PART II: Configuration and Setup of a virtual network connection...

I like to keep up to date with the latest Microsoft technologies and generally have a number of test environments running on my home computer. These test environments grant me the ability to create different "virtual" machines each with their own unique Operating Systems and programs without effecting my main computer. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit through a Window Server 2016 preview and thought I might like to get my hands on the new fledgling OS to see what I could glean from it. This is the second part of a multi part series running through the setup of a virtual environment on Windows 10 and the installation of Windows Server 2016 Essentials Tech Preview 3 on the newly established Hyper-V environment.

PREREQUISITES: 

Windows 8 Pro or Enterprise 64 bit Operating System
64 bit processor with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)
4 GB system Ram at minimum
BIOS-level Hardware Virtualization support

Now that we have Hyper-V installed on our Windows 10 environment we will move forward on creating our first virtual machine. The first task in setting up our virtual instance is to establish the network connection that it will need to be attached to.

The Hyper-V virtual switch, which is what we will be using here for our virtual machine, is a software based ethernet network switch which is available directly through Hyper-V manager. This software switch will "programmatically" (microsoft's word not mine) allow you to manage your network when connecting to your virtual machines either through virtual or physical networks. We will get into the benefits of virtualization at a later date but what this means is that we are going to virtualize our internet connection much like we are going to virtualize our new machine.

First, we will start by opening our Hyper-V manager. This can be done easily by typing Hyper in the search box next to the Windows Start icon.

You will be presented with the Hyper-V manager window. 

Next, we will create our first Virtual Network connection. In the right hand column click on "Virtual Switch Manager" 

We will now be presented with the "Virtual Switch Manager" window for our current working environment. In my case my host machine is called SilverMoo (this links back to my early years with a Gateway box and the pretty little cow spots that came with it) 

From here we will select if we want an "External", "Internal" or "Private" switch. For my setup I will create an external switch. I will proceed this way because I want my virtual machine to reach my actual physical network so it can talk with the world wide web. So select "External" and then click "Create Virtual Switch" 

(stay with us this gets wordy - ed.) The next window will allow you to Name your new virtual switch and select the "external network". This area will also allow you to set up your VLAN if you so choose. I'm going simple here so we will avoid the "VLAN ID" section, leave this checkbox unchecked. I have selected the Netgear WNDA4100 N900 Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter, aka my wireless network card, and I'm selecting "Allow management operating system to share this network adapter". This check box will allow both your virtual machine and your physical box to share the same network adapter. Unless you have two Network cards in your computer this is how you will want your Virtual Switch setup. If you don't know what I mean here by Network Card you most likely only have one. NOTE: the "External Network" drop down will have a different name depending on your computers setup. 9 times out of 10 the preselected option, the Netgear in my case, is the one you will want to choose. After the "External Network" has been selected, the "Allow management operating system to share this network adapter" checkbox has been checked and the "Name" has been given to your Virtual Switch click "OK".

After clicking "OK" you will be brought back to the Virtual Switch Manager with your newly implemented "Virtual Switch" in the left hand column. 

Click "OK" again to be returned to the Hyper-V Manager which we will use to install and setup our new OS in Part III.