{"id":21416,"date":"2018-10-11T15:33:06","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T14:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=21416"},"modified":"2018-10-12T13:07:03","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T12:07:03","slug":"generation-2-virtual-machines-make-their-first-public-appearance-in-microsoft-azure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=21416","title":{"rendered":"Generation 2 Virtual Machines Make Their First Public Appearance in Microsoft Azure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft has revealed that the new preview series of confidential computing virtual machines, the DC-Series, which went into public preview overnight are based on Generation 2 (Gen 2) Hyper-V virtual machines. This is the first time that a non-Generation 1 (Gen 1) VM has been available in Azure.<\/p>\n

Note that ASR allows you to migrate\/replicate Generation 2 machines into Azure by converting them into Generation 1 at the time of failover.<\/em><\/p>\n

These confidential compute VMs use hardware features of the Intel chipset to provide secure enclaves to isolate the processing of sensitive data.<\/p>\n

The creation process for a DC-Series is a little different than usual \u2013 you have to look for Confidential Compute VM Deployment in the Marketplace and then you work through a (legacy blade-based) customised deployment that is not as complete as a normal virtual machine deployment. In the end a machine appears.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve taken a screenshot from a normal Azure VM including a view of Device Manager from Windows Server 2016 with the OS disk.<\/p>\n

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Note that both the OS disk and the Temp Drive are IDE drives on a Virtual HD ATA controller. This is typical a Generation 1 virtual machine. Also note the IDE\/ATA controller?<\/p>\n

Now have a look at a DC-Series machine:<\/p>\n

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Note how the OS disk and the Temp Drive are listed as Microsoft Virtual Disk on SCSI controllers? Ah \u2013 definitely a Generation 2 virtual machine! Also do you see the IDE\/ATA controller is missing from the device listing? If you expand System Devices you will find that the list is much smaller. For example, the Hyper-V S3 Cap PCI bus video controller (explained here<\/a> by Didier Van Hoye) of Generation 1 is gone.<\/p>\n

Did you Find This Post Useful?<\/h2>\n

If you found this information useful, then imagine what 2 days of training might mean to you. I’m delivering a 2-day course in Frankfurt on December 3-4, teaching newbies and experienced Azure admins about Azure Infrastructure. There’ll be lots of in-depth information, covering the foundations, best practices, troubleshooting, and advanced configurations. You can learn more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft has revealed that the new preview series of confidential computing virtual machines, the DC-Series, which went into public preview overnight are based on Generation 2 (Gen 2) Hyper-V virtual machines. This is the first time that a non-Generation 1 (Gen 1) VM has been available in Azure. Note that ASR allows you to migrate\/replicate … Continue reading “Generation 2 Virtual Machines Make Their First Public Appearance in Microsoft Azure”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[170,59,181,153,195],"class_list":["post-21416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-azure","tag-azure","tag-cloud-computing","tag-hyper-v","tag-virtual-machines","tag-virtualisation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t