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Hyper-V Replica PowerShell CMDLETS
Mar 11th
We all know that PowerShell is a very important component of Windows Server 8. You’ll need PowerShell to build, administer and troubleshoot your environment. This is also the case for Hyper-V features.
Microsoft published a list of PowerShell CMDLETS for managing Hyper-V Replicas. This list may not be wanting on Hyper-V.nu so here it is:
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!
Testing Hyper-V Server 8 Beta
Mar 4th
Less than a week after availability of Windows 8 Customer Preview (client and server) we now have access to Hyper-V Server 8 Beta which is a single role version of Windows 8 Core with just Hyper-V enabled
You have probably read about the huge amount of improvements to Hyper-V in Windows 8 and it may sound odd that this same functionality is also available for free. As Aidan Finn pointed out in his blog, the cost is in the licensing of the guest operating system.
Some of the main features:
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No processor/core limit on the Hyper-V host
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160 Logical processors
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2TB memory on the host
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1TB memory per VM (without memory tax)
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1024 VM’s per Hyper-V host
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32 virtual processors per VM
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Failover Cluster Support
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Live Migration
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Live Storage Migration
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Shared Nothing Live Migration (without requiring shared storage)
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RemoteFX with more monitors and resolutions
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Storage Spaces
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VMs on File Based Storage (SMB 2.2 Share on a Scale Out File Server)
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Vendor independent NIC Teaming
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Hyper-V Replica
Just to get a quick idea about the new version of Hyper-V Server 8, I installed it in a virtual machine on my Windows 8 Customer Preview client which also runs a full version of Hyper-V. Of course this is not a supported configuration but can serve well for limited testing purposes as I have done while writing my chapters for Microsoft Private Cloud Computing. Although the installation experience was much like its predecessor Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 SP1, it installed mighty fast!
If you have a server with plenty of memory, you could easily simulate a 64-node cluster. But remember that although you are able to create VM’s, you CANNOT start these VM’s.
Here is how you enable the Failover Clustering feature in PowerShell:
Add-WindowsFeature “Failover-Clustering”
If you want to read more about how to install Hyper-V Server 8 beta on real hardware and how to tap its power through PowerShell, read this blog by Matthijs van Seldam:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/matthts/archive/2012/03/02/installing-configuring-and-managing-hyper-v-server-8-beta.aspx
Download location Hyper-V Server 8 beta:
http://t.co/FDWDmODQ
Download location Windows Server 8 beta:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh670538.aspx
Happy testing!
Some interesting Test Lab Guides
Mar 2nd
Yesterday Microsoft released the first consumer beta of Windows Server 8. Here on Hyper-V.nu we have discussed allready some nice features of this new rocking Operating System. Now Microsoft also published more information about the new features of Windows Server 8. Two virtualization related innovations are described in a so called ‘Test Lab Guide’:
- Demonstrate Remote Desktop Services Desktop Virtualization in Windows Server "8" Beta
- Demonstrate Virtualized Domain Controller (VDC) in Windows Server "8" Beta
These guides will help you to implement and test the described features. Be aware that this is still a beta version of Windows Server 8!
How To Boot From VHD with Windows 8 Consumer Preview
Feb 29th
[Update: I have verified this procedure to also work with Windows 8 Consumer Preview]
Back in September I wrote a quick guide explaining how to boot from VHD from Windows 8 Developer Preview. This turned out to be a very popular blog that attracted thousands of viewers.
Today we can expect Windows 8 Consumer Preview and although I have not yet been able to test the procedure with this build, I am pretty confident that the following guide will work as well. As soon as I have the ISO I will proof these steps and change my blog if necessary.
Altaro Starts New Blog for Hyper-V & Windows Administrators
Jan 31st
New Hyper-V Blog
Altaro who introduced an easy to use backup product for Hyper-V in 2011, informed us they have just launched a new Hyper-V blog. Their first article goes into good detail about Hyper-V Dynamic Memory and can be found here: http://www.altaro.com/blog/hyper-v-dynamic-memory-explanation-and-recommendations-2/
Version 3 of Altaro Hyper-V Backup
We can also announce that version 3 of Altaro Hyper-V Backup will be released on February 7.
Some of the new features are:
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Central Management console on CSV Cluster
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Increased backup performance with ReverdeDelts V2
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Great new ‘Schedule Groups’ – allows easier backup scheduling
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Live backup of Linux VMs
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5Drive Swap / Rotation.
Currently beta 2 is available here:
Hyper-V.nu event videos
Jan 30th
Carsten Rachfahl en Jan Kappen were two of the many visitors of the Hyper-V.nu event on the 19th of January. But these guys have done a very good job during the event and especially afterwards. They’ve recorded all sessions and have done some nice video editing. You can view the results over here:
Keynote – by Jaap Wesselius and Peter Noorderijk
Windows Server 8 Hyper-V networking – by Aidan Finn
Windows Server 8 Hyper-V storage – by Hans Vredevoort
Windows Server 8 DDDD – by Ronald Beekelaar
SCVMM 2012 – by Maarten Wijsman
These videos are uploaded to the youtube Hypervcommunity channel from our German friends:
http://www.youtube.com/user/hypervcommunity
Again thanks for the really nice job!
Hyper-V.nu event – review
Jan 24th
On the 19th of January we organised our first Hyper-V.nu event for the year 2012. After the registration opened we were over booked within two days and had to disappoint a lot of people, sorry for that!
But…. This meeting was really, really great! With a fully loaded room (people were even sitting on the stairs), great speakers with great sessions and a very satisfied crowd we must be very happy and satisfied, and we are!
Specials thanks to our sponsors: Altaro, VEEAM, Inovativ, PQR, Wortell and Microsoft! Without their support it was not possible to organise this event. Also a special thank to our German friends Carsten Rachfall en Jan Kappen who have recorded all sessions. These video’s will be published very soon, so keep an eye on www.hyper-v.nu for links to these recordings.
We will also thank our guest speakers Aidan Finn and Ronald Beekelaar. Both of them were from overseas! They both have given a great session with a lot of immersion into Windows 8!
Last but not least we will thank the visitors for attending this event. We hope that you all come again to our next event!
Here are the presentations of this great event:
Keynote – Jaap Wesselius and Peter Noorderijk
Windows Server 8 Hyper-V Networking – Aidan Finn
Windows Server 8 Hyper-V Storage – Hans Vredevoort
Windows 8 DDDD – Ronald Beekelaar
Cheers, Peter
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?
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