If you are using Hyper-V and running a Ubuntu 16.04 guest, you may not be aware that Microsoft provides Linux Integration Services (LIS), which are basically Microsoft’s version of VMware Tools. In this article we will detail how to enable LIS on our Ubuntu 16.04 virtual machine. The first step is to edit the “modules” file located in /etc/initramfs-tools using the below command:
nano /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
Once in nano, navigate to the last line in the file and enter the following lines:
hv_vmbus hv_storvsc hv_blkvsc hv_netvsc
Save the file by hitting the ctrl + x and then issuing “y” for yes and then enter. Next, run the following commands to re-initialize the “modules” file, install the virtual tools and reboot the machine:
apt-get install --install-recommends linux-tools-virtual-lts-xenial linux-cloud-tools-virtual-lts-xenial update-initramfs -u reboot
Finally, once the guest virtual machine is rebooted, the LIS drivers and services will be registered in the system. In order to verify the installation, simply run lsmod in the terminal and look for hid_hyperv, hv_netvsc, hv_utils, hv_storvc and hv_vmbus. If they are present, activation of LIS has been successful.
Microsoft has new Linux Integration Services – verion 4.xx. How can I install these on Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS?
I will look into this. Thanks for the info 🙂
I’ve followed your process. For some reason Integration Services is telling me “Update required”. Any ideas on how to fix this? I have run apt-get update/upgrade and that doesn’t seem to affect it.
Thanks!
The version check message does not apply to Linux VMs, you can safely ignore it.
It is actually recommended to install the Hyper-V KVP and VSS daemons. This will automaticly also load the above kernel modules
sudo apt-get install linux-tools-virtual linux-cloud-tools-virtual
Thanks for the great tip Tim 🙂
In case you don’t know what these daemons do:
The VSS daemon is needed for a live backup while the system is running. Not having the VSS daemon running means that the VM wil enter save-state during a VM-backup and therefore the services it provides will be interrupted.
The KPV daemon passes basic information, such as the guest IP, the FQDN, OS name, and OS release number, to the host through VMbus.