Your network contains a server named Server1 that has the Hyper-V server role installed. Server1
hosts a virtual machine (VM) named VM1. You add an additional hard disk to Server1. The hard disk
is configured as a basic disk. You need to configure VM1 to use the new hard disk as a pass-through
disk. What should you do before you configure the pass through disk?
A.
Create a simple volume.
B.
Take the new hard disk offline.
C.
Convert the new hard disk to a GPT disk.
D.
Convert the new hard disk to a dynamic disk.
Explanation:
Pass -through Disk Configuration
Hyper-V allows virtual machines to access storage mapped directly to the Hyper-V server without
requiring the volume be configured. The storage can either be a physical disk internal to the Hyper-V
server or it can be a Storage Area Network (SAN) Logical Unit (LUN) mapped to the Hyper-V server. T
o ensure the Guest has exclusive access to the storage, it must be placed in an Offline state from the
Hyper-V server perspective. Additionally, this raw piece of storage is not limited in size so,
hypothetically, it can be a multiterabyte LUN.
After storage is mapped to the Hyper-V server, it will appear as a raw volume and will be in an
Offline state (depending on the SAN Policy (Figure 1-1)) as seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Raw disk is Offline
Figure 1-1 SAN Mode determination using diskpart.exe
I stated earlier that a disk must be Offline from the Hyper-V servers’ perspective in order for the
Guest to have exclusive access. However, a raw volume must first be initialized before it can be used.To accomplish this in the Disk Management interface, the disk must first be brought Online. Once
Online, the disk will show as being Not Initialized (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Disk is Online but Not Initialized
Right-click on the disk and select Initialize Disk (Figure 3)
Figure 3: Initialize the disk
Select either an MBR or GPT partition type (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Selecting a partition type
Once a disk is initialized, it can once again be placed in an Offline state. If the disk is not in an Offline
state, it will not be available for selection when configuring the Guest’s storage. In order to configure
a Pass-through disk in a Guest, you must select Attach a virtual disk later in the New Virtual Machine
Wizard (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Choosing to attach a virtual disk later
Figure 6: Attaching a pass-through disk to an IDE Controller
Note: If the disk does not appear in the drop down list, ensure the disk is Offline in the Disk
Management interface (In Server CORE, use the diskpart.exe CLI).
Once the Pass-through disk is configured, the Guest can be started and data can placed on the drive.
If an operating system will be installed, the installation process will properly prepare the disk. If the
disk will be used for data storage, it must be prepared in the Guest operating system before data can
be placed on it.
If a Pass-through disk, being used to support an operating system installation, is brought Online
before the Guest is started, the Guest will fail to start. When using Pass-through disks to support an
operating system installation, provisions must be made for storing the Guest configuration file in an
alternate location. This is because the entire Pass-through disk is consumed by the operating system
installation. An example would be to locate the configuration file on another internal drive in the
Hyper-V server itself. Or, if it is a cluster, the configuration file can be hosted on a separate cluster
providing highly available file services. Be aware that Pass-through disks cannot be dynamically
expanded. Additionally, when using Pass-through disks, you lose the capability to take snapshots,
and finally, you cannot use differencing disks with Pass-through disks.
Note: When using Pass-through disks in a Windows Server 2008 Failover Cluster, you must have the
update documented in KB951308: Increased functionality and virtual machine control in the
Windows Server 2008 Failover Cluster Management console for the Hyper-V role installed on all
nodes in the cluster.
Source: http://blogs.technet.com/b/askcore/archive/2008/10/24/configuring-pass-through- disksin-hyper-v.aspx
