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SC Series snapshots and Hyper-V
33 Dell EMC SC Series: Microsoft Hyper-V Best Practices | CML1009
4. Power on the server and run Sysprep, choosing the Generalize, Out-of-box Experience, and
Shutdown options.
5. Once the server is powered down (which will ensure that it is in a consistent state), manually create
another SC Series snapshot of the volume and set it to never expire. Assign it a descriptive name that
clearly identifies it as a gold source.
6. Using this snapshot as the gold source, create a View Volume and map it to the desired host server.
7. If mapping View Volumes from a gold source to a Hyper-V cluster, duplicate disk IDs will cause a
conflict. Change the disk ID of the volume prior to mapping it to the cluster. See section 3.3 for more
information on changing a disk ID.
8. Boot the host server and allow the initial boot process to complete.
9. Customize the server configuration as needed. Leverage PowerShell to automate the workflow if
desired.
The steps to configure a Windows Server boot-from-VHD gold image are as follows:
1. Create and map a VHD to a VM as the boot volume.
2. Follow the steps in the previous section to stage the VM and then run Sysprep.
3. After running Sysprep, use Hyper-V Manager to delete the guest VM. This will delete the guest VM
configuration files but will preserve the boot virtual hard disk intact. The virtual hard disk is the only
file needed for this sysprepped VHD to serve as a gold image for provisioning new VMs.
Note: Do not use Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) to delete the guest VM as it
will also delete the virtual hard disk file. Use Hyper-V Manager instead.
4. Copy the gold (sysprepped) VHD file in safe location.