Powered by System Center
// Main banner ad on homepage
Posts tagged VHDX
Dell Compellent and Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX)
Mar 20th
I just finished a remote support session for a customer in New York. My task was to check a Windows Server 2012 cluster using PowerEdge M620 blades with 4x10GbE connected to a Dell Compellent (6.3.1 firmware).
I just had a small window of opportunity to create a fixed sized VHDX (25GB and 250GB).
new-vhd -path C:\ClusterStorage\volume1\25GB.vhdx -size 25GB –fixed
new-vhd -path C:\ClusterStorage\volume2\250GB.vhdx -size 250GB –fixed
Both completed in under 3 seconds. Wow!!!
ODX in its purest form.
So let me reiterate my advice to new SAN array buyers. The first question you should ask your SAN vendor. Does it support ODX? If the answer is negative or if they promise ODX in their next release, just tell them to take a hike and move on to a capable SAN vendor.
|
|
Altaro Hyper-V Backup 3.5 1st Windows Server 2012 backup product on the planet
Sep 5th
Altaro just launched Altaro Hyper-V Backup 3.5 with the following support:
- Windows Server 2012 Support, including support for VHDX files.
- Windows 2012: support for backup and restore of VMs located on SMB 3.0 network paths.
- Windows 2012: support for Volume Shadow Copies of SMB 3.0 network paths.
- Windows 2012: support for CSV 2.0 and scale-out SMB 3.0 file shares.
- New and improved ‘Metro’-Style User Interface.
From the press release:
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=96BA3346350A5309!6675
Review of the product:
http://www.hyper-v.nu/archives/hvredevoort/2012/08/altaro-hyper-v-backup-getting-ready-for-windows-server-2012/
Mike Kolitz’s SuperDuper Windows 8/Server 2012 Deployment cmdlet
Jun 1st
Updated June 7, 2012
I have already blogged several times about how to create a Boot from VHD installation for the Developer and Beta versions of Windows 8 and Windows Server 8 Beta.
Now that the Release Preview version of Windows 8 and the Release Candidate version of Windows Server 2012 have been released, it is a good occasion to revisit this very flexible boot method.
My first assumption this time is that you already have a system running PowerShell 3.0 which is the case if your machine runs an earlier version of Windows (Server) 8. This blog you will learn how to configure Native VHD without touching diskpart for preparing the VHD file. In fact we are going to create a VHDX file which is recognized by Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 machines.
A second assumption is that you have the Hyper-V role installed. This is required because we need the Hyper-V PowerShell module which comes with the Hyper-V role.
To fully understand what is going on, I suggest you first run the classical route and then be surprised by the simplest of deployment methods which has much less requirements [See update and comments Mike Kolitz below) compared to the Classical Route. More on this later on in the blog!
The Classical Route
Let’s start creating a 60GB dynamic VHDX file named ws2012rc.vhdx in a directory we shall name D:\VHDX. A downloaded ISO image file of Windows Server 2012 should be copied to D:\Download.
New-VHD -Path d:\vhdx\ws2012rc.vhdx -Dynamic -SizeBytes 60GB
Once the VHDX file is created, it can be mounted as follows:
Mount-VHD -Path D:\vhdx\ws2012rc.vhdx –verbose
As you can see in the next screen, the newly mounted VHDX has a RAW partition style, so we need to find a way to only initialize the mounted virtual hard disk.
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
VHDX Specification Now Available
Apr 30th
Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V support the new VHDX Virtual Hard Disk format. If you are interested in the technical details just became available and you can download the VHDX specification:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29681
This specification is released under the Microsoft Open Source Promise (OSP) initiative to help guide development of VHDX virtual hard disk format implementations that are compatible with those provided by Microsoft.
Windows 8 Storage & Hyper-V part 4 – Offload Data Transfer (ODX)
Apr 11th
This is another installment in my series on Windows 8 Storage & Hyper-V. Previous blogs in the series can be found here:
Part 3 – The Art of Creating a VHD
Another promising new storage functionality that can be found in Windows Server 8 is the new transparent fast copy feature called Offload Data Transfer or ODX. If you know VMware’s vStorage API for Array Integration (VAAI), you probably know where to place ODX because it is more or less in the same league.
What’s the Challenge?
If you have a large Hyper-V guest with multi-Terabyte VHDX files, it depends on the amount of memory, the activity of the VM and the available bandwidth how long it takes to Live Migrate that VM to another node in your Hyper-V cluster. However, it is an entirely different story if you also need to move these very large VHDX files from one disk to another, from one array to another, from one cluster to another or even from one cloud to another. It would take ages doing this the classic way. Every read and every write including its confirmation would have to go through the sending server and the receiving server. Even if there would only be one Hyper-V server involved (copying between two CSV’s on the same server) this is highly inefficient. After all the VHD(X) is already on the storage array. Why let the data travel all the way from CSV1 through server A to server B and then back to CSV2 again? Why would the data have to leave the storage array at all?
Windows 8 Storage and Hyper-V – Part 3: The Art of Creating a VHD
Apr 10th
In the last blog in my series on Windows 8 storage I already touched upon creating a VHDX with PowerShell 3.0 in Windows Server 8. In this blog I will focus on the subject a little bit more, showing the myriad ways of creating VHDs and show you some powerful commands to create multiple VHD files in Windows Server 8.
Here are a number of methods for creating a VHD:
-
WMI
-
Diskpart
-
Disk2VHD
-
VHD Tool
-
Disk Management
-
Hyper-V Manager
-
PowerShell 3.0
The WMI Method
Three years ago Taylor Brown in his blog “Hyper-V WMI Using PowerShell Scripts” demonstrated how we could create a VHD using a Hyper-V WMI method. Back then we did not have a Hyper-V PowerShell module as we now have in Windows 8. Borrowing from his work this is how we could accomplish our goal:
Early test version available for System Center 2012 SP1 and Windows Server ‘8’ Beta
Mar 10th
I expect many of you have tried out the new version of VMM 2012 that will be generally available before long. It is an incredible piece of software that I have blogged about several times just after the first general beta since it arrived about one year ago. But there is one thing it cannot do: manage Windows Server ‘8’.
Now that the bits of Windows Server 8 are available to everyone, it is very good news that Microsoft has released the Community Technology Preview (CTP) of System Center 2012 for Windows Server ‘8’ Beta support. The focus of this CTP is on VMM and DPM in combination with Hyper-V and is therefore not aimed to work with all the other System Center 2012 modules. It essentially focuses on managing the fabric of your private cloud including Windows Server ‘8’.
These are the capabilities you can try out:
- Hyper-V Network virtualization
- Hyper-V VM’s on an SMB2.2 file share (on a Windows 8 file server or scale out file cluster)
- VHDX format
- Live Storage Migration
- Live Migration without shared storage
- VM protection on CSV 2.0 volumes
- VM protection on remote SMB2.2 file shares
- Protection of de-dup enabled file share volumes
System Center 2012 CTP for Windows Server ‘8’ Beta Support can be downloaded here:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=29099
Remember that this CTP is not even beta so only run this in a test environment!
Windows 8 Storage and Hyper-V – Part 2: VHDX and PowerShell
Jan 24th
This blog is part of a series that started with Windows 8 Storage and Hyper-V Part 1 – Introduction:
http://www.hyper-v.nu/archives/hvredevoort/2012/01/windows-8-storage-and-hyper-v-part-1-introduction/
VHD HISTORY
If you have been working with any of the Microsoft virtualization products, you are familiar with the Virtual Hard Disk format. VHD was introduced with Microsoft’s acquisition of Connectix and their Virtual PC product in 2003. Seven years ago Microsoft decided to make the VHD Image Format Specification available to third parties under the Microsoft Open Specification Promise.
In June 2005 Microsoft promised that the VHD file format would have a future well beyond the then prevalent virtualization products ….. and boy did they keep their promise!
The Microsoft VHD file format specifies a virtual machine hard disk that can reside on a native host file system encapsulated within a single file. The format is used by Virtual PC 2007, Virtual Server 2005 R2 and Hyper-V and the format will be used by future versions of Microsoft Windows Server that includes hypervisor-based virtualization technology. Beyond that, the VHD format is broadly applicable, because it is agnostic to the virtualization technology, host operating system, or guest operating system with which it is used.
Customers and partners who invest the VHD file format will have a clear path forward to future Windows virtualization technologies. In addition, Microsoft plans to design its systems management tools around the VHD file format for improved patching and manageability.
Since the release of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the VHD format became even more versatile when Microsoft promised not only to standardize the variety of container files, but also introduced native VHD. This technology made it very easy to boot from VHD and have multiple operating systems on one machine. Since then VHD’s could not only be created via the Hyper-V manager but also via the inbox Disk Manager and Diskpart. Because the VHD format was opened up a multitude of VHD tools surfaced (vhdtool, disk2vhd, wim2vhd and many more). There was no easy way to just mount the VHD from the command line so 3rd parties jumped on this as well. I should not forget to mention James O’Neill’s awesome Hyper-V PowerShell Management Library which he created when he still worked for Microsoft.
The VHD related commands in that library are:
Get-VHDDefaultPath, Get-VHDInfo, New-VHD, Compact-VHD, Test-VHD, Convert-VHD, Merge-VHD, Mount-VHD, Unmount-VHD
VHDX
During the \\build conference we learnt that Microsoft will introduce a new advanced version of the Virtual Hard Disk format called VHDX in Windows 8 (both client and server). What do we currently know about this VHDX?
Windows 8 Storage and Hyper-V – Part 1: Introduction
Jan 21st
If you are a server, storage or network vendor, please also read the last section.
Now that the Windows Server 8 beta can be expected any time now – but promised before the last week of February 2012 – it might be a good idea to start looking at several of the groundbreaking storage related technologies that could turn up in Windows 8. I stress the word could because we must always be careful since functionality shown in Pre-RTM builds is never guaranteed to be in the GA release.
I am planning to write a couple of blogs about Windows 8 Storage which in many cases is related to the new version of Hyper-V.
If you are running a SAN but also if your company simply can’t afford a SAN, chances are that you will see significant performance increases when reading, writing, copying, moving data with Windows Server 8. In-box storage manageability with PowerShell will strongly contribute to making Windows 8 Storage one of the major pillars of the Microsoft Private Cloud Fabric. As I have looked at it so far, storage is handled extremely well in Windows Server 8. Mind you this is only what I have determined based on what I have heard and seen on \\build and have personally tested since September 2011 with the Windows 8 Developer Preview.
This edition is not at all intended to be stable and testing with de Developer Preview is a true challenge. As a preparation for the Hyper-V.nu event with several sessions on Windows Server 8, I wanted to try out and show some unique new functionality for moving living Hyper-V guests between different types of storage. I had time for building up the pre-requisites and was able to successfully show a Live Storage Migration of a guest between two SMB2 shares on a ScaleOut File Cluster. But there were several other Live Storage moves that I tested but also want to explore further:
-
Live Storage Migrate a guest from USB disk to a local disk
-
Live Storage Migrate a guest from a local disk to a new Windows 8 Pool and Spaces virtual disk
-
Live Storage Migrate a guest from local disk to shared storage on a single host
-
Live Storage Migrate a guest from a shared disk on a single host to a shared disk on a Windows 8 Hyper-V cluster
-
Live Storage Migrate a guest from a shared disk on a cluster to a CSV version 2 volume on the same cluster
-
Live Storage Migrate a guest from any location to an SMB2 file share on a ScaleOut Fileserver with Continuously Available Shares
-
Live Storage Migrate a guest between two SMB2 file shares on the same Windows 8 Hyper-V cluster while the ScaleOut Fileserver cluster is moved between nodes.
-
Live Storage Migrate a guest between an SMB2 file share used by one Windows 8 Hyper-V cluster to another Hyper-V cluster or even to another SMB2 file share on another server.
Am I now running out of options? On the contrary, I have only just started!
Twitter
RSS