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System Management
Checking VM Additions in SCVMM 2012
Nov 11th
Before, the only way to check what the version of the “VM Additions” of a VM were was to fabricate a script and run it remotely or on the VM locally. Luckily the people at Microsoft have integrated a column in SCVMM 2012 in the “VMs and Services” section where you can now select “VM Additions” to show the version number of the “VM Additions”.
How to Bare Metal Deploy a Hyper-V server via VMM2012 and HP iLO
Nov 8th
Some time ago I did a series on Bare Metal Deployment of Hyper-V servers with Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta. Back in March I tested with HP BL460 G6 servers which have an Insight Lights-Out (iLO2) Baseboard Management Controller (BMC). This time I was able to test with the RC build and HP BL490 G6 blades as well as DL360 G7 rack servers (which have a newer iLO3 onboard).
For beta there was a possibility to generate a customized Out-of-Band (OOB) protocol for HP iLO. Unfortunately that is not supported anymore and Microsoft advised me to use the IPMI protocol. After some experiments I figured out that this required a recent firmware (v2.07 of iLO2 to be precise). So after updating the firmware I was able to discover my physical servers via their iLO IP address combined with the right account/password combination which I saved as a Run As Account.
As you can see – when using IPMI with iLO2 (in this case) — there is a limited set of information returned. It lacks Manufacturer, Model, Serial Number, etc. What is worse … it returns an SMBIOS ID that is different from the one VMM2012 expects when you perform a Bare Metal Deployment of one or more Hyper-V R2 servers.
When you continue the Add Resource Wizard, the bare metal server will boot from the PXE server. This is where things go wrong.
Virtualization Career Training
Sep 22nd
UPDATE October 20th 2011: Here is a link to the video: http://t.co/v1xAMV6x
On Tuesday, October 4th Technical Evangelists Symon Perriman and Rick Claus are hosting an online conference on Virtualization Career Training with Microsoft Learning. This half day virtual event (8am – 11am PST) will offer a Level 100 to 200 introduction for anyone who wants to learn more about Microsoft Virtualization and how it can help their career. It is free and public so sign up for this warm-up for the Jump Start event on October 6th.
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Module 1 – Technology: Learn about Microsoft’s virtualization technologies, how they work, and the future roadmap to the Cloud!
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Module 2 – Career: Understand the importance of virtualization and Private Cloud, and how it can make or break an IT Professional’s career!
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Module 3 – Certification: Get prepared for your next steps towards a virtualization career by understanding and preparing for the Microsoft 70-659 Technical Specialist exam, Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization.
Learn More: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=270
Register: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=288
Instructor Bios: http://mctreadiness.com/MicrosoftCareerConferenceRegistration.aspx?pid=287
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Release Candidate RELEASED!!!
Sep 9th
Overview
System Center 2012 cloud and datacenter management solutions empower you
with a common management toolset for your private and public cloud applications
and services. System Center helps you confidently deliver IT as a Service for
your business. Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Release Candidate (RC) is key to
delivering the promise of the System Center 2012 release. Virtual Machine
Manager 2012 enables you to:
with a common management toolset for your private and public cloud applications
and services. System Center helps you confidently deliver IT as a Service for
your business. Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Release Candidate (RC) is key to
delivering the promise of the System Center 2012 release. Virtual Machine
Manager 2012 enables you to:
Data Protection Manager 2012 beta is now available
Sep 1st
The beta of DPM 2012 is ready and available to the general public. Related to Hyper-V it is nice to know that DPM 2012 is fully supported in a Hyper-V virtual machine and that Item Level Recovery is now possible without having to add the Hyper-V Role to the DPM server as we had to do in physical installations of DPM 2010.
You can download beta and apply for joining the Customer Experience Program (CEP).
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta Documentation
Aug 23rd
Besides the excellent information regarding SCVMM 2012 Beta on this blog here is some very usefull information if you are playing around with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Beta!
Overview
This download provides technical documentation for the Beta release of VMM 2012.
VMM 2012 Beta Documentation — last updated March 22, 2011
VMM 2012 Beta Known Issues — last updated April 4, 2011
VMM 2012 General Troubleshooting Guide — last updated March 22, 2011
Another great resource for information is the Virtual Machine Manager 2012 Community Evaluation Program Application or the System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2012 Beta Resource Page.
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…)
SCVMM 2008 R2 SP1 hotfix rollup
Jul 12th
Microsoft has today, July 12, 2011, released an hotfix rollup for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 (SCVMM 2008 R2) Service Pack 1 (SP1).
How to obtain this SCVMM 2008 R2 SP1 hotfix rollup package
This hotfix rollup package is available from Microsoft Update.
To obtain this update from Microsoft Update, follow these steps on a computer that is running SCVMM 2008 R2:
- Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
- In Control Panel, double-click Windows Update.
- In the Windows Update window, click Check Online for updates from Microsoft Update.
- Click important updates are available.
- Select Update for System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1 (KB2562466), and then click OK.
- Click Install updates.
Note If the Virtual Machine Manager or Virtual Machine Manager Agent service is running when you install this hotfix rollup package, you must restart the computer.
May and June – Monthly overview new released KB articles
Jul 4th
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(s): MAY & JUNE 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 User Group NL meeting: Best of MMS
Jun 2nd
On June 7th, 2011 the Dutch System Center User Group has scheduled a number of presentations of a variety of System Center products. The event is sponsored by HP and will be held at HP’s office in Amstelveen, Startbaan 16.
There will be three presentations on the newly announced System Center 2012 products during MMS2011 in Las Vegas in March.
So if you want a concise overview of what’s next with System Center, come to “Best of MMS”
12.00 – 12.45: Lunch
12.45 – 13.00: Welcome
13.00 – 14.15: Virtual Machine Manager 2012 (Mark Blok)
14.15 – 15.30: System Center Operations Manager 2012 (Oskar Landman)
15.30 – 15.45: Break
15.45 – 17.00: System Center Configuration Manager 2012 (Tom Klaver)
17.00: Drinks
If you want to attend this SCUG meeting?
Please register via: info@scug.nl (please mention your name and company name).
SCUG | Tuesday June 7th, 2011 | Start: 12.00 | HP, Startbaan 16 te Amstelveen
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