Manage Hyper-V Integration Services

Hyper-V Integration Services allow a virtual machine to communicate with the Hyper-V host. Many of these services are conveniences, such as guest file copy, while others are important to the virtual machine's ability to function correctly, such as time synchronization. This set of services are sometimes referred to as integration components. 

For details about each integration service, see Hyper-V Integration Services. 


Important

Each service you want to use must be enabled in both the host and guest so they can communicate. All integration services are on by default on Windows guest operating systems, but you can turned them off individually. The next sections show you how. 


Turn an integration service on or off using Hyper-V Manager

  1. From the center pane, right-click the virtual machine and click Settings.

  2. From the left pane of the Settings window, under Management, click Integration Services.

  3.  

The Integration Services pane lists all integration services available on the Hyper-V host, and whether they're turned on in the virtual machine. To get the version information for a guest operating system, log on to the guest operating system, open a command prompt, and run this command: 


REG QUERY "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Virtual Machine\Auto" /v IntegrationServicesVersion

Turn an integration service on or off for a Windows guest

All integration services are on by default on Windows guest operating systems, but you can turned them off individually. The next section shows you how. 

Use Windows PowerShell to turn a integration service on or off

To do this in PowerShell, use Enable-VMIntegrationService and Disable-VMIntegrationService. 

The following examples show you how turn an integration service on and off by doing this for the guest file copy service on a virtual machine named "demovm". 

  1. Get a list of running integration services:

    PowerShell

    Get-VMIntegrationService -VMName "DemoVM"
    
  2. The output should look like this:

    PowerShell

    VMName      Name                    Enabled PrimaryStatusDescription SecondaryStatusDescription
    ------      ----                    ------- ------------------------ --------------------------
    DemoVM      Guest Service Interface False   OK
    DemoVM      Heartbeat               True    OK                       OK
    DemoVM      Key-Value Pair Exchange True    OK
    DemoVM      Shutdown                True    OK
    DemoVM      Time Synchronization    True    OK
    DemoVM      VSS                     True    OK
    
  3. Turn on Guest Service Interface:

    PowerShell

    Enable-VMIntegrationService -VMName "DemoVM" -Name "Guest Service Interface"
    
  4. Verify that Guest Service Interface is enabled:


    Get-VMIntegrationService -VMName "DemoVM" 
    
  5. Turn off Guest Service Interface:


    Disable-VMIntegrationService -VMName "DemoVM" -Name "Guest Service Interface"
    
  6.  

Start and stop an integration service from a Windows Guest


Important

Stopping an integration service may severely affect the host's ability to manage your virtual machine. To work correctly, each integration service you want to use must be enabled on both the host and guest. 


Each integration service is listed as a service in Windows. To turn an integration service on or off from inside the virtual machine, you'll start or stop the service. 

Use Windows Services

  1. Open Services manager

    Screen shot that shows the Windows Services pane 

  2. Find the services with Hyper-V in the name. 

  3. Right-click the service you want start or stop.

  4.  

Use Windows PowerShell

  1. To get a list of integration services, run:


    Get-Service -Name vm*
    
  2. The output should look similar to this:

    PowerShell

    Status   Name               DisplayName
    ------   ----               -----------
    Running  vmicguestinterface Hyper-V Guest Service Interface
    Running  vmicheartbeat      Hyper-V Heartbeat Service
    Running  vmickvpexchange    Hyper-V Data Exchange Service
    Running  vmicrdv            Hyper-V Remote Desktop Virtualizati...
    Running  vmicshutdown       Hyper-V Guest Shutdown Service
    Running  vmictimesync       Hyper-V Time Synchronization Service
    Stopped  vmicvmsession      Hyper-V VM Session Service
    Running  vmicvss            Hyper-V Volume Shadow Copy Requestor
    
  3. Run either Start-Service or Stop-Service. For example, to turn off Windows PowerShell Direct, run:


    Stop-Service -Name vmicvmsession
    
  4.  

Start and stop an integration service from a Linux guest

Linux integration services are generally provided through the Linux kernel. The Linux integration services driver is named hv_utils. 

  1. To find out if hv_utils is loaded, use this command:

    BASH

    lsmod | grep hv_utils
    
  2. The output should look similar to this:  

    BASH

    Module                  Size   Used by
    hv_utils               20480   0
    hv_vmbus               61440   8 hv_balloon,hyperv_keyboard,hv_netvsc,hid_hyperv,hv_utils,hyperv_fb,hv_storvsc
    
  3. To find out if the required daemons are running, use this command.

    BASH

    ps -ef | grep hv
    
  4. The output should look similar to this: 

    BASH

    root       236     2  0 Jul11 ?        00:00:00 [hv_vmbus_con]
    root       237     2  0 Jul11 ?        00:00:00 [hv_vmbus_ctl]
    ...
    root       252     2  0 Jul11 ?        00:00:00 [hv_vmbus_ctl]
    root      1286     1  0 Jul11 ?        00:01:11 /usr/lib/linux-tools/3.13.0-32-generic/hv_kvp_daemon
    root      9333     1  0 Oct12 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/linux-tools/3.13.0-32-generic/hv_kvp_daemon
    root      9365     1  0 Oct12 ?        00:00:00 /usr/lib/linux-tools/3.13.0-32-generic/hv_vss_daemon
    scooley  43774 43755  0 21:20 pts/0    00:00:00 grep --color=auto hv          
    
  5. To see what daemons are available, run:

    BASH

    compgen -c hv_
    
  6. The output should look similar to this:

    BASH

    hv_vss_daemon
    hv_get_dhcp_info
    hv_get_dns_info
    hv_set_ifconfig
    hv_kvp_daemon
    hv_fcopy_daemon     
    

    Integration service daemons that might be listed include the following. If they're not, they might not be supported on your system or they might not be installed. Find details, see Supported Linux and FreeBSD virtual machines for Hyper-V on Windows.  

    • hv_vss_daemon: This daemon is required to create live Linux virtual machine backups.
    • hv_kvp_daemon: This daemon allows setting and querying intrinsic and extrinsic key value pairs.
    • hv_fcopy_daemon: This daemon implements a file copying service between the host and guest.  
  7.  

Examples

These examples stop and start the KVP daemon, named hv_kvp_daemon. 

  1. Use the process ID (PID) to stop the daemon's process. To find the PID, look at the second column of the output, or use pidof. Hyper-V daemons run as root, so you'll need root permissions.

    BASH

    sudo kill -15 `pidof hv_kvp_daemon`
    
  2. To verify that all hv_kvp_daemon process are gone, run:


    ps -ef | hv
    
  3. To start the daemon again, run the daemon as root:

    BASH

    sudo hv_kvp_daemon
    
  4. To verify that the hv_kvp_daemon process is listed with a new process ID, run:


    ps -ef | hv
    
  5.  

Keep integration services up to date

We recommend that you keep integration services up to date to get the best performance and most recent features for your virtual machines. This happens in Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 by default when your virtual machines are set up to get important updates from Windows Update. 

For virtual machines running on Windows 10 hosts: 


Note

The image file vmguest.iso isn't included with Hyper-V on Windows 10 because it's no longer needed. 


Guest Update mechanism Notes
Windows 10 Windows Update
Windows 8.1 Windows Update
Windows 8 Windows Update Requires the Data Exchange integration service.*
Windows 7 Windows Update Requires the Data Exchange integration service.*
Windows Vista (SP 2) Windows Update Requires the Data Exchange integration service.*
-

Windows Server 2012 R2 Windows Update
Windows Server 2012 Windows Update Requires the Data Exchange integration service.*
Windows Server 2008 R2 (SP 1) Windows Update Requires the Data Exchange integration service.*
Windows Server 2008 (SP 2) Windows Update Extended support only in Windows Server 2016 (read more).
Windows Home Server 2011 Windows Update Will not be supported in Windows Server 2016 (read more).
Windows Small Business Server 2011 Windows Update Not under mainstream support (read more).
-

Linux guests package manager Integration services for Linux are built into the distro but there may be optional updates available. ********

* If the Data Exchange integration service can't be enabled, the integration services for these guests are available from the Download Center as a cabinet (cab) file. Instructions for applying a cab are available in this blog post. 

For virtual machines running on Windows 8.1 hosts: 

Guest Update mechanism Notes
Windows 10 Windows Update
Windows 8.1 Windows Update
Windows 8 Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows 7 Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows Vista (SP 2) Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows XP (SP 2, SP 3) Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
-

Windows Server 2012 R2 Windows Update
Windows Server 2012 Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows Server 2008 R2 Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows Server 2008 (SP 2) Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows Home Server 2011 Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows Small Business Server 2011 Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows Server 2003 R2 (SP 2) Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows Server 2003 (SP 2) Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
-

Linux guests package manager Integration services for Linux are built into the distro but there may be optional updates available. **

For virtual machines running on Windows 8 hosts: 

Guest Update mechanism Notes
Windows 8.1 Windows Update
Windows 8 Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows 7 Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows Vista (SP 2) Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows XP (SP 2, SP 3) Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
-

Windows Server 2012 R2 Windows Update
Windows Server 2012 Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows Server 2008 R2 Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows Server 2008 (SP 2) Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows Home Server 2011 Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows Small Business Server 2011 Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows Server 2003 R2 (SP 2) Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
Windows Server 2003 (SP 2) Integration Services disk See instructions, below.
-

Linux guests package manager Integration services for Linux are built into the distro but there may be optional updates available. **

For more details about Linux guests, see Supported Linux and FreeBSD virtual machines for Hyper-V on Windows. 

Install or update integration services

For hosts earlier than Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10, you'll need to manually instructions from the guest operating system. These steps can't be automated or done within a Windows PowerShell session. 

  1. Open Hyper-V Manager. From the Tools menu of Server Manager, click Hyper-V Manager.  

  2. Connect to the virtual machine. Right-click the virtual machine and click Connect.  

  3. From the Action menu of Virtual Machine Connection, click Insert Integration Services Setup Disk. This action loads the setup disk in the virtual DVD drive. Depending on the guest operating system, you might need to start the installation manually.  

  4. After the installation finishes, all integration services are available for use.

Original Article:


https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/virtualization/hyper-v/manage/manage-hyper-v-integration-services