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This is a short post on how to enable long awaited feature, Nested Virtualization in Hyper-V that is available in Windows 2016 Technical Preview 5 (TP5), which the competition VMware had for few years now.

Nested Virtualization is a feature that would allow us to enable Hyper-V inside the VM. This has many interesting use cases mainly labs and training. and even run other Hypervisors like VMware on top of Hyper-V.

To try this feature download latest Windows Server 2016 TP5 ISO from here

Install TP5 and enable Hyper-V role.

Create a new VM and install 2016 TP5 on the VM.

Now if you try to enable Hyper-V role, you would be presented with below error.

This is because Virtualization Extensions of Processor are not exposed to VM and so VM thinks Processor does not have Virtualization Capabilities.

First turn off the VM and run below command in PowerShell admin mode. Replace <VM’s Name> with name of VM in which you want to enable Hyper-V

Set-VMProcessor –VMName <VM's Name> -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true

Once the above PowerShell command finishes successfully you can start the VM and enable Hyper-V.

If you run the command without shutting down the VM you would see a error as below

If you like to check if Virtualization Extensions are exposed to the VM, you can run the below command.

ExposeVirtualizationExtensions will be True if enabled and False if not

Get-VMProcessor -VMName <VM's name> | FL *

Below is the graphical representation of Nested Virtualization.

Image Source – msdn.microsoft.com

Reference-

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyperv_on_windows/user_guide/nesting

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/virtualization/2015/10/13/windows-insider-preview-nested-virtualization/

http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/nested-virtualization-hyper-v-windows-server-2016/

Download Windows Server 2016 TP5 ISO (You would need Microsoft Live ID to download) - https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-technical-preview

CherryMusic is a open source music streaming server that can play your personal music collection on almost any device with a web browser. It is written in python and is very light weight.

CherryMusic can be installed on Raspberry PI to create a personal web based music station that can be used on any device of our choice and be central repository of all the music you like.

So, below is the list of what we need to build our own personal music streaming server

1. Raspberry PI

2. PiBang Linux Server (Any Linux distro will do, I prefer Pi Bang based on Raspbian)

3. CherryMusic – Download it from here

Burn PiBang Server to SD card and boot your RPi.

Update Linux on RPI and install prerequisites for CherryMusic Server

apt-get update && apt-get -y upgrade && apt-get install -y imagemagick vorbis-tools lame flac python-mutagen

Use wget and download the latest CherryMusic Master branch from GitHub and unzip the master.zip

Make a folder on your RPi and upload your music collection. I have it on /music folder

mkdir /music

now cd to unzipped CherryMusic folder and run below command to setup CherryMusic

python cherrymusic --setup --port 8080

It will ask to download cherrypy, key in y and press enter to continue with installation

Now point your browser to http://rpi-ipaddress and you will be presented with the below setup screen.

Key in /music/ (or any other folder that has your music collection) in the Media base directory, leave the rest as defaults and click on Save Configuration and start CherryMusic

Wait for the Setup to complete, it would take few seconds

Once the setup is complete you will be greeted with the below login screen.

I have admin as default username and password. Login and enjoy your music on all your devices. You can even port forward or NAT your RPi and listen to your collection anywhere as long as you are connected to internet.

I was able to play music simultaneously on 4 different devices on my home wifi with no issue

1. Windows 8.1

2. Blackberry

3. Android

4. Acer Iconia Tablet

Reference-

1. http://www.fomori.org/cherrymusic/Setup%20Guide.html

2. https://github.com/devsnd/cherrymusic/tree/master

3. http://raspberrypihelp.net/tutorials/44-raspberry-pi-cherrymusic-music-streaming

If you have installed Windows Server 2012 Roles and Features using PowerShell or remote server admin tools or new multi server manager console, you will see that the management tools are missing from the server on which you just have enabled the role or feature. This is because Microsoft has provided more granular control on what is installed on the Windows Server 2012. As an administrator we have choice to include or not to include management tools while installing the Roles and Features we choose.

Below is a comic illustrating the same.

Source:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/servermanager/archive/2012/08/13/the-case-of-the-missing-role-and-feature-management-tools.aspx

Reference:

More on Installing Roles and Features here

If you are like me using Windows computer daily and keep moving your hand between keyboard and mouse, Run box in Windows Start menu can be used to speed up access to a whole variety of functions.

Here are 30 commands that are very useful for time saving while using Windows computer. These commands not only help you get the work done faster, but also more efficiently instead of clicking through tons of windows and options.

All these commands can also be used from good old command prompt or brand new PowerShell

1. Add or Remove Programs – appwiz.cpl