Archive for May, 2009

StarWind Free

Great product to build your own ISCSI based SAN. It is compatible with Server 2003 Clustering and supports SCSI-3 Persistent reservation bit.

StarWind Free is an iSCSI Target that converts any Windows server into a SAN in less than 10 minutes.  This is a fully functional product at no cost. 

• Large 2 TB storage capacity
• Unlimited number of connections
• Virtualization environment support for VMware, Hyper-V, XenServer, Virtual Iron
• Enhances VMware environments by enabling VMotion, VMware HA, DRS and VCB
• Supports Windows server clustering for any application including SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint

More info @: http://www.starwindsoftware.com/free

Windows 7 Virtual PC Tips

Windows Virtual PC is a new optional component for Windows 7. This document provides some additional insight into Windows Virtual PC and provides some useful tips to help make your experience better.

Overview

Note: This is a preliminary document and may be changed substantially prior to final commercial release of the software described herein. Windows Virtual PC is a new optional component for Windows 7. This document provides some additional insight into Windows Virtual PC and provides some useful tips to help make your experience better. Explore setup and installation, Windows XP mode, virtual application, networking, and virtual machine creation and management.

System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems:

• Windows 7
• Windows Vista
• Windows XP

Download the “Windows Virtual PC tips” guide in pdf format.

Hyper-V Podcasts.

Thanks to Tony Soper:  http://blogs.technet.com/tonyso/archive/2009/05/19/hyper-v-how-to-roll-your-own-virtualization-mixtape.aspx

• Virtualization in a Nutshell01:07:19
• Hyper-Green Virtualization: Scaling Enterprise IT for Energy Efficiency58
• Understanding the Microsoft Server Virtualization Portfolio, Including Hyper-V01:04:27
• TechNet Radio: Green IT (Part 2 of 2): Virtualization45:50
• The Virtues of Virtualization00:50:05
• A 360 View Inside the Virtual World01:21:12
• Why Virtualization Is More Than Server Virtualization01:00:30
• Virtualization and Windows Server 200801:45:28
• Windows Server Virtualization Under the Hood00:57:45
• Examining Virtualization with Windows Server 200801:08:34
• Spotlight on Cost: Reducing Operational Costs in Your Data Center60
• Spotlight on Cost: How to Control Costs in Your Branch Infrastructure56
• Lower Total Cost of Ownership with Virtualization on Windows Server 200345:45
• Overview and Road Map of the Microsoft Virtualization Strategy 01:23:26
• Virtualization Capabilities of Windows Server 200857:55
• Platform Solution Blueprints: Virtualization and Infrastructure Management57:56
• TechNet Radio: How Microsoft Does IT: The Future of Server Virtualization23:36
• How Microsoft Designs the Virtualization Host and Network Infrastructure1:30:05
• Introduction to Microsoft Core Infrastructure Optimization Model and Virtualization50:10
• How Microsoft Does IT: Best Practices for Deploying Virtual Machines using Hyper-V Virtualization Technology77
• Using Virtual Machine Manager and Windows PowerShell to Deploy HP Windows Server 2008 Academy Labs01:24:53
• TechNet Radio: Get Ready for Microsoft Virtualization Technologies with the Assessment and Planning Solution31:31
• TechNet Radio: Michael Murphy and Kevin Remde interview Jeff Woolsey on exciting new features of Windows Server virtualization.26:48
• Windows Server 2008 Product Workload Scenarios01:35:22
• Prepare Yourself for Windows Server 2008 (Part 1 of 8): Product Workload Scenarios01:23:43
• Best Practices for Sizing Server Workloads with Microsoft Hyper-V and Intel Xeon Processor Families01:20:22
• Virtualizing Test and Development Environments for a Quick Return on Investment00:59:40
• Assess Your Server IT Infrastructure for Windows Server 2008 Migration and Virtualization00:58:00
• Selecting the Right Virtualization Technology: Planning for Hyper-V and Terminal Services01:15:19
• How to Implement Microsoft Hyper-V Server and Intel Virtualization Technology01:17:31
• If I Virtualize It, How Do I Manage It?01:30:37
• TechNet Radio: Managing Virtualization with Virtual Machine Manager 200732:26
• The New Server Core Installation Option in Windows Server 200801:26:05
• Running a Minimal Windows Server 2008 Environment with Server Core01:13:29
• Hardening Windows Server 2008 Deployments with the Windows Server 2008 Security Guide01:02:35
• HP Virtualization with Microsoft Hyper-V01:05:27
• Prepare Yourself for Windows Server 2008 (Part 7 of 8): Windows PowerShell and Manageability Improvements01:50:36
• How Microsoft does IT: Management and Operations in Windows Server 200800:57:32
• IT Manager Community Talk with Kevin – Virtualization35
• TechNet Radio: Managing a Virtualized Environment today and in the future00:27:13
• Managing a Virtual Solution with System Center01:16:57
• Managing the Virtualized Test and Development Environment00:52:58
• Windows PowerShell in Windows Server 200801:16:29
• Overview of System Center Virtual Machine Manager44:56
• Protect Your Windows Virtual Environment with System Center Data Protection Manager 01:05:55
• How Microsoft Does IT: Enhancing High Availability with Server Core in Windows Server 200800:59:42
• High Availability with Hyper-V01:09:26
• High Availability Basics with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V23
• Innovating High Availability with Cluster Shared Volumes70
• Build High-Availability Infrastructures with Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering00:57:30
• Introduction to Failover Clustering60
• Failover Clustering 10101:10:35
• Failover Cluster Validation and Troubleshooting with Windows Server 200801:16:59
• Delivering High Availability to Your Infrastructure00:51:39
• Failover Clustering Feature Road Map for Windows Server 2008 R264
• Storage Best Practices for Virtual Server00:54:23
• Virtual Server 2005 and HP: Better Together00:48:38

Hyper-V 2008 R2: News  from the front.

64 logical processor support. This is a 4x improvement over Hyper-V R1 and means that Hyper-V can take advantage of larger scale-up systems with greater amount of compute resources. As our friends at AMD and Intel drive up core counts, we want you to know that Hyper-V is ready to take advantage of the compute resources in your server today and those you’re buying tomorrow.

Support for up to 384 Concurrently Running Virtual Machines & 512 Virtual Processors PER SERVER. (No, that’s not a typo.) Going hand in hand with our support for 64 logical processors, we’re upping the maximum number of concurrently running virtual machines to 384 per server and the maximum number of virtual processors to 512 for the highest virtual machine density on the market. Here are a few examples. You could run:

• 1. 384 single virtual processor vms OR
• 2. 256 dual virtual processor vms (512 Virtual Processors) OR
• 3. 128 quad virtual processor vms (512 Virtual Processors) OR
• 4. any combination so long as you’re running up to 384 VMs and up to 512 Virtual Processors

Live Migration & Processors.

With the addition of Live Migration in Hyper-V R2, one of the immediate questions we’re asked is: “Do the physical processors have to be exactly the same?”

Scenario 1: Suppose you bought three servers for live migration and created a three node cluster. Everything’s working well and a 6-12 months down the road you want to add another couple of nodes to increase the compute resources in your cluster. In the meantime, your OEM has upgraded their server hardware line with new processors, now what do you do?

Scenario 2: You work in a small/medium business or K-12 education and you need to squeeze every nickel you can out of your budget. You want to use virtualization and would love to use Live Migration, but you have a mix of different servers ranging from Pentium 4, Core 2 and maybe next year you’ll get budget to purchase a new Core i7 server.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could Live Migrate virtual machines across different processor generations?

We think so too.

Introducing: Processor Compatibility

With Hyper-V R2, we include a new Processor Compatibility feature. Processor compatibility allows you to move a virtual machine up and down multiple processor generations from the same vendor. Here’s how it works.

When a Virtual Machine (VM) is started on a host, the hypervisor exposes the set of supported processor features available on the underlying hardware to the VM. This set of processor features are called guest visible processor features and are available to the VM until the VM is restarted.

When a VM is started with processor compatibility mode enabled, Hyper-V normalizes the processor feature set and only exposes guest visible processor features that are available on all Hyper-V enabled processors of the same processor architecture, i.e. AMD or Intel.  This allows the VM to be migrated to any hardware platform of the same processor architecture. Processor features are “hidden” by the hypervisor by intercepting a VM’s CPUID instruction and clearing the returned bits corresponding to the hidden features.

Just so we’re clear: this still means AMD<->AMD and Intel<->Intel. It does not mean you can Live Migrate between different processor vendors AMD<->Intel or vice versa.

In addition, you may be aware that both AMD and Intel have provided similar capabilities in hardware, Extended Migration and Flex Migration respectively. Extended and Flex Migration are cool technologies available on relatively recent processors, but this is a case where providing the solution in software allows us to be more flexible and provide this capability to older systems too. Processor Compatibility also makes it easier to upgrade to the newest server hardware. In addition, Hyper-V Processor Compatibility can be done on a per VM basis (it’s a checkbox) and doesn’t require any BIOS changes.

Processor Compatibility In Action

Here’s an example of a cluster we’ve been testing. This is a 4 node cluster using 4 generations of Intel Processors with VT all attached to a small iSCSI SAN over 1 Gb/E. We have a script that continuously Live Migrates VMs from one node to the next every 15 seconds. We’ve been running this test for about a week and have successfully completed over 110,000 Live Migrations.

Time To Get Uber-Geeky

Now that I’ve explained what processor compatibility mode does and the flexibility provides, I’m guessing there are a few propeller heads who want to go further and know exactly what a “normalized processor” means from a processor feature standpoint. Happy to oblige. When a VM in processor compatibility mode is started, the following processor features are hidden from the VM:

FAQ

Q: What happens if a vendor has written an application that uses one of these features that isn’t visible with processor compatibility enabled?

A: Since the feature isn’t exposed to the virtual machine, the application won’t “see it” and it’s up to the application to determine how to proceed; however, there are two likely paths.

Path 1: The application will check to see if a specific processor feature is available and use it if it’s available. If the processor features isn’t available, it will use a different code path. Remember that applications that make use of these advanced processor features are generally written in a flexible fashion to accommodate the servers in market today and there are still thousands of older Xeons and Opterons on the market that don’t have some of the latest processor features.

Path 2: The application requires a specific processor feature and refuses to launch. At this point in time, we haven’t found any application that fall into this category. It’s possible they exist, but we haven’t hit one yet. Since we can’t test every application out there, processor compatibility is defaulted off. (We’re conservative by nature.).

BTW, if there were issues with Hyper-V Processor Compatibility, you’d also see it with other virtualization products which rely on underlying hardware capabilities to mitigate this problem as well.

Q: Does processor compatibility have a hardware requirement? Does it require Intel Flex Migration or AMD Extended Migration?

A: Hyper-V processor compatibility mode has no dependencies on these technologies.

Q: Does Hyper-V processor compatibility allow you to migrate a VM from an AMD host to an Intel host and vice versa?

A: No. Processor compatibility allows you to move a virtual machine up and down multiple processor generations from the same vendor. It does not allow migrating a VM (with or without processor compatibility mode) from AMD based hosts to Intel based hosts, and vice versa.

Read the full story: http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2009/05/12/tech-ed-windows-server-2008-r2-hyper-v-news.aspx

SCVMM R2 RC Features

 Storage Migration

We’ve heard from customers as well as field for the need for migrating storage of a running VM. This is especially relevant as customers migrate from their existing one VM per LUN deployments and consolidate their VMs into a single CSV (clustered shared volume) LUN when they upgrade to Windows 2008 Server R2.

With VMM R2, we’ve added the capability to do what we call “Quick Storage Migration”. This feature enables migration of a VM’s storage both within the same host and across hosts while the VM is running with a minimum of downtime. The downtime depends on the amount of activity going on in the VM at the time of migration, our tests have shown typical downtimes to be less than 2 mins.

We’ve also added the capability to do VMWare storage vMotion which allows the storage of a VM to be transferred while the VM remains on the same host with no downtime.

Queuing of Live migrations

While live migration is the much awaited new feature in Windows 2008 Server R2, it does come with a limitation in that a host can participate in only one live migration at any given time, both as source and destination. This means that the user has to wait for the live migration to complete before attempting another one.

In VMM R2, we’ve added the capability to detect the condition where live migration fails due to another live migration in progress and queue up the request in the background and retry the request after a period of time. The retry intervals are exponentially backed off to avoid overloading the system and the retries are capped to a max time period (15 mins). This feature enables users to do multiple live migrations without needing to keep track of other live migrations that are happening within the cluster and VMM R2 will automatically do the queuing and retries in the background.

Rapid Provisioning

This feature is again in response to customers and field requests. In VMM 2008, the only way to deploy a new VM is to copy the VHD from the library to the host over the network using BITS. Depending on the size of VHD and the available bandwidth, this could take several minutes or even hours.  We heard from a lot of customers that they have sophisticated SAN technologies that enables them to clone a LUN which contains the VHD and present it to the host. But they still want to use VMM’s template so the OS customization and IC installation can be done. So they basically wanted  new-VM without the network copy which is exactly what we did in R2. You can now create a template which includes the OS answer file and which references a dummy VHD which is not used. Then, using Powershell (we didn’t have enough time to add UI support, so this feature is cmdline only. The power users that would use this feature would most likely use scripting to mass deploy VMS anyway) you can do a new-VM and specify the path to the VHD using a new switch -UseLocalVirtualHardDisk.

 Here’s a sample script:

Get-VMMServer -ComputerName “VMMServer1.Contoso.com”

$JobGroupID = [Guid]::NewGuid().ToString()

$Template = Get-Template | where {$_.Name -eq MyTemplate”}

$VMHost = Get-VMHost | where {$_.Name -eq “VMHost.Contoso.com”}

Move-VirtualHardDisk -IDE -BUS 0 -LUN 0 -Path “L:\OS.VHD” -JobGroup $JobGroupID

New-VM -Name “VM06″ -Path “L:\” -Template $Template -VMHost $VMHost -JobGroup -$JobGroupID -UseLocalVirtualHardDisks

 Host compatibility checks

VM migration requires host hardware to be compatible. This includes things like CPU features, enlightenment parity etc. In VMM R2, we’ve added deep check for compatibility using Hyper-V and VMWare compat check APIs. This enables users to check if VM is compatible with the destination host instead of doing the migration and then finding out that the VM cannot start on the host.

A related feature is to make VM compatible; it’s a setting per VM that turns off certain CPU features in VM so it becomes compatible with the host. This is a tradeoff between using advanced CPU features of the host versus making VM more compatible for migration. This setting requires that the VM be restarted to take effect.

 Support for 3rd party CFS

There are companies that build clustered file systems that functionally is similar to CSV in that it enables multiple hosts to have shared access to a disk resource. In VMM R2, we support such file systems by detecting it’s a CFS disk and allow for deploying multiple VMs per LUN. This enables customers who have deployed such file systems (Melo from Sanbolic is one that we’ve tested with) to take advantage of this new capability.

 Support for Veritas Volume Manager

We’ve also added support for Veritas volume manager which enables VMM R2 to recognize Veritas volume manager disk as a cluster disk resource.

As you can see, there’s a ton of new stuff that’s coming in RC and this list doesn’t include all those features that we already shipped in Beta.

http://blogs.technet.com/scvmm/archive/2009/05/11/scvmm-r2-rc-features.aspx

Use this guide to quickly find documentation resources and other technical information you need.

Check for updates to this guide: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149222

 What’s New in Windows Server 2008 R2 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=139049

Windows Server 2008 R2 Product Information http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135818

Windows Server 2008 TechCenter http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=86041

Windows Server 2008 TechNet Virtual Labs http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90855

Windows Server 2008 R2 Troubleshooting http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=149120

Performance and Reliability http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90924

Print Services http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48553

Remote Desktop Services (Terminal Services) http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=149218

Security and Protection http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90925

Server Manager http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48541

Server Migration http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=149124

Streaming Media Services http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48551

Web Server http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48558

Windows Deployment Services http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48559

Windows PowerShell http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=108518

Active Directory® Services http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149122

Active Directory Rights Management Services http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48554

Application Server http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48544

Availability and Scalability http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90922

Best Practice Analyzer http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139051

DNS Server http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48548

File and Storage http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=149123

Group Policy http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90923

Hyper-V http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=149125

Network Policy and Access Services http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=48552

Windows Server 2008 R2 Technical Library http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148452

 Security Resources

 Visit these Web sites to find prescriptive security guidance resources, virus alerts, and security bulletins:

Security Support Center http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=29482

TechNet Virus Alert http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=26702

Microsoft Malware Protection Center http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149239

Microsoft Security Bulletin Search http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=24822

Getting Started with Windows PowerShell^TM  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=148916

Script Center http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=63080

TechNet Download Center http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149121

TechNet Products and Technologies http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=26708

 Other Windows Server products

 Visit these Web sites to learn about Windows Server products from the Windows Server Solutions Group:

Windows® Small Business Server 2008 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=148763

Windows Essential Business Server 2008 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=148764

Windows Home Server http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=148765

Windows HPC Server 2008 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=148766

Windows Server 2008 R2 – DirectAccess Step-by-Step Guide released

DirectAccess is a new feature in the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems that enables remote users to securely access intranet shares, Web sites, and applications without connecting to a virtual private network (VPN). This paper contains an introduction to DirectAccess and instructions for setting up a test lab to demonstrate DirectAccess with a simulated Internet, intranet, and home network using the Release Candidate versions of Windows 7 and Window Server 2008 R2.

• Improve Productivity of Mobile Workforce. DirectAccess provides increased productivity for mobile workforce by offering the same connectivity experience both in and outside of the office. DirectAccess is on whenever the user has an Internet connection, giving users access to intranet resources whether they are traveling, at the local coffee shop, or at home.
• Improved Manageability of Remote Users. Without DirectAccess, mobile computers can only be managed when users connect to a VPN or physically enter the office. With DirectAccess, mobile computers can be managed any time the mobile computer has Internet connectivity, even if the user is not logged on. This allows remote computers to be managed regularly and helps ensure mobile users stay up-to-date with security and system health policies. DirectAccess helps ensure that organizations can meet regulatory and privacy mandates for security and data protection for assets that must roam beyond the corporate network
• Improved security. DirectAccess uses IPsec for authentication and encryption. Optionally, you can require smart cards for user authentication. DirectAccess integrates with NAP to require that DirectAccess clients must be compliant with system health requirements before allowing a connection to the DirectAccess server. IT administrators can configure the DirectAccess server to restrict the servers that users and individual applications can access.

 Get the guide:   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=8d47ed5f-d217-4d84-b698-f39360d82fac.

DirectAccess Technet site:         http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/network/dd420463.aspx

DirectAccess Solution site:         http://www.microsoft.com/servers/directaccess.mspx

The next version of System Center Data Protection Manager

The next version of Data Protection Manager, for now they call it DPM v3, is scheduled for 2010. It brings some cool features which lowers the administrative overhead. Back in the early days, the beta of DPM 2007, where manual resyncs where sometimes needed to keep the data in sync. Now DPM v3 brings self-healing and auto retry improvements which helps with this issue. Also protecting SQL Servers on a per instance basis. Meaning when adding a new database it gets protected without intervention. At least if you want this. Also new improvements on client protection. Laptops can be backupped over VPN and copies only unique user data and not the whole OS. Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 are supported. For Windows 7 and Vista integration with local shadow copies giving the end user online and offline restore capabilities. “Role based restore” is an overall feature which can also be used for SQL restores.

Below some highlights:

Improvements on MS Application Protection for Exchange, Sharepoint, SQL Server and now also for Dynamics AX and SAP (running on SQL Server)

• Improvements on the virtualization part which gives a rich set of features for Hyper-V protection like:
  • Live migration and restore
  • Mount to alternate hosts
• Improvements on the client platform which gives more backup en end user restore possibilities.
• More scalability with larger sources (1000 SQL DBs+ per DPM server), auto-discovery and auto protection.
• More reliability with self-healing and auto retry improvements for the data sources.
• DPM to DPM replication which gives more chaining, failover and recoverability improvements.

Main features on a per product basis:

Figure 1:
 

Figure 2:

More to come on this fine product!