(Re)Introducing Hyper-V for the Chocolatey Test Environment

Last year we announced that the sandbox used by the Package Moderation Services on the Chocolatey Community Repository was being updated to Windows Server 2019. At that time the image that supports this sandbox was released publicly for use in the Chocolatey Testing Environment, allowing package maintainers to test their packages in the same environment as the automatic Package Moderation Services.

Today we're releasing an update to this image, and you can pull it, versioned 3.2.0, from Chocolatey's Vagrant Cloud!

What has changed?

We have taken the opportunity to ensure all updates, through to May 28, 2024, have been installed out of the box. And we've made some behind the scenes changes, making the process easier for future releases.

Version 3.0.0 was only available for use with VirtualBox. Version 3.2.0 reintroduces a Hyper-V variant enabling those are using Windows features that depends on Hyper-V, such as the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), and as a result cannot use VirtualBox, to make use of the Chocolatey Testing Environment.

For details about setting up, or upgrading, the Chocolatey Testing Environment do check out the project's README.

Should you swap to Hyper-V?

In short: No.

If you can use VirtualBox to host the Chocolatey Testing Environment, then you should. This variant, as mentioned above, is intended to lower the friction to use the testing environment if you have no option but to use Hyper-V.

If you do opt to use Hyper-V to host the test environment, then please be aware of the limitations. The main limitation that will impact your usage of the testing environment is that when you revert your snapshot in between tests you will be prompted for "SMB Credentials." When this happens, enter the username and password for your account on the host machine. This allows the passthrough of the packages directory from the host into the testing environment.

Wrap up

Earlier versions of the test environment Vagrant box did support both VirtualBox and Hyper-V, and the reason Hyper-V support was missing from version 3.0.0 was due to the uplift from Windows Server 2012 R2 to Windows Server 2019. We wanted to ensure the updated box was as stable as possible before reintroducing Hyper-V.

I wanted to thank Community members that advocated for, and patiently waited for, Hyper-V support. Your input helped to solidify the need for providing a Hyper-V version of this Vagrant box.

If you want to discuss any of these changes further, please join us on our Community Chat.