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Archive for December, 2011
Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) 6.5 available!
Dec 7th
The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit is an agentless, automated, multi-product planning and assessment tool for quicker and easier desktop and server migrations. MAP provides detailed readiness assessment reports and executive proposals with extensive hardware and software information, and actionable recommendations to help organizations accelerate their IT infrastructure planning process, and gather more detail on assets that reside within their current environment. MAP also provides private and public cloud planning assessments, and server utilization data for Hyper-V server virtualization planning; identifying server placements, and performing virtualization candidate assessments, including ROI analysis for server consolidation with Hyper-V. Other significant new features in MAP 6.5 include the discovery of active Windows devices, Software Usage Tracking for Forefront Endpoint Protection (FEP), and the discovery of Oracle instances on Itanium-based servers with HP-UX to assist in the planning of migration to SQL Server.
MAP is one of the tools provided by the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and Security Compliance Manager provide tested guidance and automated tools to help organizations plan, securely deploy, and manage new Microsoft technologies—easier, faster, and at less cost. All are freely available, and fully-supported by Microsoft
Download Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) 6.5 here
Live online training: Failover Clustering with Hyper-V
Dec 2nd
Designing a Highly Available Infrastructure for the Private Cloud
If you are new to Hyper-V and building a highly available infrastructure for the Private Cloud then don’t miss this free session by Symon Perriman and Elden Christensen on December 6, 2011. Symon was our Cluster MVP lead until early 2011 before he became a Technical Evangelist for Private Cloud traveling the globe and spreading the word. Elden is still going strong in the Cluster product team in Building 34 working as a Principal Program Manager Lead for Clustering.
If you can spare the time, I warmly recommend their 3-hour training which includes:
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Module 1 – Introduction to clustering
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Module 2 – Hyper-V high-availability
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Module 3 – Private Cloud HA (System Center, Multi-Site).
Go and register as soon as you can!
Updated Linux Integration Services for Hyper-V Version 3.2
Dec 2nd
[Update: from Mike Sterling’s mail detailing the changes since version 3.1]
Microsoft released an updated version of Linux Integration Services for Hyper-V v3.2 and can be found here: http://207.46.154.156/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=216de3c4-f598-4dff-8a4e-257d4b7a1c12
When installed on a virtual machine that is running a supported Linux operating system, Linux Integration Services for Hyper-V provides the following functionality:
- Driver support: Linux Integration Services supports the network controller and the IDE and SCSI storage controllers that were developed specifically for Hyper-V.
- Fastpath Boot Support for Hyper-V: Boot devices now take advantage of the block Virtualization Service Client (VSC) to provide enhanced performance.
- Time sync: The clock inside the virtual machine will remain synchronized with the clock on the virtualization server with the help of the pluggable time source device.
- Integrated Shutdown: Virtual machines running Linux can be shut down from either Hyper-V Manager or System Center Virtual Machine Manager by using the “Shut Down” command.
- Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) Support: Supported Linux distributions can use up to 4 virtual processors (VP) per virtual machine. SMP support is not available for 32-bit Linux guest operating systems running on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V or Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008.
- Heartbeat: Allows the virtualization server to detect whether the virtual machine is running and responsive.
KVP (Key Value Pair) Exchange: Information about the running Linux virtual machine can be obtained by using the Key Value Pair exchange functionality on the Windows Server 2008 virtualization server. - Integrated Mouse Support: The cursor is no longer bound to the VMConnect window when used with the Linux Graphical User Interface.
These are the changes since version 3.1:
- Synthetic Mouse Support: The virtualized mouse device is no longer bound to the VMConnect window, and can now be used with a RDP session.
- Merged Device Drivers: We now present a single device driver for both IDE and SCSI devices (hv_storvsc).
- Windows 8 Fix: The synthetic network device (hv_netvsc) can now be used with a Windows 8 host, eliminating the hang on boot that was previously seen.
- SCVMM Fix: This release fixes the issue as described in KB2586286.
- Improved Setup Experience: Users now only need to run install.sh (as root) to automatically detect the correct architecture and install the appropriate drivers.
Jaap Wesselius interviews Hans Vredevoort on Windows 8
Dec 2nd
Just before //build/ NGN invited the Hyper-V.nu crew over for a series of interviews. Jaap Wesselius who originally started the Hyper-V usergroup accepted the role of the interviewer. Peter Noorderijk, Maarten Wijsman and myself were asked to answer Jaap’s questions. Before you start clicking the links …. the interviews are in Dutch, so unless you want to pick up a few words of our beautiful language, head over to some of the other interviews that fellow MVP Carsten Rachfahl held with me this year:
In one of the previous blog you might already have seen the link to the interview with Peter Noorderijk’s on Hyper-V: http://www.ngn.nl/ngn/weblogs/hyper-v-blog/hyper-v-interview-met-peter-noorderijk/?waxtrapp=ybinfpBsHyoOtvOXEGAH
Today also my interview was published on the site of our NGN friends:
http://www.ngn.nl/ngn/weblogs/hyper-v-blog/hyper-v-interview-met-hans-vredevoort/?waxtrapp=okashpBsHyoOtvOXEGAJ
Topics: Windows 8, Hyper-V v3, storage, networking, live storage migration, VMM 2012
We expect the 3rd interview by Jaap with Maarten Wijsman to be published in the near future.
Camera work and editing by Ed Wens
SCVMM 2012 failover cluster, EventID 1 and 19999
Dec 1st
Today I encountered an issue that some might categorize as “DUH!”. For others it might be a handy tip and a warning to not install SCVMM 2012 RC in a high availability configuration as I did. This configuration was not intended to be this way but for some reason I ended up with it. Lucky me!
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