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No network devices detected after installation of SLES10SP2 guest in Hyper-V environment

This document (7001863) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2
Microsoft Windows Server 2008
Microsoft Hyper-V
Linux Integration Components 1.0

Situation

After installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2 in a Windows Server 2008 based environment using Hyper-V virtualization technology, the guest system is missing a network device to communicate.

Resolution

Install the Linux Integration Components for Microsoft Hyper-Vin the guest system to have the driver available that supports these virtual network cards. This issue is not seen if a legacy network card was added in in Hyper-V.

Additional Information

Please note that this documentation is about Linux Integration Components 1.0 (LIC). The drivers rely on a XEN kernel and the whole XEN environment to provide additional performance. However, with LIC 2.0 a different approach was chosen and XEN is not necessary anymore. Please read the documentation of LIC 2.0 carefully when installing or upgrading from LIC 1.0.

Preparation
  • Make sure Hyper-V is on current patch level
     
  • Download the Linux Integration Components for Microsoft Hyper-V from
    https://connect.microsoft.com/Downloads/Downloads.aspx?SiteID=495

    A Live ID account is needed in order to access this website. Once the account exists, apply the Linux Integration Components for Microsoft Hyper-V
    to the dashboard in order to be able to have access to the download.
     
  • Extract the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Linux Integration Components.exe file to a convenient location and read the Linux ICs for Hyper-V.rtf file that was extracted.
     
  • Please note:
    • Support is limited to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2 (32/64bit)
    • According to the documentation the following software pattersn are necessary:
      • Xen Virtual Machine Host Server
      • C/C++ Compiler and Tools
    • HINT: Please just install the kernel-xen* as the remaining parts of the XEN environment is not necessary. Furthermore do not
    • install all packages from C/C++ Compiler and Tools. It is sufficient to just install the packages kernel-source
    • and gcc plus dependencies in order to build the modules and save disk space.

    • Search for kernel-xenpae (for 32bit installations) and kernel-xen (for 64bit installations) as this package does not
      get added automatically when the pattern Xen Virtual Machine Host Server is chosen.
Driver installation / configuration

According to the documentation that ships with version 1.0 of Linux Integration Components for Microsoft Hyper-V the following steps are necessary in order to configure the system after all required packages got installed:
  1. Attach the LinuxIC.iso image to the virtual machine
     
  2. Mount the ISO using
    mount /dev/cdrom /mnt
  3. Create a directory in /opt in the following way:
    mkdir /opt/linux_ic
  4. Copy all content from the iso to this directory:
    cp -R /mnt/* /opt/linux_ic
  5. Run the command:
    /opt/linux_ic/setup.pl x2v /boot/grub/menu.lst

    This step adjusts the default= setting in the global section of GRUB
    to point to the Xen section and switches the boot entry for the Xen
    hypervisor kernel from
    kernel /boot/xen.gz
    to
    kernel /boot/x2v-32.gz
    for a 32-bit installation or
    kernel /boot/x2v-64.gz
    for a 64-bit installation.

    In case /boot is on a separate partition, make sure it gets mounted prior before
    running this command. If everything worked as expected, the command output
    will prompt to reboot the system.
     
  6. Once the system rebooted, run the command
    /opt/linux_ic/setup.pl drivers
    to start the compilation of the drivers.

    If compilation finish successful, the service /etc/init.d/vmbus will get
    activated automatically and added to runlevel 3 and 5. Even though YaST2 is able
    to configure the network card without a reboot, please follow the advise to
    reboot the server.
     
  7. After the reboot run
    yast2 lan
    as root to start the configuration of the network interface. The network interface is active as soon as YaST2 finished.

Updating the guest system using YOU / ZMD

Please note that updating the kernel will result in a system not being able to boot. The reason is the default= entry in grub's global section pointing to the previous entry before the system was updated. As YaST2 only maintains one kernel at the same time, the old image was removed and only the backup initrd is left. If a kernel update took place during an online update, the following steps are necessary.

Hint: Re-running '/opt/linux_ic/setup.pl x1v /boot/grub/menu.lst'will not help as it does not update the recently added entry for the latest kernel.
  1. Open /boot/grub/menu.lst with a familiar editor.
     
  2. Search for recently added boot entry, e.g. 
    ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: xen###
title Xen -- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2 - 2.6.16.60-0.31
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/xen.gz
    module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.16.60-0.31-xen root=/dev/hda2 vga=0x0317 resume=/dev/hda1 splash=silent showopts
    module /boot/initrd-2.6.16.60-0.31-xen
    and change the line
    kernel /boot/xen/gz
    to
    kernel /boot/x2v-32.gz
    for a 32-bit kernel or to
    kernel /boot/x2v-64.gz
    for a 64-bit kernel.
     
  3. Make sure 'default=' points to this section.
    Hint: Counting the entries start at 0 (zero). If the section above is the third entry in the file. default= needs to be set to 2.
     
  4. Save the changes and reboot.
     
  5. Once the system rebooted, network setup will fail. Login as root and run the command
    /opt/linux_ic/setup.pl drivers
    to rebuild the drivers for the current kernel.
     
  6. When the compilation finished, run
    rcnetwork restart
    to activate the network settings.

    In order to verify the system boots properly, please reboot it and monitor its console output.

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.

  • Document ID:7001863
  • Creation Date: 13-Nov-2008
  • Modified Date:14-Dec-2021
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

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