Powered by System Center
// Main banner ad on homepage
Maarten Wijsman
My name is Maarten Wijsman and I’m currently working at Wortell. Wortell finds inspiration in technological developments on the Microsoft platform. At Wortell I’m currently fulfilling the function as Senior Infrastructure Engineer shifting my focus more and more to Hyper-V. It this role I’m responsible for designing and deploying Hyper-V environments which meet the customers’ demands and wishes. My main goal with the blogs I will be writing for Hyper-V.nu is sharing my experiences from the field with you and hopefully learn from your comments and/or remarks. Follow me via @myhyperv or @hypervnu or send me an email "maarten at hyper-v.nu"!
Homepage: http://www.hyper-v.nu
Posts by Maarten Wijsman
Set Cluster Live Migration Settings
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.
MVMC Automation Toolkit (MAT)
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:
- A quick, low-risk option for “the other guys” to evaluate Hyper-V.
- Converts “the other guys” virtual machines to Hyper-V virtual machines: The VM Conversion will convert “the other guys”-hosted virtual machines and ensure that the entire configuration, such as memory, virtual processor, and other machine configurations, is also migrated from the initial source. The tool also adds virtual NICs to the deployed virtual machine on Hyper-V.
- Supports a clean migration to Hyper-V with uninstallation of VMware tools on the source virtual machine.
- Provides a wizard-driven GUI, making it simple to perform virtual machine conversion.
- Installs integration services for Windows 2003 guests that are converted to Hyper-V virtual machines.
- Supports conversion of virtual machines from “the other guys” vSphere 4.1 and 5.0 hosts, including those hosted on a vSphere cluster, to Hyper-V. The tool also supports migration of virtual machines to a Hyper-V host that is part of a failover cluster.Note MVMC also supports conversion of virtual machines from “the other guys” vSphere 4.0 if the host is managed by vCenter 4.1 or vCenter 5.0. You have to connect to vCenter 4.1 or 5.0 through MVMC to convert virtual machines on vSphere 4.0.
- Supports offline conversions of “the other guys”-based virtual hard disks (VMDK) to a Hyper-V-based virtual hard disk file format (.vhd file).
- Includes a fully scriptable command-line interface (CLI) for performing machine conversion and offline disk conversion, integrating with data center automation workflows such as those authored and executed within System Center 2012 – Orchestrator. The command line can also be invoked through Windows PowerShell.
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!
KB2510009 – Microsoft support policy for 4K sector hard drives in Windows
Jan 31st
Microsoft have updated an knowledge bases article stating their support statement about the coming transition from 512-byte sectors to 4,096-byte sectors (also known as 4K or 4KB sectors).
The article discusses three types of drives because the support policy differs for each.
Drive type Support/functionality 4K native (4K logical sector size) Supported on the following operating systems:
- Windows 8
- Windows Server 2012
Advanced Format or 512E (4K physical and 512-byte logical sector size) Supported on the following operating systems:
- Windows Vista
- Windows 7
- Windows Server 2008*
- Windows Server 2008 R2*
- Windows Server 2012
- Windows 8
*Except for Hyper-V. See the "Application support requirements for large-sector drives" section.
Specific requirements are listed in the following section. Run only applications and hardware that support these drives.512-byte native (512-byte physical and logical sector size) Supported on all platforms.
The article also describes the support statement per Operating System and it contains some information regarding application support requirements for large-sector drives, known compatibility issues and some unsupported Scenarios.
System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager Service Pack 1 KBs
Jan 18th
Kind of quietly or better said unnoticed by many, the list below has been published on two sources (here and here). The list includes KB articles describing a number of issues or support tips regarding System Center 2012 SP1.
As to quote the first link “Nothing really major, just a couple support tips and FYIs we saw during that beta that might save you some time if you happen to run across them. Enjoy!”
2709539 – Regional settings default to English when deploying a virtual machine using a template on System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2709539)
2800073 – System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager SP1 Maintenance Mode Causes Refresh Errors 13926, 2606 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2800073)
2798383 – System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager SP1 Does Not Recognize Newly Imported Highly Available Virtual Machine (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2798383)
2798507 – Creating a VM from a template on an ESX host fails with error 2947 in System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager SP1 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2798507)
2798842 – System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager SP1 cannot increase the number of CPU Cores during a P2V conversion (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2798842)
2798911 – System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager SP1 cannot create a VM in the cloud that has an underscore in the name (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2798911)
2798926 – System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager SP1 fails to shut down a virtual machine (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2798926)
2797597 – Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11 is missing from the Linux OS list in System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2797597)
2795033 – A Virtual Machine Manager Library share on Highly Available File Server displays an incorrect status (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2795033)
2799257 – How to convert between VHD and VHDX formats in System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2799257)
2798401 – System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager SP1 Service Deployment fails with error 22011 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2798401)
2800610 – Static IP is missing from a virtual switch created with System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager SP1 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2800610)
Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Component Architecture Poster
Aug 29th
Hi,
Yesterday a new/updated version of the Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Component Architecture Poster has been published. So if you have a A0 printer at home or work … start printing!
Recommended post W2K8R2 SP1 Clustering and Hyper-V Hotfixes
Jan 12th
LAST UPDATE: 12-01-2012
One of the visitors of this blog asked the question if we could publish a list of recommended post Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 hotfixes related to either Clustering or Hyper-V. Well here it is!
For a complete overview of what was rolled-up in SP1 take a look at the Excel sheet (Updates in Win7 and WS08R2 SP1.xls) which can be found on here.
Note I. Microsoft will release hotfixes if an issue occurs that needs to fixed before releasing a roll-up update or a service pack. However, the hotfix in question is intended to correct only the problem that is described in the article. Apply the hotfix only to systems that are experiencing the problem that is described in the articles. The hotfix might receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next software update that contains this hotfix.
Note II. Updates can be applicable to Windows Server 2008 R2 (RTM) and/or Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.
Release Notes Important Issue – Hyper-V Replica
Jan 3rd
In the release notes available via this link there is an issue explained regarding Hyper-V Replica.
Hyper-V Replica
While configuring replication that uses certificate-based authentication on servers joined to a domain, if you provide a short name for the primary server while adding authorization entries, enabling replication will fail. To avoid this, identify servers using their fully qualified domain names.
While configuring replication on servers joined to a domain, if you provide a short name for the Replica server for certificate-based authentication, enabling replication will succeed, but the pre-requisite check prior to a planned failover will fail. To correct this, update the Replica server name with the following Windows PowerShell cmdlet:
Set-VMReplication -vmname "<Name of VM>" -recoveryservername "<FQDN of replica server>"
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
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!
Twitter
RSS