Recently I decided to refresh my LAB and I bought 2 Intel NUC 6th Generation devices. After short consideration I selected NUC6I5SYH as device with the best price/performance ratio.  Windows Server Hyper-V 2016 will be installed on the new hardware as a platform for new LAB infrastructure servers.In comparison to NUC 5th generation the most important changes are: new Skylake processor and 32 GB RAM support.

NUC6I5SYH  Features

  • Intel Core i5-6260U Processor, 2.8GHz, dual-core, 15W TDP
  • Intel Iris Graphics 540 GPU, 48 EUs, 64 MB eDRAM cache
  • 2 slots for DDR4-2133 SO-DIMM memory, 1.2V, max. 32GB
  • Support for M.2 SSD card (sizes 22×42 and 22×80)
  • Slot for a single 2.5″ drive (SSD or HDD, max. 9.5mm thickness)
  • Normal, full-size HDMI 1.4b port
  • Mini DisplayPort 1.2 port
  • Four USB 3.0 ports (2 on the front, 2 on the rear)
  • Intel I219V Gigabit Ethernet LAN adapter
  • Intel Wireless-AC 8260 WiFi adapter (802.11ac, dual-band, max. 867 Mbps, Bluetooth 4.1)
  • SD card reader (support SDXC cards and UHS-I)
  • Infrared sensor and 3.5mm audio jack

Technical specification (PDF) is available here.

Final configuration for my LAB devices is the following:

  • Intel NUC – NUC6i5SYH
  • HyperX Impact SODIMM DDR4, 2x16GB, 2133MHz, CL13 (HX421S13IBK2/32)
  • Samsung SSD 850 PRO 256 GB

 

Operating system installation

When all ordered components have arrived it was quite easy thing to put them together and start installation. Surprisingly operating system installation was more challenging than I expected. This is my fault – I didn’t check product documentation and I just started installation. After 2 hours I checked Intel community forum and I found the following information:

Unfortunately this operating system has not been validated to work with this Intel® NUC and some drivers will not be available, see here for more information http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/intel-nuc-boards/000005628.html.

Windows Server 2016 Core

Windows Server does not provide support for the Intel I219-V network adapter. Due to the fact that the driver is not signed for Windows Server,  automated driver installation or driver update will fail. To install network driver please follow the procedure below.

Important note: The following procedure is not official and should be used on your own risk.
  1. List installed network controllers.  Open powershell window and type the following command:
    #
    Get-NetAdapter
    #

    The result is shown in the figure below:

    nuc4

  2. Download the Intel NUC network driver for Windows 10 10PROWin64.exe from Intel website and extract to a folder.
  3. Verify vendor id for network controllers. Open powershell and type the following commands:
    #
    Get-WMIObject win32_PNPEntity |select name,deviceid |where {$_.Name -match "Ethernet"}
    #
    Get-WMIObject win32_PNPEntity |select name,deviceid |where {$_.Name -match "Network"}
    #

    The result is shown in the figure below:

    nuc11

  4. List network drivers available for vendor id’s  found in step 2.  Go to folder extracted in step 1 and type the following commands:
    #
    Get-ChildItem -Recurse |Select-String -Pattern "VEN_8086&DEV_1570" |group Path |select Name
    #
    Get-ChildItem -Recurse |Select-String -Pattern "VEN_8086&DEV_24F3" |group Path |select Name
    #

    The result is shown in the figure below:

    nuc2

  5. For Windows Server 2016 installation and we will use e1d65x64.inf file located in NDIS65 folder. Open inf file in notepad and find vendor id in section 
[Intel.NTamd64.10.0.1] %E1570NC.DeviceDesc% = E1570.10.0.1, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1570
%E1570NC.DeviceDesc% = E1570.10.0.1, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1570&SUBSYS_00008086
%E1570NC.DeviceDesc% = E1570.10.0.1, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1570&SUBSYS_00011179nuc3aPaste copied text at the end of section [Intel.NTamd64.10.0] nuc3
  • Disable driver signature verification. In the powershell window type the following commands:
    bcdedit /set LOADOPTIONS DISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
    bcdedit /set TESTSIGNING ON
    bcdedit /set NOINTEGRITYCHECKS ONnuc5
  • Make sure that commands have been completed successfully and restart server
  • Install network driver. Open powershell window and type the following command:
    #
    pnputil.exe -i -a D:\Intel\PRO1000\Winx64\NDIS65\e1d65x64.inf
    #
  • Accept software installation
    nuc10
  • List installed network controllers. Type command:
    #
    Get-NetAdapter
    #

    nuc9

  • Enable driver signature verification. In the powershell window type the following commands:
    bcdedit /set LOADOPTIONS ENABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
    bcdedit /set TESTSIGNING OFF
    bcdedit /set NOINTEGRITYCHECKS OFF
  •  

    Windows 10

    Installing Windows 10 is straight-forward. Installer is able to recognise almost all devices, only chipset and display driver will require updates. If you prefer automated method you can download the Intel Driver Update Utility.