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Archive for March, 2011
March – Monthly overview new released KB articles
Mar 31st
Every day Microsoft is releasing knowledge base articles and hotfixes to explain, fix and improve the possible bugs present in their products. This post gives you an
overview of all released knowledge base articles and hotfixes for the month: MARCH 2011.
The knowledge base articles and hotfixes in this post are related to Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008. Updates can be for RTM or R2 versions, with or without SP1.
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 RTM/R2/SP1
Windows Server 2008 RTM/R2/SP1
System Center Roadmap 2011
Mar 29th
During Microsoft Management Summit we were shown the roadmap for System Center 2012. As you can see for most products there is or will be a beta by mid 2011. During the second half of 2011 all System Center 2012 members will RTM.
I cannot but conclude that Microsoft is well up-to-speed and will deliver on their promises.
SCVMM 2012 – Deep Storage Integration
Mar 26th
Many new cool functionalities were added to SCVMM 2012. In this blog I focus on the very deep Storage integration which can be accessed from the Fabric wunderbar.
One of the new features in SCVMM 2012 is integration with SAN storage arrays. The primary reason for this is of course there is not much point in building a Hyper-V Private Cloud without some sort of Fibre Channel, iSCSI or Shared SAS based type of shared storage.
Very much focusing on the standards that are available, Microsoft decided to employ the SMI-S Provider for this purpose, with VDS as a temporary option for backwards compatibility. Apart from managing software I had not had the pleasure to work with SMI-S before and I guess it is new for most of my readers. So let me first delve into what SMI-S really is.
Upgrading from SCVMM2008R2 RC to SP1
Mar 25th
When upgrading from SCVMM2008R2 RC version to SP1 you need an additional tool that changes the database used by the RC version.
The tool is called UpgradeVMMR2SP1RC.exe and can be downloaded here.
Before you start make a backup of your SCVMM database! After this run the tool and than upgrade the Server component of SCVMM2008R2. The other components can be upgraded in the same way the RC version is installed.
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1 RC Upgrade Tool
Use this tool to upgrade your VMM 2008 R2 SP1 RC database.
Usage: UpgradeVMMR2SP1RC.exe -server -database
Example (named SQL instance):
UpgradeVMMR2SP1RC.exe -server VMMDB01\MICROSOFT$VMM$ -database VirtualManagerDB
Example (default SQL instance):
UpgradeVMMR2SP1RC.exe -server VMMDB01 -database VirtualManagerDB
A full description in how to use this tool can be found here: Migrating to VMM 2008 R2 SP1 from VMM 2008 R2 SP1 RC.
Creating a Cloud in 90 seconds with VMM 2012
Mar 25th
In this video Kenon Owens is interviewed by Symon Perriman, talking about creating a Private Cloud with Virtual Machine Manager in less than 90 seconds! Symon is the guy with the stop-watch!
Go and see this cool video (contains a demo towards the end):
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/mms-90-seconds-to-the-cloud-virtual-machine-manager-2012-beta-with-kenon-owens
Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals
Mar 25th
Microsoft Virtualization for VMWare Professionals – Free Online Classes – March 29-31
By Elden Christensen
Just one week after Microsoft Management Summit 2011 (MMS), Microsoft Learning will be hosting an exclusive three-day Jump Start class specially tailored for VMware and Microsoft virtualization technology pros. Registration for “Microsoft Virtualization for VMware Professionals” is open now and will be delivered as a FREE online class on March 29-31, 2010 from 10:00am-4:00pm PDT.
On March 29th we will spend 2 hours focusing on Microsoft’s high-availability solutions for Virtualization using Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Clustering. Learn about cluster planning, deployment, management, System Center integration and disaster recovery using multi-site clustering.
What’s New in Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1
Mar 24th
Okay, more Virtual Machine Manager News! SP1 for System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 is OUT!
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (VMM 2008) is a comprehensive management solution for managing virtualized infrastructure running on Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V, Virtual Server 2005 R2 and VMware ESX through Virtual Center. With the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, significant feature improvements were made to Hyper-V—the underlying hypervisor platform.
VMM 2008 R2 SP1 – the next version of VMM – has been released. VMM 2008 R2 SP1 leverages the new platform enhancements and extends the feature set of VMM 2008 R2. This overview highlights the most important new and significantly enhanced features in VMM 2008 R2 SP1:
Support for new features of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
- Dynamic Memory: Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V supports Dynamic Memory enabling customers to better utilize the memory resources of a Hyper-V host. VMM 2008 R2 SP1 allows administrators to create and deploy Virtual Machines onto Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V hosts and will report on the memory currently in use for these VMs where Dynamic Memory is enabled. Using Dynamic Memory for supported VMs allows for more efficient utilization of memory, with consistent performance, and higher consolidation ratios.
- Microsoft RemoteFX: Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 introduces a new set of end user experience enhancements with Microsoft RemoteFX. VMM 2008 R2 SP1 allows administrators to create and deploy Virtual Machines with RemoteFX enabled to qualified Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V hosts. This enables a rich, local-like desktop environment over the network.
Download Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1
Dutch DPM guy Ruud Baars passed away
Mar 24th
Just when I arrived in Las Vegas, I was contacted by my fellow MVP at Hyper-V.nu, Jaap Wesselius, who informed me that Ruud Baars, senior consultant at the Microsoft Core IO Team and very much involved with the Microsoft Data Protection Manager product, has died from lung cancer.
In our many contacts over DPM, Ruud has been invaluable to me as well as my colleagues and customers, helping to understand the product better. Ruud was just about always available for answering questions or talking over designs.
I will sincerely miss him. I wish Ruud’s relatives and friends all the strength with this dreadful loss.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/archive/2011/03/21/rest-in-peace-ruud-baars.aspx?PageIndex=2#comments
SCVMM 2012 Beta & Dynamic Memory
Mar 23rd
When installing the beta of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 I ran into the problem where the installation needs at leased 2G of RAM. My VM only got a startup amount of RAM of 512MB because of the limit amount of available RAM in the Hyper-V host. Actually I gave the VM the dynamic amount of 512MB to 4GB.
Solution is easy! Shut down the VM, give it a fixed amount of RAM for installing SCVMM2012 Beta and afterwards change it back to the dynamic amount of memory you would like it to use!
Funny that it only needs to see 2Gb of RAM, it doesn’t actually uses it! Also when you address a dynamic range of 2-4Gb memory it will give you an warning message but it will continue installing
I also needed to fix the IIS problem. What I really do not understand that when you start the installer of SCVMM 2012 Beta you are asked if it is ok to install .Net 3.5.1 Framework. Why not do this for IIS also? Might be an option to at least give the option to install the correct version. You also need to install Windows® Automated Installation Kit (AIK) which can be found WAIK.
A full list of the requirements can be found here.
Installing SCVMM 2012
Mar 23rd
Today I was lucky enough to have some time for installing System Center Virtual Machnine Manager (SCVMM) 2012 and have a first look at it! Although I’ve read the pre-requisites for installing SCVMM 2012 I didn’t follow them up so I can see what the installation wizard is doing when these requirements aren’t met…. So let’s rock and roll:
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