12 tips for managing Hyper-V with PowerShell and Windows Admin Center

Use the Install-WindowsFeature Hyper-V cmdlet to install the Hyper-V server role, and the -IncludeManagementTools parameter to install the additional management tools that are required.

These include the PowerShell module and Hyper-V Manager. If the server is to restart automatically, the parameter -restart is added.

The management tools, without the Hyper-V server role, are installed with the Install-WindowsFeature Hyper-V-Tools command.

To display a list of all available cmdlets,use the Get-Command cmdlet with the -Module Hyper-V parameter. The output of this command is shown in Figure 1.

Windows Server 2019 enables direct access to a virtual operating system of a virtual machine from a PowerShell session on the host. This feature is called “PowerShell Direct”. It involves opening a session for the VM in the PowerShell with the following command:

Enter-PSSession -VMName

There are also cmdlets that enable you to run PowerShell cmdlets directly on a VM without opening a session first:

Invoke-Command -VMName  -ScriptBlock { Commands }

Use the following commands to copy files from the Hyper-V host to VMs via PowerShell Direct

$PSSession = New-PSSession -VMName  -Credential (Get-Credential)

Copy-Item -ToSession $PSSession -Path C:data.bar -Destination C:

If you use the Windows Admin Center to access a server on which Hyper-V is already installed, you will find the two menu items “Virtual Computers” and “Virtual Switches” in the menu on the left side (see Figure 2).

This allows you to manage the VMs and virtual switches on Hyper-V hosts through your web browser. You can additonaly create and edit virtual servers. You can also control VMs in this way, as well as view the console from your web browser.

In addition, a PowerShell session can be opened on the server using the “PowerShell” menu item in the Windows Admin Center (see Figure 3).

Under “Settings”, Hyper-V settings of the host can be adjusted, just like in the Hyper-V Manager. All this works in one session with the Windows Admin Center in your web browser.

The following command creates a virtual switch based on a network team called “SETSwitch” consisting of three network adapters:

New-VMSwitch -name SETswitch -Netadaptername „team1“, „team2“, „team3“ -AllowManagementOS $True -EnableEmbeddedTeaming $true

To see all available adapters, use the Get-NetAdapter cmdlet.

Get-NetAdapter
   [[-Name] <string[]>]
   [-IncludeHidden]
   [-Physical]
   [-CimSession <cimsession[]>]
   [-ThrottleLimit ]
   [-AsJob]
   []</cimsession[]></string[]>

PowerShell uses the Get-VMSwitch cmdlet to display information about the virtual network switch.

Get-VMSwitch
   [[-Name] ]
   [[-ResourcePoolName] <string[]>]
   [-SwitchType <vmswitchtype[]>]
   [-CimSession <cimsession[]>]
   [-ComputerName <string[]>]
   [-Credential <pscredential[]>]
   []</pscredential[]></string[]></cimsession[]></vmswitchtype[]></string[]>

For more detailed information about the team, use the Get-VMSwitchTeam cmdlet.

To delete such switches, use the Remove-VMSwitch cmdlet.