Hyper-v.nu
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Apr 18th
The 16th of April 2013 was a really great day for the Hyper-V.nu crew. After a couple of months of preparation we were all looking forward to this next Hyper-v.nu event. It was exciting also… Will all subscribers visit the event, will the visitors like the location, the lunch and the sessions, and so on.
Now some days after the event we can conclude that everything was great. Amply 100 visitors has visit the event, the visitors were really satisfied about the location, the reception, the lunch, the coffee, the presenters, the presentations actually about the whole event! ….and that’s great to see and hear!
A special word of thanks to VX Company, they facilitate a great location and were very hospitable. Also many thanks to the sponsors: Amsio, Comparex, Duvak, Imara ICT, Inovativ, Savision and Wortell.
Then our ‘Beast from Belgium’
Didier van Hoye aka WorkingHardInIT. Still suffering from a jetlag he came over to the Netherlands and present a top session, with deep technical content and a good sense of humor! Thank you Didier!!
Last but not least we thank all visitors for this great event, you all made this a great success.
The presentations are online and you can find them on the following locations:
See you all on our next event!
Apr 18th
Today we, Paul Huijbregts and I, resolved one of the last hurdles in finalizing our automated cluster installation script. This hurdle was to change the priority of the Live Migration settings when creating a Hyper-V cluster.
To change this priority we first tried to use the Set-VMMigrationNetwork PowerShell command. Unfortunately this command can only be used when dealing with non-clustered Hyper-V hosts. So we dug deeper and deeper using different PowerShell commands and BING without any satisfying results.
Then we realized there is something called “the registry” which holds the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Cluster key. After some more digging we found two registry entries called MigrationExcludeNetworks and MigrationNetworkOrder. These entries hold the IDs and order from the Cluster Networks available in your cluster.
Aha … room for possibilities! So, changing these registry entries would order and select the Cluster Networks in the way you want? Yes it does!
For this we fabricated some PowerShell lines.
$ClusterNetworkLM = Get-Clusternetwork LM
$ClusterNetworkCLUSTER = Get-Clusternetwork CLUSTER
$ClusterNetworkMGMT = Get-Clusternetwork MGMT
$ClusterNetworkISCSI = Get-Clusternetwork ISCSI$includeIDs = $ClusterNetworkLM.id + ";" + $ClusterNetworkCLUSTER.id
$excludeIDs = $ClusterNetworkMGMT.id + ";" + $ClusterNetworkISCSI.idSet-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\Cluster\ResourceTypes\Virtual Machine\Parameters" -Name MigrationExcludeNetworks -Value $excludeIDs
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\Cluster\ResourceTypes\Virtual Machine\Parameters" -Name MigrationNetworkOrder -Value $includeIDs
The result is very very satisfying as you can see in the screen dump below. We are now able to control the order and the selection of the Live Migration settings in a cluster using the Cluster Network ID’s.
Apr 17th
In one of the break-out session at the Microsoft Management Summit 2013, which was held last week, an automation toolkit was shown to migrate virtual machines from “the other guys” to Hyper-V. The toolkit makes use of Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter and is part of the Solution Accelerator tools.
The Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter provides a Microsoft-supported, freely available, stand-alone solution for converting “the other guys”-based virtual machines and virtual disks to Hyper-V-based virtual machines and virtual hard disks (VHDs)—including conversion from “the other guys” to Hyper-V on Windows Server 2012. Because MVMC has a fully scriptable command-line interface (CLI), it integrates especially well with data center automation workflows such as those authored and run within Microsoft System Center 2012 – Orchestrator. It can also be invoked through Windows PowerShell.
MVMC provides you with:
MVMC simplifies low-cost, point-and-click migration of Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 R2 with SP2, and Windows Server 2003 with SP2 guest operating systems from VMware to Hyper-V.
The MVMC Automation Toolkit is a collection of PowerShell scripts that will automate conversions using the MVMC.exe. It is back-ended by a SQL instance (SQL Express will work). You can use it to convert several machines at once, on a single server or across many servers at once.
MVMC Automation Toolkit can be considered as a low budget very easy to use toolkit to automate migrates from “the other guys” to Hyper-V. If you want to know more about this tool you have to watch this session!
Apr 12th
The Microsoft Management Summit 2013 just ended and all recorded sessions are already available on Channel9. Whether you are interested in the latest developments, lessons learned by early adopters or in-depth demos these session recordings will provide you with great insight into Private, Hosted and Public Cloud solutions by Microsoft. I did not attend the MMS 2013 and therefore I am very grateful to have access to all this magnificent content online.
As you might have noticed from my previous blogs I have a great interest in Windows Azure for Windows Server. In session WS-B303 Windows Server Virtual Machine: Adding Windows Azure Services Program Managers Marc Umeno and Anjli Chaudhry explain the components, lessons learned (some of them looked very familiar
) and some demos.
One slide caught my attention.
In this slide Marc Umeno talks about an upcoming development in Windows Azure For Windows Server. In the current version user accounts are stored in an ASP.NET membership SQL database. This is a great solution for Service Providers, but (except for the Admin Site) there is no integration with Active Directory.
The product team is working on Active Directory integration for a future release.
What users will logon to the portal with Active Directory accounts? Users from the internal organization.
If you think about it, it is a logical step. Whether self-service users manage their services in Windows Azure, in a hosted cloud or in their own private cloud, they can access them through a uniform portal. It also fits in the roadmap to drive the adoption of Windows Azure in a great way.
Where does this leave System Center App Controller? Maybe the product team working on Windows Azure for Windows Server might be reinforcement with the System Center App Controller product team. At the end of the session Marc Umeno specifies that at TechEd (taking place June 3-6, this year) more information will be disclosed. So stay tuned.
Mar 29th
Microsoft released a very nice poster on VMM 2012 SP1 networking. If you have been thinking “what on earth has happened to networking since the previous release of VMM”, and I can’t blame you if you put it in more stronger wording, then this poster is for you.
After experimenting a lot with VMM 2012 SP1 networking, I am slowly getting more proficient in this area but I can assure you there is a lot of ground to cover.
Posters like this help you get all the pieces together.
I am currently rebuilding our lab using the Logical Switch using uplink port profiles, native port profiles, virtual network adapters and port classifications. It is cool stuff and in the end makes a lot of sense. It’s just the learning curve that is fairly steep.
The other hard thing is that if you have already deployed your Hyper-V clusters using PowerShell for building your NIC Teams and Hyper-V Extensible Switches, it is not possible to just apply a Logical Switch on top of your existing configuration. The only way is to wipe your network configuration or your entire server. A bare metal deployment via VMM 2012 SP1 is probably the best method, including the various VMM integrations you might be able to download from your server hardware vendor. HP has released a nice integration which adds all latest device drivers into the VMM Library.
Mar 27th
This blog series on enabling the Cloud OS with Windows Server and System Center for Hosting Service Providers consists of the following parts
In the previous part of this blog we prepared the Service Management Portal and API for tenant access. This part of the series covers the experience from a tenant point of view.
When a tenant connects to the Tenant Site on the public secure URL (in our example https://portal.hyper-v.nu) the portal presents the login page.
A new tenant can sign up to a public plan by selecting signup in the top right.
When a new tenant selects a plan that was made public, the descriptions we specified earlier are shown. When a new tenant enters an email address, a password and clicks sign up the user account will be created in the SQL database and the tenant logs in to the Tenant Site.
It is possible to create an additional step for a new tenant by specifying an invitation code in the public plan.
When a new tenant selects to sign up to a public plan that has an invitation code specified the user is presented with an additional column Access Code in the portal.
Mar 27th
One of the authors of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Installation and Configuration Guide, Patrick Lownds, is offering the readers of Hyper-V.nu an
exclusive chance to win a signed copy of the book.
All you need to do is start the download of an evaluation copy of Windows Server 2012 by clicking on this link Windows Server 2012 ISO, make a screenshot showing at least 1% of the download of the ISO and send it to:
patrick_lownds@hotmail.com and please also mention Hyper-V.nu
When Patrick has enough responses, your name will be put into a draw and a winner will be selected at random.
Mar 24th
This blog series on enabling the Cloud OS with Windows Server and System Center for Hosting Service Providers consists of the following parts
In the previous part of this blog we installed the Service Management Portal and API. This part of the series covers the post-installation steps to prepare your environment for tenant access. Some of these steps are optional but recommended.
The Service Management Portal and API maps its IAAS objects to components in System Center VMM 2012 SP1. Before we can create the required objects in the Service Management Portal we need to configure some components in System Center VMM 2012 SP1.
Cloud
An offering in the Service Management Portal is defined by a hosting plan. A plan has a one to one mapping to a cloud in System Center VMM 2012 SP1. The minimum requirements for a cloud in System Center VMM 2012 SP1 is a Host Group. To create a cloud open the System Center VMM 2012 SP1 management console. Select VMs and Services in the left bottom menu.
In the top menu select Create Cloud.
In the Create Cloud wizard give a description (for example Gold, Silver or Bronze), select a Host Group and finish the wizard. It is possible to configure additional settings in the Create Cloud wizard, but we will skip these for now.
Hardware Profile
The tenant can change the “hardware” properties of a virtual machine. You can define these settings in Hardware Profiles. To create a Hardware Profile in System Center VMM 2012 SP1 open the Library in the left bottom menu.
In the left menu select Profile > Hardware Profiles. On the top menu select Create and select Hardware Profile.
Mar 21st
If you are in some way dealing with Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 and probably now exploring Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V, you are by no means able to avoid the blogs, whitepapers, books and tweets written by Aidan Finn. In 2010 Aidan asked me to be a technical editor for his Mastering Hyper-V Deployment which I gladly accepted. It was a great step-by-step for implementing Hyper-V R2 and several of the important System Center components. The book was co-authored by Patrick Lownds, Hyper-V MVP and datacenter expert working for HP in London.
About a year later, Aidan approached me again asking if I would be willing to contribute to another book called Microsoft Private Cloud Computing and I did not think about refusing (or should I have). It was my first experience as an author and I wrote up the Fabric chapters of VMM 2012. Aidan laid a nice foundation with his lucid Cloud introduction chapters, Patrick focused on the service management functionality and the VMM Library while Cloud and Datacenter MVP, Damian Flynn wrote a couple of brilliant chapters on private cloud management and integration with App Controller, Service Manager and Orchestrator. It was a fine job we completed in early 2012, the book was published just before the beta of SP1 was announced. We simply didn’t have the opportunity to wait until SP1 was out and digest and explain all the new features that arrived with Windows Server 2012. Fortunately Damian has joined Nigel Cain (who is a Senior Program Manager for Windows Server and System Center) to write a blog series on Technet in eight installments between Jan 2013 until July 2013, just to explain the new Virtual networking technology in VMM 2012 SP1
Another year came and here was Aidan again, asking me to join him on his new venture: the Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Installation and Configuration Guide. Although I really liked the subject and wanted to go into great depth to learn all this cool stuff, I was simply too busy doing all those great Hyper-V and System Center projects for Inovativ. Our family was also heavily burdened by the unfortunate adventures of one of my sons, which more or less influenced me most of 2012.
Writing a book was out of the question.
Convincing as Aidan can be, he said he had his author team complete, again with Damian Flynn and Patrick Lownds plus Michel Luescher, “a virtualization junkie working as a consultant at Microsoft” as he calls himself. The only omission was a technical editor fit for the job. And that’s why he asked me.
I am more than honored to be mentioned quite extensively in the Acknowledgements of the Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V book by each and every author. I really felt like being part of the author team but in the role of both learning, correcting but most of all improving. I remember advising Aidan to split one chapter into two because it was approaching 100 pages, more than twice as much as they had anticipated.
Having been the first reader (and I read the chapters multiple times), I can truly say this is a superb book that anyone interested in the technical secrets of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V should buy. I can guarantee you will not one day regret having bought this book. There were moments I wanted to cry out how good these chapters were, thrilled by the sheer excellence of the product and the very talented explanatory writing in the 600 pages of this Must-have-Hyper-V-version-3 book.
The book can be pre-ordered now and will be published on March 25th. The European release will be April 5th. See the Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Book Release FAQ.
I will not wait till my free copy arrives (Sybex, hope you are reading this) as I have already pre-ordered it myself, but wouldn’t mind a few extra copies to give away.
Mar 20th
As you can see from the screenshot, only a few tickets are left for the Hyper-V.nu event on April 16th, 2013. The event will be presented in Dutch which is unfortunate for several of our followers in the neighboring countries who wanted to attend. I hope to convince my fellow speakers to present in English again so the last 15 tickets could have been easily sold by now. The event is free by the way.
If you already know you cannot make it, please return your tickets!
Thanks!
Hans