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A quick disclaimer: this should work for the entire IBM DS3xxx series, but I’ve only tested with the DS3300. Your Mileage May Vary!

So I’ve decided to have a go with some pre-release software and use Hyper-V R2 server. I work with several clients who rely on Windows Server 2008 Enterprise using Hyper-V in a clustered manner and either Enterprise R2 or Hyper-V R2 sound perfect for them. Cluster Shared Volumes are a brilliant idea and bring Hyper-V much closer to VMware for management ease. Specifically on my SAN I’m using IBM’s DS3300 iSCSI platform so to try this out I went about trying to get the RDAC MPIO drivers installed on the Hyper-V R2 beta.

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In my last post I wrote about how to install Windows Server 2008 R2 into a VHD for dual-booting purposes. Well, recently I broke my laptop and had to rebuild my boot loader. Anyways, adding an existing VHD to the Windows 7 boot loader is a doddle.

First, copy your current boot loader:

bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Boot Description"

This will generate a new boot entry and print out the GUID. You’ll need this! Next, you’ll set the VHD path for the OS to use.

bcdedit /set {GUID from last step} osdevice vhd=[DriveLetter:]\PathToVHD\VHD_File
bcdedit /set {GUID from last step} device vhd=[DriveLetter:]\PathToVHD\VHD_File

That’s it! Reboot your PC and your VHDs should be bootable. Remember though, you can only boot Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 VHDs like this.