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Archive for October, 2010
Moving Hyper-V VM’s to the Azure Cloud
Oct 28th
Bob Muglia at Professional Developers Conference 2010 about Infrastructure As A Service (IAAS):
We bring a VM role to Azure!
You can take Windows Server 2008 R2 image that you’ve built with Hyper-V environment and move that into the Windows Azure environment and run it as is with no changes. Glad to have that feature. Over the next year we will be bringing out Windows Server 2003 and we will be enabling also image creation within the cloud, so we are treating this as something that helps you take your existing applications forward. We again believe very strongly as the destination for an applications are inside Windows Azure roles, but we know that many of you have applications there that need some work in order to maintain or may not be worth taking that step as of having this Infrastructure as a Service feature as a helpful transition there.
Server Application Virtualization: Server App-V
If you are familiar with App-V on the Windows client Server App-V takes an existing Windows application that writes to the registry and does a whole lengthy complicated install process and it packages it into a file, which can essentially be xcopied onto a desktop. We’ve taken that technology and now built it for the server environment and for the Windows Azure cloud environment and what it does it lets you take an existing application and then deploy that app without going through its installation process into a Windows Azure worker role. We think it is a very exciting way to help you get compatibility with existing Windows Server applications in the cloud environment.
I wrote about this nearly one year ago:
http://hyper-v.nu/blogs/hans/?p=154
SCVMM and Hyper-V check with VMMCA
Oct 28th
In his blog War Room – notes from the field, Hugo Ferreira writes about what the VMM 2008 and 2008 R2 Configuration Analyzer (VMMCA) checks. It is updated for October 2010.
Check his blog for all details:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/hugofe/archive/2010/10/28/october-list-of-vmm-failover-cluster-hyper-v-updates.aspx
Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Release Candidate now available
Oct 26th
Just got news that SP1 Release Candidate is ready for download:
Today, Microsoft has made available a Release Candidate (RC) for Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. SP1 includes both a roll-up of operating system updates and several new capabilities for Windows Server.
Microsoft RemoteFX introduces a new set of remote user experience capabilities that enable a media-rich user environment for virtual and session-based desktops. RemoteFX can be deployed to a range of thick and thin client devices, enabling cost-effective, local-like access to graphics-intensive applications. RemoteFX also supports a broad array of USB peripherals to improve the productivity of users of virtual desktops.
SP1 also includes Dynamic Memory, which enables servers running Hyper-V for server virtualization, to be more efficient in the use of memory. Dynamic Memory pools and distributes memory among the virtual machines running on a physical host, enabling higher consolidation ratios, increasing server utilization rates, and providing more flexible workload management. Furthermore, memory is dynamically added based on the demands of the current workloads and without service interruption.
Expect to see Service Pack 1 released in its final form during first quarter 2011 and whether you’re virtualizing servers or desktops, take a few minutes to learn more about Service Pack 1 here. You needn’t wait for SP1, however – you can join those already enjoying the benefits of Windows Server 2008 R2 by deploying today.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/sp1.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/trial-software.aspx
Learn about HP Virtual Connect and build your private cloud (or use ours)
Oct 21st
From the following location you can apply for downloading the e-book
HP Virtual Connect for Dummies:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/blades/virtualconnect/connectfordummies/regForm.html
Especially the Virtual Connect Flex-10 version has been invaluable for us in many Hyper-V projects where high bandwidth, flexibility and abundance of network adapter ports is crucial. Many of our customers have become convinced of using this very flexible network product in HP Blade Enclosures. I can very safely recommend this wonderful piece of technology (No, I don’t work for HP but I do work for a longstanding HP Partner in the Netherlands). We have built our Nobel Cloud Services based on this technology. We also help customers build their own private cloud for which HP Virtual Connect can be major building block.
New generation: HP virtual Connect FlexFabric
The future has even more flexibility in store: HP FlexFabric which can be used in HP’s Converged Infrastructure Architecture which is based on emerging industry standards like Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE), Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FcOE) and Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregation (VEPA):
http://hpbroadband.com/(S(3fh0c145qs4koqiw52sgkx55))/program.aspx?key=ONMSSSDIKG
QuickSpecs: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13652_div/13652_div.pdf
Cluster Team Events at TechEd 2010 Berlin
Oct 14th
The Microsoft Cluster Team and several partner teams will deliver several presentations on High Availability & Clustering solutions. Here are the session numbers with the names of the presenters and an abstract of the session. Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/clustering/archive/2010/10/14/10076044.aspx
I’ve decided not to go this year and save up for the MVP Summit 2011 and MMS 2011.
VIR309 – Disaster Recovery by Stretching Hyper-V Clusters Across Sites
Tuesday, November 9 | 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Virtualization
Speaker(s): Symon Perriman, Edwin van Mierlo
As servers are consolidated into VMs, the availability of those VMs is becoming increasingly important in providing disaster tolerance and business continuance. This session covers considerations of multi-site clustering, where virtual machines can be configured on a Hyper-V Failover Cluster that reaches across sites. This session also covers conducting live migrations across datacenters, and considerations of Cluster Shared Volumes with replication software.
WSV203-IS – Failover Clustering 101: Everything you Wanted to Know but were Afraid to Ask
Thursday, November 11 | 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Session Type: Interactive Session
Track: Windows Server
Speaker(s): Symon Perriman
Want to learn about Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Clustering for the first time? We will show you how to build a highly-available File Server and Hyper-V cluster in just a few simple steps, while answering any and all of your questions. We will cover planning, licensing, virtualization, support, validation, hardware, networking considerations, building a cluster, deploying workloads on a cluster, and deploying virtual machines on a cluster. No prior clustering knowledge is needed!
WSV306-IS – Failover Clustering with Hyper-V Unleashed in Windows Server 2008 R2
Wednesday, November 10 | 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Session Type: Interactive Session
Track: Windows Server
Speaker(s): Symon Perriman & Cluster MVPs
This is a free-form session that will demo, whiteboard and discuss what’s on YOUR MIND! Share the pain you have using Failover Clustering with Hyper-V, ask difficult questions or let us know why some customers avoid clustering even when there is a need to implement a high availability solution. Get the answers you need, directly from the world’s leading clustering experts.
WSV313 – Failover Clustering in 2008 R2: What’s New in the #1 High-Availability Solution
Friday, November 12 | 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Windows Server
Speaker(s): Symon Perriman
Learn about what makes Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Clustering the top Server High-Availability solution! Clustering has changed in every area since 2003, so in this technical session you will learn about Hyper-V, Live Migration, validation, flexible hardware requirements, easy deployment, migration, Cluster Shared Volumes multi-site clustering and easier management. A live demo will deploy a 2008 R2 Failover Cluster from scratch. Clustering knowledge recommended.
WSV403 – Failover Clustering & Hyper-V: Planning your Highly-Available Virtualization Environment
Wednesday, November 10 | 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM
Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Windows Server
Speaker(s): Symon Perriman, Joachim Nasslander
This technical session will discuss Hyper-V and Failover Clustering live migration, deployment considerations, licensing, upgrades, host clustering, guest clustering, disaster recovery, multi-site clustering, System Center Virtual Machine Manager, hardware and validation. What are the pros and cons of each virtualization solution? What’s right for my customers and their scenarios? What about combining physical and virtual machines in the same cluster? This session will include a live demo of a Hyper-V Cluster deployment and live migration.
WSV01-HOL – Implementing High Availability
Session Type: Hands-on Lab
Track: Windows Server
This top-rated lab introduces the process for creating highly available services using Windows Server 2008 R2 cluster technologies, as well as basic administration tasks with new clustering PowerShell Cmdlets.
Partner Team Events
DAT210 – Mission Critical: High Availability Overview
Tuesday, November 9 | 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Database Platform
More information coming soon.
DAT211 – Mission Critical: Comparing High-Availability Solutions
Tuesday, November 9 | 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM
Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Database Platform
More information coming soon
DAT212 – Mission Critical: Improving High-Availability
Wednesday, November 10 | 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Database Platform
More information coming soon.
DAT303-I
S – Performance Scalability and Reliability on Mission Critical Applications with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2
Wednesday, November 10 | 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Session Type: Interactive Session
Track: Database Platform
Speaker(s): Lonnye Bower, Nitasha Chopra
Join us on a walk-through of the steps we took to improve performance of a SQL Server 2008 R2 Tier 1 Mission Critical Core Banking application by more than 30% . Learn the processes we followed that resulted in:
· A world record number of transactions per second (tps), compared to other database platforms, for an ISV Partner application (specifics about the ISV and the application will be shared in the session as the details are pending public release)
· Improving performance to push SQL Server to execute over 120,000 batches per second (YES! That’s 120K batches per second!)
· Overcoming the issues we encountered during the exercise
You will garner tips and tricks used by Microsoft’s SQL Performance Group and SQL Server Customer Advisory Team (SQLCAT) to optimize mission critical customer applications. You will also be able to review the different hardware architectures (based on the Intel® Xeon® processor 7500 series) involved in the exercise and the limits that were pushed by each. At the end of this session, you will receive several simple takeaways to help you obtain better levels of performance out of your enterprise implementations.
MGT201-LNC – Managing Your Virtual Environments
Thursday, November 11 | 1:20 PM – 2:05 PM
Session Type: Lunchtime Session
Track: Management
Speaker(s): Kenon Owens, Michael Michael
Grab your lunch and bring your questions. Join Management and Virtualization Experts for a ‘No Holds Barred’ Question and Answer Session on how Microsoft can help you manage your virtualization environment in the datacenter. This session will highlight some of the new capabilities of System Center and Windows Server 2008 as we answer your questions candidly on topics including: Disaster Recovery and Availability; Virtual Machine Sprawl; how Virtualization can assist in my Service Oriented World; Server Application Virtualization; and Transitioning to Private and Public Clouds.
PRC05 – Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 High Availability and Disaster Recovery – Be Prepared
Monday, November 8 | 9:00 AM – 3:30 PM
Session Type: Pre-Conference Seminar
Track: Unified Communications
Speaker(s): Vladimir Meloski
Microsoft Exchange Server is a business-critical system for many organizations. This workshop will provide you with knowledge on how to respond to the challenges of managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 high availability, and how to address any disaster recovery scenario. You will also learn about deploying healthy and performance optimized Exchange Organization.
The topics will include:
· Planning for high available network and site environment
· Planning for hardware and storage technologies
· Planning Active Directory for Exchange Organization
· Planning and deploying high availability for mailbox server roles, using Database Availability Groups
· Planning and deploying high availability for non-mailbox server roles, using software or hardware Network Load Balancing and Client Access Arrays for Client Access Server role, as well as strategies for Hub Transport, Edge and Unified Messaging server roles
· Planning for site resilience, and the steps needed to switchover successfully to an alternative disaster recovery site
You will find out how to implement efficient backup and restore strategies, for both mailbox and non-mailbox server roles, using Windows Server Backup and Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2010, but also discover how you might choose to run backup-less Exchange Organization and use raid-less and JBOD storage technologies for mailbox server roles. You will learn about the techniques on how to test and verify your high availability and disaster recovery strategies, including scenarios from disk to site failure. After completing this workshop you will know best practices for implementing high availability, and for providing healthy, reliable and optimized Exchange Organization.
UNC303 – Microsoft Lync Server 2010 : Voice Architecture and Planning for High Availability
Thursday, November 11 | 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Unified Communications
Speaker(s): Jamie Stark, Sundereshwaran Raman
The Lync Server team has made a significant investment in high availability with the upcoming release. In this session we review the new Survivable Branch Appliance offering for branch office resiliency, the new features for data center-based multi-site failover, and intra-site architecture for high availability.
UNC321-IS – Microsoft Exchange 2010 SP1 High Availability: Ask The Experts
Thursday, November 11 | 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Session Type: Interactive Session
Track: Unified Communications
Speaker(s): Ross Smith IV, Scott Schnoll
Do you have questions about high availability or site resilience in Exchange Server 2010 SP1? Ross Smith IV, Principal Program Manager, and Scott Schnoll, Principal Technical Writer, will be on hand to answer your questions.
Curious about design considerations? Wondering about networking requirements? Thinking about deployment options? This session is intended to be highly interactive and completely Q&A driven, so bring your questions and join in the fun.
UNC401 – Microsoft Exchange Server 2010: High Availability Deep Dive (including changes introduced by SP1)
Thursday, November 11 | 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Unified Communications
Speaker(s): Scott Schnoll
Go beyond the basics of Exchange high availability and gain a s
olid understanding of what’s going on under the hood in an Exchange 2010 database availability group. This session dives deep into the inner workings of continuous replication, Active Manager, best copy selection, quorum and witness, lagged copies, DAG networks, DAC mode and built-in monitoring and management scripts.
VIR302-IS – Understanding How Microsoft Virtualization Compares to VMware
Thursday, November 11 | 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Session Type: Interactive Session
Track: Virtualization
Speaker(s): David Greschler, Edwin Yuen
This is a must-see session for anyone who is comparing VMware with Microsoft’s virtualization offerings. We will review Microsoft’s technology compared to VMware, focusing on what differentiates the two technologies. The session will also cover effective strategies for integrating Microsoft virtualization into datacenter environments, and review one company’s experience with implementing Microsoft virtualization. If you need to know how the Microsoft virtualization stack compares to VMware’s, this is the session for you!
VIR321 – Advanced Storage Infrastructure Best Practices to Enable Ultimate Hyper-V Scalability
Tuesday, November 9 | 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Sponsor Sessions
Speaker(s): Txomin Barturen
This session will address how Microsoft and EMC technologies work together to deliver scalable and reliable enterprise deployments of Microsoft virtualization. Working together, Microsoft and EMC tested the scalability of up to 16 node Hyper-V clusters on the EMC Symmetrix storage platform. Topics to be covered include optimization and characterization of Microsoft Hyper-V for large scale highly-available deployments, as well as performance and optimization of the EMC Symmetrix. Technical details and lessons learned from the tested solution will be covered.
Update for Vulnerability in Windows shared cluster disks could allow tampering
Oct 13th
On October 12, 2010 Microsoft released security bulletin MS10-086 which resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Windows Server 2008 R2 when used as a shared failover cluster.
The vulnerability exposes the administrative shares of failover cluster disks. Non-clustered Windows 2008 R2 servers are NOT affected.
More information can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS10-086.mspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2294255
Effects of offline System Partition on Hyper-V cluster node (updated)
Oct 4th
One of my colleagues noticed rather strange behavior with one of the Windows Server 2008 R2 servers which is part of a 7-node Hyper-V cluster built with HP BL460c G6 blade servers. This behavior showed up during host level backups of Hyper-V virtual machines.
What problems were observed?
-
The System Reserved Partition did not have a label and was offline after a reboot
-
A CSV could be offline if it was owned by this particular cluster node
These problems could be temporarily solved by assigning a drive letter. Oddly enough Disk Manager and Diskpart did not agree with each other about the disk being online or offline. In Diskpart the problematic partition would show offline and in Disk Manager it was online. It would show offline if the disk had no label:
Without a disk label: 
With a disk label: ![clip_image002[5]](http://hyper-v.nu/blogs/hans/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/clip_image0025.jpg "clip_image002[5]")
Other symptoms:
-
Host level (external) backups of Hyper-V child partitions failed (while internal backups of VM’s with a backup agents would succeed)
-
During this external backup multiple VHD’s are created but apparently nothing is written to it.
Ultimately the Hyper-V VSS writer faults with a non-tryable error. However, if we move the VM to another host, the backup completes successfully.
Multiple attempts to solve this problem were made:
-
Evict node from cluster and rejoin cluster
-
Remove backup agent (DPM2010) and add it again
-
Remove Server Backup feature and add it again
-
Remove DPM2010 Protection Group and recreate it
-
Backup with and without label on reserved partition
So far the only option left was to reinstall the server.
Just by coincidence I found a recent KB article called “System Partition goes offline on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 after installing some 3rd Party Disk or Storage Management Software” dated September 29, 2010: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2419286/
This article names three issues:
Issue 1:
Hyper-V Role Cannot be Installed “Failure configuring Windows features”
Issue 2:
“Failed to prepare storage for testing on node 1 status 87” during Cluster Validation
Issue 3
“The boot configuration data store could not be opened. The system cannot find the file specified.
In our case it was issue 2 that troubled us.
The resolution was to online the System Reserved Partition:
Diskpart
List volume
Select volume n (n= the 100MB system partition)
Online volume
Exit
Or from Disk Management:
Diskmgmt.msc
Select the 100MB volume and Right-Click it
Change drive letter & path
Assign a drive letter
This is something we had already found out. The bad thing is that it returns after a reboot.
We checked the following:
-
No 3rd party disk or storage management software is installed
-
No anti-virus software is installed on the cluster node
______________________________________________________________
Update: October 6, 2010
Talking to several people in my network we’ve come up with the following (partial and possibly full) solutions:
-
Assign a drive letter, and leave it during a reboot: result was that system partition kept online, but the host level backup of guest partitions with DPM 2010 failed (this idea was presented by several people, a.o. Kurt Roggen and an engineer at Microsoft)
-
Run a chkdsk /r on the system drive (part of solution) and run the system readiness tool which replaces the corrupt mum files from a fully functional Hyper-V host to the one that was having issues:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947821 (this tip was presented by Annur Sumar)
Unfortunately we were pressured to get the host running again so we just reinstalled it. That is solution #3 and although not very efficient, one that works in almost all situations 
So thanks for the great feedback to all that contributed!
Mastering Hyper-V Deployment Book Available
Oct 1st
My fellow MVP Aidan Finn wrote it. I had the honor to be technical editor for it.
As Amazon promotes it:
The only book to take an in-depth look at deploying Hyper-V
Now in its second generation, the popular Hyper-V boasts technical advances that create even more dynamic systems than ever before. This unique resource serves an authoritative guide to deploying Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V comprehensively. Step-by-step instructions demonstrate how to design a Hyper-V deployment, build a Hyper-V host environment, and design a management system with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2.
Features real-world examples that show you how to design a Hyper-V deployment, build a Hyper-V host environment, and design a management system
Walks you through incorporating System Center Operations Manager 2008 R2, System Center Data Protection Manager 2010, and System Center Essentials 2010
Offers authoritative coverage of Hyper-V security, business continuity, and an array of VM roles, including domain controllers, Exchange Server, SQL Server, and System CenterThis in-depth guide is the ultimate resource for system administrators, engineers, and architects, and IT consultants deploying Hyper-V.
You can order it from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0470876530?tag=b4b-ja-20#lbhuc_926689
Or from Comcol.nl:
http://www.comcol.nl/detail/72198.htm
Windows Server 2008 R2 Feature Components Poster
Oct 1st
With thanks to @JavierGM here is a link to a similar feature poster as the Hyper-V R2 poster which appeared recently:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=64A5CC28-F8A1-4B30-A4A2-455C65BDA8D7&displaylang=en
Topics:
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory Domain Services
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V
- Windows Server 2008 R2 File Services
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Internet Information Services
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services
- Windows Server 2008 R2 BranchCache
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Management
- Windows Server 2008 R2 DirectAccess
Hotfix for a specific problem with backup applications on Windows Server 2008 R2 clusters
Oct 1st
This hotfix is only for the described symptoms:
If you see that the Cluster services stops responding in a Windows Server 2008 R2 cluster while some backup application that use VSS in parallel, you might solve this with hotfix KB2277439.
Cause:
This issue occurs because of a race condition between the calls of the VSS writer on the cluster. If an OnBackupShutdown method call occurs between an OnFreeze method call and an OnThaw method call, the lock on the cluster hive is not released. Therefore, a deadlock occurs, and the Cluster service stops responding.
If you are using Hyper-V R2 cluster with CSV, install this hotfix on the coordinator node.
With respect to parallel backups of Hyper-V Virtual Machines with DPM 2010, I can refer to a very helpful blog by Matthew Hodgkins: Enabling Serialized Hyper-V Virtual Machine Backups in DPM 2010 RC
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