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Archive for May, 2012
The Experts Conference US 2012
May 24th
VKernel’s Mattias Sundling discusses The Expert Conference event with MVPs Hans Vredevoort and Anil Desai. Topics include highlights of the technical sessions presented by Microsoft, Quest and industry experts as well as updates and highlights of Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V3 advances.
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQF6Gguwb8M
VKernel’s Mattias Sundling discusses The Expert Conference event with MVPs Hans Vredevoort and Anil Desai. Topics include highlights of the technical sessions presented by Microsoft, Quest and industry experts as well as updates and highlights of Windows Server 2012 and Hyper-V3 advances.
http://www.vkernel.com/podreader/items/top-features-hyper-v-3-windows-server-2012
Jump Starting Windows Server 2012
May 24th
With a new operating system around the corner there is an awful lot to learn. The release candidate of Windows Server 2012 that is expected in the first week of June contains a wealth of new features you have most likely already heard about. I have been able to test a large number of very rich features including Hyper-V, File & Storage and Networking. It is very hard to touch everything in a short period.
Therefore I strongly advise you to register for this Windows Server 2012 Jumpstart which is a two day live virtual class presented by Rick Claus and Corey Hynes.
Day One
Morning | Beyond Virtualization
• Game changers in the next release of the Hyper-V role on Windows Server 2012
• Massive scale increases, networking improvements, replication and disaster recovery is all in the box
Afternoon | Manageability
• Learn how you can manage a few systems up to a hundred – all from one console
• Server Core installs scaring you off? Learn about all your installation and management options
• Windows PowerShell automation and management at scale – all with built in tools
• Clustering—Cluster-aware updating
• Networking, Network Teaming, network configuration, SMB MultiChannel and RDMA
Day Two
Morning | Storage
• Learn how Continuous Availability of File Services improves workload reliability and performance
• Storage groups, disk provisioning, iSCSI and SAN integration
Afternoon | Remote Users
• Remote connectivity options for your workforce (DA)
• VDI and Remote Desktop Services deployment and changes
You can find more details here:
http://borntolearn.mslearn.net/btl/b/weblog/archive/2012/05/23/new-jump-start-who-s-ready-for-windows-2012-register-now.aspx
Whitepaper with some important Hyper-V best practices
May 14th
A while ago Savision asked me if I would help to write a whitepaper about Hyper-V best practices for them. Of course I said yes to this request and wrote some chapters for the whitepaper. Last week we’ve made the whitepaper final.
This whitepaper is neither a tutorial nor step-by-step handbook for common problems. Rather, this whitepaper provides one with the wisdom of the smartest, cutting edge Hyper-V administrators. It’s just a whitepaper with some tips, guidelines and best practices for a Hyper-V environment.
You can download the whitepaper over here: http://www2.savision.com/l/12082/2012-05-08/smvd
VSS Crash-Consistent vs Application-Consistent VSS Backups (2)
May 8th
This second blog by Altaro dealing with Hyper-V backup discusses when Application-Consistent Backup is vital for proper recovery or not. What if a VSS Writer is not available for a particular application? What are the general requirements for Application-Consistent Backups in Hyper-V? What are the Special Considerations for Cluster Shared Volumes?
When is Application-Consistent Backup Vital? Not all situations require an application-consistent backup. Things such as file and print servers will be fine with crash-consistent and possibly inconsistent backups. If your application doesn’t provide a VSS writer, there might not even be a way to get an application-consistent backup of it while its containing machine is live. The most common need for application-consistent backups is the usage of database-backed applications.
The full blog can be found here:
http://www.altaro.com/blog/vss-crash-consistent-vs-application-consistent-vss-backups-post-2-of-2/
HP ProLiant Gen8 Tech Day 1 – Customer Inspired Innovation
May 8th
Today was the first of a 2-day HP ProLiant Gen8 Tech Day in Houston. The ten bloggers who were invited are all from the US except for me. Some of them I have met from other HP events like HP Discover in 2011 and an event in Madrid in the same year. Since I moved to Inovativ which is a 100% System Center & Hyper-V consultancy firm, hardware hasn’t been so much of an issue for me. You deal with whatever server, network or storage hardware the customer has. When I worked for a system integrator, HP was the one and only vendor we worked with, so I can say I know the product range quite well. It was surely a fantastic opportunity to come to Houston and be brought up to speed on the new HP ProLiant Gen8 server family.
We had a couple of really interesting sessions today, both from marketing and technical folks at HP. One good introductory presentation was by Gary Thorne (VP Strategy Industry Standard Servers and Software). Gary’s presentation was on Transforming the server experience with customer-inspired innovation. Most of the changes you will see in the Gen8 stem from over 100.000 customer interactions. Whenever there was a server down situation, HP would ask the customer to detail the problems so HP could learn from them. After all, the aim is to get the most amount of uptime with the least amount of effort, speed deployment of systems and deliver the desired performance. This is not something you get after just one round of interviewing customers. It is more like a multi-year project and it takes a large budget for R&D. HP spent $300M on R&D which is at least twice the amount spent on the previous generation.
HP ProLiant Gen8 Tech Tour
May 6th
Tomorrow I will fly to Houston from San Diego where I have been staying for a few days after a great TEC2012 event. HP asked me to join them for their HP ProLiant Gen8 Tech Tour. Coming all the way from Europe just for the 2 days would have been crazy, but as I was in the neighborhood (3 hour flight) HP’s invitation was a good opportunity to find out about the latest HP ProLiant server generation.
I have quite a history with HP servers, dating all the way back to the first true PC based server, the Compaq SystemPro back in 1989. The first HP ProLiant generation I remember is the ProLiant 1000 ranging to the ProLiant 5000 which supported nothing less than 4GB of memory. Without going into too much of history, many readers are more likely to remember the DL/ML/BL series which up-to-now has known seven generations. I recall the HP ProLiant G5 series was the first server to support Hyper-V as it required hardware virtualization support. The G6 introduced SLAT capable processors which made virtualized memory management a lot more efficient. The G7 arrived relatively quickly after the G6 for a reason I can’t recall.
HP has already formally announced its new HP ProLiant Gen8 server series. Hey … that sounds different! Why didn’t they call it G8? Well I might be able to find out on May 7th during the Tech Tour in Houston. If you have any questions you want me to ask, just leave a comment at the bottom of this blog.
Assuming the HP ProLiant Gen8 series will play an important part in the building of many new private and public clouds, and also the upcoming release of Microsoft Windows Server 2012, makes this a really interesting topic. I will be writing a few blogs and might publish a video or two depending on what crosses my path. I’ll keep you posted.
Related
Blog Hans de Leenheer:
Technical Deep Dive – http://hansdeleenheer.blogspot.com/2012/03/hp-proliant-gen8-technical-deepdive.html
Tech Q&A – http://hansdeleenheer.blogspot.com/2012/02/hp-proliant-gen8-tech-q.html
VSS Crash-Consistent vs Application-Consistent VSS Backups (1)
May 1st
I can recommend an interesting 2-part series of blogs which helps you get a better understanding of the theory behind successful backups. In the first blog on Altaro’s Hyper-V blog, VSS Crash-Consistent Backups are compared to Application-Consistent VSS Backups.
When designing any IT solution, many administrators often consider “Backup” to be little more than another box on a long list of items to check off. They verify that the software and hardware they’re using will handle the load, configure it to back up on a reasonable schedule, and forget about it. Some will take the extra step of restoring some data to an alternate location as a test. Hardly any go through the full exercise of simulating an actual catastrophe. Most of the time, this practice is completely harmless. Unfortunately, if disaster does strike, there are often more questions than answers. Planning ahead is critical, and that involves knowing what sort of backup you need and if your backup application can provide it.
You can continue the article here:
http://www.altaro.com/blog/vss-crash-consistent-vs-application-consistent-vss-backups-post-1-of-2/
Look out for the second part of this blog!
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