Avoid Saved State Backup and Check Hyper-V Integration Service Versions Automatically

Are Hyper-V virtual machine backups failing on your server? Or, are VMs being backed up using a Saved State?

Chances are there is a mismatch in the Hyper-V Integration Services versions used on host and inside VMs. In case you wonder what else might happen if there is a version mismatch, check out this article.

The current Hyper-V Integration Services version number on your host is stored in the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Virtualization\GuestInstaller\Version

A simple PowerShell script is all you need.

Note: The following script works on Windows Server 2012 and later only.

Create a new PowerShell file GetHyperVIntegrationVersions.ps1 and paste the following code:

$VMMS = gwmi -namespace root\virtualization\v2 Msvm_VirtualSystemManagementService

 # 1 == VM friendly name. 123 == Integration State
 $RequestedSummaryInformationArray = 1,123
 $vmSummaryInformationArray = $VMMS.GetSummaryInformation($null, $RequestedSummaryInformationArray).SummaryInformation

 # Create an empty array to store the results in
 $outputArray = @()

 # Go over the results of the GetSummaryInformation Call
 foreach ($vmSummaryInformation in [array] $vmSummaryInformationArray)
    {  

    # Turn result codes into readable English
    switch ($vmSummaryInformation.IntegrationServicesVersionState)
       {
        1       {$vmIntegrationServicesVersionState = "Up-to-date"}
        2       {$vmIntegrationServicesVersionState = "Version Mismatch"}
        default {$vmIntegrationServicesVersionState = "Unknown"}
       }

    # Use Hyper-V PowerShell cmdlets to quickly get the integration version number
    $vmIntegrationServicesVersion = (get-vm $vmSummaryInformation.ElementName).IntegrationServicesVersion
    # Display "Unknown" if we got a null result
    if ($vmIntegrationServicesVersion -eq $null) {$vmIntegrationServicesVersion = "Unknown"}

    # Put the VM Name, Integration Service Version and State in a PSObject - so we can display a nice table at the end
    $output = new-object psobject
    $output | add-member noteproperty "VM Name" $vmSummaryInformation.ElementName
    $output | add-member noteproperty "Integration Services Version" $vmIntegrationServicesVersion
    $output | add-member noteproperty "Integration Services State" $vmIntegrationServicesVersionState

    # Add the PSObject to the output Array
    $outputArray += $output

    }

 # Display information in nicely formatted table
 write-output $outputArray | sort "VM Name"

Run the above PowerShell script and you’ll get a screen output like the following:

VM Name                                        Integration Services Version                   Integration Services State                   
-------                                        ----------------------------                   --------------------------                   
iscsi VM                                       Unknown                                        Unknown                                      
test                                           Unknown                                        Unknown                                      
w7 x64                                         6.3.9600.16384                                 Up-to-date                                   
win7 on vhd (3/3/2014 6:26 PM) 3/6/2014 11:... 6.3.9600.16384                                 Up-to-date                                   
win7 on vhd (3/3/2014 6:26 PM) 3/6/2014 11:... 6.3.9600.16384                                 Up-to-date                                   
Win7 on VHDX                                   6.1.7601.17514                                 Version Mismatch

As you can see from the above sample output, the VM “Win7 on VHDX” has an outdated version of the Hyper-V Integration Services running.

By the way, the virtual machines need to be running in order for this information to be obtainable; hence, the ‘test’ VM above couldn’t be queried since it was shut down.

In order for backups to run properly without Saved State interruptions, you’ll need to run this script every time you update Windows.

This is because Hyper-V is an ongoing development of Microsoft and it is affected by many Windows Updates. Each time a change is made, the internal vmguest.iso is updated, too. You’ll find this file in C:\Windows\System32 and it contains the “current” Integration Service CD you need for each VM. The thing to remember is that after each Windows Update the ISO file may change. I guess one could write a script to check the ISO file’s date and alert the admin of a new Integration Services version on the host.

Adapted from Virtual PC Guy. Try our backup software which also covers Hyper-V backup, and other services.