Q. How do I allow users to manage Hyper-V remotely via the Hyper-V Microsoft Management Console snap-in?

A. For users to manage a Hyper-V server remotely, you need to configure Windows Management Instrumentation access, DCOM permissions, firewall exceptions on the server and the client, and Authorization Manager access (which I'll cover in detail in the next FAQ).

Fortunately, the Hyper-V Remote Management Configuration Utility (HVRemote), available from Microsoft allows you to give the appropriate permissions on the Hyper-V server to a specified user. Note that this utility makes the user an administrator of Hyper-V. If you don't want the user to have those permissions, you'll need to update manually after running the utility, as described in the next FAQ, and remove the user from the Administrator role assignment. You should read the help documentation on HVRemote for more details on the utility.

The only manual step you need to perform on the client is to enable the firewall exceptions. You can do this by running HVRemote on the client with the command "cscript hvremote.wsf /mmc:enable" or by running the command

netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="WindowsManagement Instrumentation (WMI)" new enable=yesNetsh firewall add allowedprogram program=%windir%system32mmc.exename="Microsoft Management Console"

You also need to set the DCOM permissions on the server for Authenticated Users by launching dcomcnfg and expanding Component Services, then Computer, then My Computer. Under Properties, select the COM Security tab. Click Edit Limits... under Launch and Activation Permissions and add Authenticated Users and grant Remote Launch and Remote Activation permissions, as shown here. Also, click Edit Limits... under the Access Permissions section and ensure Remote Access is allowed for ANONYMOUS LOGON. You need to reboot the server for the DCOM changes to take effect.

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