Managing A Domain Based Hyper-V Servers from a Workgroup Workstation

You may have a situation where for what ever reason you need to manage domain based Hyper-V Servers from a machine not connected to the domain.  Now really best practice you should use a machine connected to the domain but for whatever reason, issue with a domain controller, lost of a security policy etc.  It is possible to remotely manage server 2012R2 Hyper-V machines on a domain from a workgroup host.  To enable this you need to be on the same network and create a local user account on the system you want to manage and add that user the following group.

• Hyper-V Administrators

Step 1 - Right Click on the Windows Logo and select Run

Step 2 - Type in "control userpasswords2" without the quotes.  This will bring up the local users and groups manager.

Step 3 - When the user accounts window opens go to the Advanced Tab.

Step 4 - Add a local user this should be the same user your going to use on the local machine to remotely manage your Hyper-V Hosts.

Fill out the your account information and uncheck the "User must change password at next logon" and check the "password never expires" check box.

Step 5 - Then go into groups and add the user to the following group.

• Hyper-V Administrators

Right click on Hyper-V Administrators and select Properties

Add the user to the group, make sure you use the local machine and not the domain.  Then hit OK.

Once that is done you can then go and add the server to your workstation Hyper-V Console.  To do that right click on the Hyper-V Manager and select "Connect to Server..."

Then select "Another Computer" via the radio button and type in the Resolvable Name or the IP Address of the Server you want to connect to and hit ok.

Once complete you will have the Hyper-V host in your Hyper-V Manager and access and management to all virtual machines on that host.