Coding with Hyper-V

Looking to start experimenting with Hyper-V? Whether it's programming or scripting, it's easy to get started. If you want to do some coding, all you need is a language that can access WMI. Microsoft bloggers have advice for getting started with each one.

We'll start with Richard MacDonald who shows you how to get started programming with Hyper-V using C#.

Hyper-V provides a nice interface for scripting and programming.  The interface is usable from any scripting/coding language that can access WMI.  For example: VBScript, C++, PowerShell, C#, etc.  In this short tutorial I'll look at connecting and querying via C#, but the techniques can be easily adapted to the language of your choice.

Ben Pearce, meanwhile, is starting a series of blog posts on Scripting Hyper-V with WMI and PowerShell. There are a couple of options for scripting: Using the virtualization WMI provider that ships with Hyper-V or using the cmdlets provided by System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008. Provided that you have System Center, of course.

Use SCVMM 2008, and scripting Hyper-V is like a pleasurable dream.  The cmdlets are task orientated, provide a rich set of features and really do work very well.  So why is this a guide to Option 1 – Using the virtualization WMI provider?  Well, sometimes Hyper-V will be used without an accompanying System Centre deployment, and if that’s the case, using WMI is your only scripting option.