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Hans Vredevoort
The teams that contribute to Hyper-V version 3
Aug 18th
When Sinofsky detailed the different teams that are building Windows 8, I noticed that Storage and File Systems are one and the same group. Beneath you see a list of the most important teams in my opinion that will leverage the Microsoft Private Cloud which is built around Hyper-V and System Center 2012. The release of Hyper-V version 3 in Windows Server 2012 or Server “8” as we still have to call it, will be the cream on the cake and will boost the Microsoft Private Cloud even further. What we have seen so far is much higher virtual CPU’s in guests and awesome Hyper-V Replication technology. Add to that a decent file system and new storage innovations, both in the host and in the guest, we are ready for primetime. What will happen to CSV? What will happen to the scalability of the Hyper-V cluster?
We will soon find out! The Build Windows 2011 developers conference will unveil what all these product teams have invented. I really can’t wait! Because the conference is sold out, I plan to reserve time for the live streams instead.
See: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/ and http://www.buildwindows.com/
Winner unlimited license for Altaro Hyper-V Backup
Aug 15th
Thanks to everyone who participated in the Altaro contest. I selected @zetacipher as the winner of the unlimited license for Altaro Hyper-V Backup. I will send the license as soon as I receive it from Altaro. Congratulations @zetacipher.
Survey: Why Hyper-V?
Aug 12th
I’d like to draw your attention to a survey focusing on why you selected Microsoft as your virtualization platform.
This survey aims to get an idea about why you chose Hyper-V, how you use it, and what your experience has been. It has nothing to do with Microsoft; they’ll see the results at the same time you do. And we’re not collecting any personal information.
There are 4 pages of questions. Yes; that might seem like a lot but you’ll get through this in a few minutes. When it is complete, we will be publishing the results and analysis on the following sites. We believe it should give everyone an interesting view on what is being done with Hyper-V worldwide.
You can find the survey here: http://kwiksurveys.com/online-survey.php?surveyID=NLMJNO_8579c98b
Here is Aidan Finn’s blog about The Great Big Hyper-V Survey of 2011: http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=11486
Altaro Hyper-V Backup is now launched
Aug 11th
Today Altaro launched their new Hyper-V Backup product. As you can read in the review we wrote earlier, the virtual machine backup software includes support for Cluster Shared Volumes and the very useful Fire Drill feature. Altaro offers 3 editions including a freeware edition. Pricing can be found at the end of this page:
http://www.altaro.com/News_Altaro-Software-brings-Hyper-V-backup-to-SMBs.php
Altaro was kind enough to offer Hyper-V.nu a complimentary unlimited license for Altaro Hyper-V Backup which is worth $445
| Full Altaro Hyper-V Backup Give Away License
I am giving away a full license to the reader who retweets my announcement on Twitter and gets retweeted by the tweeter with the highest number of followers. You can tweet as much as you like. Please send me an e-mail with a copy of this RT to hans [at] hyper-v.nu before Sunday the 14th 2011 noon CET By all means, go to http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v-backup/ for more information on the product! |
Reviewing Altaro Hyper-V Backup including CSV support
Aug 2nd
Back in May, Femi Adegoke reviewed an early beta version of Altaro Hyper-V Backup which was geared to easily backup & recover Hyper-V guests using the Hyper-V VSS Writer. Now Femi submitted his second guest blog focusing on how to protect guests in a clustered Hyper-V environment.
By Femi Adegoke
This is a follow up to our previous blog post from May 2011:
http://www.hyper-v.nu/archives/hvredevoort/2011/05/altaro-hyper-v-backup-review/
One interesting feature in this Altaro Hyper-V Backup release is support for CSV:
http://www.altaro.com/hyper-v-backup/
The current revision of the software is 2.0.8.0 BETA, download size is approximately 12.1 MB.
Our test was performed on a Dell 4 node Hyper-V cluster running 2008 R2 SP1 with a few virtual machines.
Installation
Installing the software was fast & easy and involved only a few mouse clicks. Can you believe that?
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This software installs in less than 3 minutes per node.
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No agent is required inside each guest
Dashboard
Dashboard view (this so schweeet…)
Hyper-V Network Optimizations series is complete
Jul 31st
I recently pointed your attention to a very interesting blog series on Hyper-V Network Optimizations.
In the sixth and final blog on this topic Christian Edwards focuses on monitoring network performance of your virtual machines, virtual switches and physical network adapters.
Here’s a link to my blog post listing the blog series:
http://www.hyper-v.nu/archives/hvredevoort/2011/05/definitive-guide-to-hyper-v-networking-optimizations/
Third MVP Award for Cluster
Jul 1st
Am I happy? Yes of course! An MVP Award gives unprecedented access to Microsoft, its product and marketing teams, the wealth of information and easy access to all other MVP’s).
I am proud of this award although I realize you have to work very hard to maintain the award. The coming year will be important for Windows, for Virtualization, for Virtualization Management and Storage. These are the subjects I love so much that my work really doesn’t really feel like work.
I will start my new job at INOVATIV on August 1st 2011, which has a fantastic team of Microsoft experts and a record number of MVP’s on board. The future is bright!
HP P6000 EVA and Microsoft Hyper-V
Jun 21st
In a recent technical brief HP zooms in on the new HP P6000 Enterprise Virtual Array combined with
Hyper-V. The paper discusses a number of topics related to HP’s new storage array:
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Thin Provisioning
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LUN Migration
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FC, iSCSI and FCoE
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Performance
HP Discover 2011: last chance to win an HP Envy Notebook
Jun 21st
During my “social media” coverage of HP Discover 2011 in Las Vegas, HP offered a few brand-new HP Microservers and HP Envy notebooks. Well, I was one of the lucky bloggers! My contributions have awarded me the HP Envy notebook and now it is my turn to re-award this prize to one of our readers!!
$1050 worth! Click on this picture for awesome specs!
Quite a number of you have started to follow me and retweeted my #hpdiscover messages, but I really need a lot more response before I can select a winner. Therefore, I have decided to extend the promotion until July 1st 00:00 CET.
What can you do to win this fantastic notebook?
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Tweet the following message including the hashtags at least three times:
RT @hvredevoort Win an HP Envy notebook!! Visit http://www.hyper-v.nu & find out why Hyper-V is such a good fit with HP #HPDiscover #hyperv -
Visit the http://www.hyper-v.nu blog and leave a message on this blog explaining why you think HP (servers/storage/network) and Microsoft Hyper-V are such a good fit
On the 1st of July I will select one lucky follower who has retweeted the above exact message at least three times AND has given the best reply to this blog promoting the combination of HP and Hyper-V
Excluded are my family, my co-bloggers at @hypervnu including myself of course.
I can surely recommend the DiscoveringHP metablog created by one of the HP Discover 2011 bloggers: @freitasm (Mauricio Freitas). DiscoveringHP is a great collection of all the bloggers’ contributions during HP Discover 2011.
The 10 selected contributors are:
My son Jelle Vredevoort has drawn Pete Zerger as the winner of the HP Envy notebook. It will be shipped to you from HP in the United States. Congratulations and thanks everyone for your great contributions.
Sanbolic releases Melio version 3.5
Jun 20th
Today Sanbolic announced the availability of its latest version of its distributed clustered file system Melio version 3.5, which is currently the best available alternative for Hyper-V Cluster Shared Volumes. I have helped Sanbolic test and improve some of its earlier versions and was very impressed.
Co-founder and CEO of Sanbolic, Momchil Michailov just informed me that both DPM 2010 and Symantec BackupExec are supported, that the product will ship before the end of the week. Sanbolic has much more to offer that simply to replace CSV. If you haven’t looked at this product and are thinking of building large Hyper-V clusters, VDI or SQL deployments where enterprise ready storage is expected without the compromises, I strongly advise you to start evaluating Sanbolic’s file system Melio version 3.5
If you need any assistance with testing this product or writing a design, don’t hesitate to contact me and make me part of your project.
PS
I have no shares in Sanbolic (although maybe I should) 
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