. If this is not ticked, it will
not work regardless of what the hyper-v server settings are configured to.
Once I press o.k. the setting will be saved. In some cases the virtual machine may need
to be restarted in order for the guest services to start working. If you find the Enhanced
Session Mode will not work, try rebooting the virtual machine.
If I now right click the virtual machine and select Connect, this will open the Virtual
Machine Connection Window. You will notice that you will get a Window appearing that
previously did not appear. This is the settings for enhanced session mode.
Before the Window is opened to control the virtual machine, notice that I can configure
the resolution that I will use to connect to the virtual machine. Previously, to change
the resolution in a virtual machine you would have needed to change the desktop resolution
that virtual machine was using.
If I select the option at the bottom, “Show Options”, this will show additional options
that are available. You will also notice the tickbox “Save my settings for future connections
to this virtual machine”. If you want to make sure that the same settings are used
next time you connect to that virtual machine, make sure that you tick this tickbox.
The next set of options that are available are under the tab “Local Resources”. At
the top is the the button for audio settings. If I press the settings button this will show
the settings that are being used for playback and recording. This allows you to configure
if you want audio on the local or remote computer. In the case of the recording, a virtual machine
is not able to record audio, so being able to use a local device to record audio allows
you to get around this limitation.
At the bottom are the local devices. If you want to use local printers on the virtual
machine, all you need to do is make sure the printers tickbox is ticked. If you want to
use the clipboard function, make sure this is ticked. The clipboard option in enhanced
session mode gives you full access to the clipboard functions where before you had only
limited access to the clipboard when accessing a virtual machine.
If I press the more button, this will give me access to the rest of the options. You
will notice that smartcards is enabled by default. If I expand the drives section, you
will notice that you can select which local drives you want to be available on the virtual
machine.
You are free to choose which drives you want, but notice that if I select all the drives,
this includes the last option “Drives that I plug in later”. This is useful as it will
mean devices like USB flash drives that are plugged into the computer later on are automatically
available to the virtual machine.
Below this is the tickbox “Other supported Plug and Play (PnP) devices”. This will
make local plug and play devices available, but notice the option “Devices that I plug
in later” is also available so, like before, additional devices added to the local computer
will be available to the virtual machine later on.
Once I press o.k, next I need to press connect to connect up to the virtual machine. Once
I have entered in my password, I will be able to access the virtual machine’s desktop.
If I now open Windows Explorer on the virtual machine, you will notice that the A drive,
C drive and D drive from the Windows 8.1 computer are available to the virtual machine. If I
were to place a USB flash drive into the local computer, that flash drive would also be available
to the virtual machine. You can see that using Enhanced session mode makes it easy to transfer
files from the local computer to the virtual machine.
The next feature that I want to demonstrate is the printers. If I right click the start
menu and select search, I will enter in printers and then select “Devices and Printers”
when it appears. This will show all the printers that are available to the virtual machine.
If I select one of the printers, notice that “redirected 1” is listed twice. What has
happened is that I connected to the Windows 8.1 computer using a remote desktop connection.
When connecting using a remote desktop connection this created copies of the local computer
printers in the remote desktop session. When I connected to the virtual machine, the printers
were copied a second time. You should start to see the similarities in how Remote Desktop
Connection works and Enhanced Session Mode works because they use the same technology.
The difference is that Enhanced Session Mode does not require a working network in order
to connect to the virtual machine and share resources.
At the top of the connection window, notice the icon for basic session. If I select this
option, notice the Window changes to a standard virtual machine window. This will not have
access to the additional features that enhanced session mode provides.
If I now go back to Hyper-V Manager and select the option “Hyper-V Settings”, I will
next select the section “Enhanced Session Mode” and untick the option “Use enhanced
session mode”. This changes the default of whether basic session or enhanced session
mode is used.
If I now press o.k. the setting will be saved. Notice now that if I right click the virtual
machine and select connect, this time the virtual connection window will connect using
a basic session. If I press the enhanced session icon, this will connect to the virtual machine
using Enhanced session mode, which takes advantage of the new features that mode offers. It is
up to the administrator to decide if they want to use the default to select the virtual
machine using enhanced session mode or use a basic session.
I hope you have found this video from ITFreeTraining on Enhanced session mode useful and I hope
to see you in the other videos from this course and other courses. Until then, thanks for
watching and see you next time.