“RPC server unavailable. Unable to establish communication between and ” when connecting to Hyper-V 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2 from Hyper-V Manager version 1709

System Requirements:

  • Windows 10 1709
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Hyper-V Management Console
  • RSAT 2016/1709 for Windows 10 version 1709

The Problem:

After upgrading to Windows 10 version 1709 and installing the updated Windows Server 2016 (version 2016 or version 1709) RSAT tools for Windows 10 1709. On attempting to connect to a down-level Windows Server 2012 R2, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 Hyper-V Server via the Hyper-V Manager MMC snap-in. You receive the error even though no configuration changes have been made on the Hyper-V hosts:

"RPC server unavailable. Unable to establish communication between <management host> and <Hyper-V host>"

At this point you are unable to manage down-level version of Hyper-V from Windows 10. This issue does not impact the management of remote Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 1709 Hyper-V instances.

View: Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 10 (RSAT)

The Fix

This appears to be related to a change in the default firewall behaviour on Windows 10 1709 installs. to fix the problem. On the client system, where you have installed RSAT to remote manage the hypervisor (i.e. not on the hypervisor itself):

  1. Open ‘Administrative Tools’ in the Windows Control Panel
  2. Open ‘Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security’
  3. Select ‘Inbound Rules’ from the left hand side
  4. Scroll down until you get to ‘Windows Management Instrumentation (ASync-In)’
  5. Enable the rule for domain/private/public networks as required
    Note: By default the Windows firewall MMC will only display WMI rules for domain and private networks. If you are not running against a domain and Windows has not been explicitly told that you are on a private network, Windows will assume that you are on a public network. Check in network settings in the settings app to ensure that you are not running on a public network, or if you are edit the firewall rule to include public networks. In general, it is a bad idea to open WMI up to traffic on public networks.
  6. Restart Hyper-V Manager

You should now find that you can connect to down-level versions of Hyper-V from Windows 10 1709.